Book Review: The Odd Women

George Gissing's The Odd Women is indeed a very odd book, although not quite as odd as I had hoped from the first few chapters, which concern the unmarried Madden sisters, who barely scraping by in the genteel occupations. They receive a jolt of hope when they meet an old acquaintance, Rhoda Nunn, who is running a small school that teaches young women the skills to join that exciting career newly available to women: clerkship.

(It's interesting, as a side note, to see how exciting new careers seemed as they opened up to women - teaching! nursing! typewriting! - and then in their turn became the stultifying new limits of a women's world.)

After this the story settles down into the more familiar shape of a Victorian romance, as if Gissing just isn't quite sure if you can tell a story about women that isn't a romance, although to give him credit he's certainly straining at the boundaries of the genre. I particularly liked the friendship between Rhoda Nunn and Miss Barfoot, particularly the part where they have a serious argument - which is not about a man! - and then reconcile after Miss Barfoot gives a stirring speech that taps into their shares principles.

( spoilers )