The Odd Women

Written by George Gissing

Narrated by Elizabeth Klett

First published in 1893, ‘The Odd Women’ by Victorian author George Gissing revolves around the themes of feminism, marriage, and love through the lives of several contrasting women. The ‘odd’ of the title refers to the fact that in Victorian Britain there were more men than women, and many women therefore found themselves surplus. Mary Barfoot is one of these surplus women - a feminist philanthropist, she is training women to have careers of their own. Her close friend Rhoda Nunn is strongly of the opinion that marriage is a disastrous choice for women, but their young protégé Monica Madden goes against them both when she decides to marry a seemingly kind older man. A riveting story, and highly provocative for the time in which it was published, ‘The Odd Women’ is a sympathetic novel which was ahead of its time.

George Gissing (1857-1903) was a British author from Wakefield, Yorkshire. A studious child, his love of fiction was sparked when he first read Charles Dickens, who would prove to be a lifelong inspiration for Gissing. He would go on to write ‘Charles Dickens: A Critical study’ in 1898. At the age of just fifteen Gissing was awarded a scholarship to Owen’s College University, where he won a number of prizes for his writing. His university education was cut short however when Gissing was found guilty of stealing from fellow students. Following his expulsion and punishment of a month’s hard labour, Gissing travelled to America where he worked as a writer, teacher, and travelling salesman before returning to Britain. His first novels, ‘Workers in the Dawn’ and ‘Mrs Grundy’s Enemies’ were self-published, and Gissing had to supplement his income through teaching. He wrote over twenty novels during the course of his literary career, which all drew on his own experiences of near-poverty, hardship, and his deeply unhappy personal life. His most famous works include, ‘The Nether World’, ‘New Grub Street’ and ‘The Odd Women’. He died in France in 1903.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SAGA Egmont
• Release date: Nov 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9788726472653

George Gissing

George Gissing (1857-1903) was an English novelist. Born in Yorkshire, he excelled as a student from a young age, earning a scholarship to Owens College where he won prizes for his poetry and academic writing. Expelled and arrested for a series of thefts in 1876, Gissing was forced to leave England for the United States, teaching classics and working as a short story writer in Massachusetts and Chicago. The following year, he returned to England and embarked on a career as a professional novelist, publishing works of naturalism inspired by his experience of poverty and the works of Charles Dickens. After going through an acrimonious divorce, Gissing remarried in 1891 and entered a turbulent relationship with Edith Alice Underwood, with whom he raised two children before separating in 1897. During this time, after writing several unpublished novels, Gissing found success with New Grub Street (1891), Born in Exile (1892), and The Odd Women (1893). In the last years of his life, Gissing befriended H.G. Wells and travelled throughout Italy, Germany, and France, where he died after falling ill during a winter walk.