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A review by drewsstuff
The Odd Women by George Gissing
4.0
An austere – though ultimately uplifting - story of independently-minded women when women weren’t even supposed to have a mind of any sort, let alone a mind that displayed questioning intelligence, determination and thinking for themselves.
If you’re going to tell a story about women battling the intense patriarchy of Victorian England, those women had better be intelligent, driven, and (dare I use a male-instigated term?) feisty. And the two main female protagonists are. They successfully fight against the two overpowering forces of the day – poverty and convention (for convention read the arbitrary rules applied on people by a punitive society purely to keep a structured society. And for a structured society read the vested interests of the privileged and the rich.)
Elsewhere, this has been described as the first radical feminist novel. I don't know about the first, but it is feminist to a certain extent, and certainly was for the time. But ultimately it’s not a radical novel. The opinions and actions certainly support a radical viewpoint at the time, but the ending, sadly, is all too conformist. In this way, Gissing shows us the overpowering force of society’s norms.
An excellent read, historical social realism at its best, bleakly enjoyable and showing Gissing as being ahead of his time. If you can cope with Victorian reality, with all of its flaws and few (if any) of its perfections, you should read this. You should read any George Gissing, to be honest. And then wonder if, in reality, we have progressed that much further today.
If you’re going to tell a story about women battling the intense patriarchy of Victorian England, those women had better be intelligent, driven, and (dare I use a male-instigated term?) feisty. And the two main female protagonists are. They successfully fight against the two overpowering forces of the day – poverty and convention (for convention read the arbitrary rules applied on people by a punitive society purely to keep a structured society. And for a structured society read the vested interests of the privileged and the rich.)
Elsewhere, this has been described as the first radical feminist novel. I don't know about the first, but it is feminist to a certain extent, and certainly was for the time. But ultimately it’s not a radical novel. The opinions and actions certainly support a radical viewpoint at the time, but the ending, sadly, is all too conformist. In this way, Gissing shows us the overpowering force of society’s norms.
An excellent read, historical social realism at its best, bleakly enjoyable and showing Gissing as being ahead of his time. If you can cope with Victorian reality, with all of its flaws and few (if any) of its perfections, you should read this. You should read any George Gissing, to be honest. And then wonder if, in reality, we have progressed that much further today.