George Gissing's The Odd Women
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- Опубліковано 12 січ 2025
- In which I mention a special Booktube meetup and then discuss a classic work of “New Woman” literature: George Gissing’s novel The Odd Women.
This novel was my choice for Katie’s prompt. @booksandthings
I met up with Greg @anotherbibliofilereads and Allen @bighardbooks
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So glad you loved it! Such a great and fascinating book.
You have convinced me! I have heard this mentioned a few times now but this was a wonderful review - I appreciate it! And will read it next for Victober!
I'm looking forward to hearing what you think next year! I'm contemplating the idea of putting one of Gissing's other novels on my list next Victober.
What a fun BookTube meetup! Every time I've traveled to DC, I always run out of days before I've seen everything I want to visit. The Odd Women sounds so interesting.
Next time you find yourself in DC, let's get together!
@@HannahsBooks That would be wonderful!
This was lovely your meet up sounded wonderful 🤗💕 The Odd Women sounds exactly the kind of book for me though i doubt ill be able to get to it before the month is over.. perhaps ill do a Nov 'roll over'.. second half of Bleak House & The Odd Women.. perfect finale 😉🤓😊
Victober definitely needs to be a few weeks longer, doesn't it?!
@@HannahsBooks Yes! 💚🤓
I definitely need to get to the Odd Women. Will try for this year, but might be next Victober read. Your meet up with Greg and Allen sounds fun.
O, Stephanie! It was 🎉
Ooh, I would love to hear what you think about The Odd Women!
That was lovely to hear about your Booktube meetup and about Washington. Thanks to your comment, I now wonder if the names Rhoda and Mary in the Mary Tyler Moore show were inspired by this much earlier book. Intriguing. I can't help noticing that the cover of the book looks very appropriate as you summarised the plot and setting: 2 women staring apprehensively and uncertainly at us.
I've definitely been wondering about the Mary Tyler Moore show links to Gissing's novel, too. In my brief search, I couldn't find anyone else who drew any connections between them. And isn't that cover wonderful?!
You've got the seeds of an academic paper there, Dr Hannah. In fact, it would be a great PhD if you didn't already have one@@HannahsBooks
Wonderful review!
Thank you so much!
Thanks for sharing this one--it sounds like a wonderful book!
I really enjoyed it and found it fascinating. It won't become an absolute favorite like Jane Eyre or Middlemarch, but I am very glad I read it!
So glad you loved this book, Hannah. It felt so contemporary to me. I also loved his Nether world a lot
Thank you! Netherworld is on my list, as is New Grub Street!
I loved "The Odd Women" too. I read it in an odd moment. I read it when I was in college in the 1970s (though it wasn't part of any college course). At that time women my age were being encouraged not to learn how to type so that they could avoid being stuck in secretarial jobs. But women in my family traditionally had to work and I had to be able to type my own papers and I've never regretted havng this skill.
Yep. My mother deliberately never learned to type-and always depended on my father to type things for her. She made sure that I learned to type-and now I think a keyboard is part of my brain…!
How fun to meet up face to face! What a joy that that is an option once again!
I haven’t read any Gissing yet.
I love when strong women are still portrayed as women and not men in women’s bodies. I’ll maybe give Odd Women a go next Victober.❤
Perhaps I am reading to much into Gissing's book, but I think he's thinking a lot about how changes in the lives of women will allow for a certain degree of changes in the lives of men, too--that is, he's thinking about how the categories of men and women are shaped in relationship with (and in opposition to) each other. I'm curious to see if that shows at all in New Grub Street, which I think I may read next year. Hope you give The Odd Women a go next year!
I'm reading my first Gissing book New Grub Street and can see myself exploring more of his writing. Adding it to my reading list.😊
And I am wanting to add New Grub Street to my list!
This was an excellent review. I will add this title to my TBR list.
I was happy to hear that the two men included you (the odd woman?) in their outing. I'm retired now, but I was often the "odd woman" (engineer) among the mostly male group, and I appreciated being included in lunch activities.
I had to smile about your explanation of the National Mall. I think I had it in my mind, at one time, that it was the DC version of the Mall of America in Minnesota. I grew up in Alaska, so what did I know?! tee hee!
Ha! Yes, I think women in literary gatherings often include the odd men!
Hi Hannah, I read the Odd Women maybe 25 years ago and I am so glad you loved it too and your excellent review has convinced me I must reread it. And here is the best part, Gissing's classic New Grub Street which I read a few years ago is just as good! George Gissing was a fascinating man and the writer Vivian Gornick who has written about Gissing makes many interesting points. George Gissing was a man who due to his brilliance and education was headed for an upper class life. But due to self destructive choices he made when he was young he wound up struggling for money. He had as I understand it a love/hate relationship with the poor. He championed the cause of the lower middle class but also felt he was meant for better things and his books reflect that. He's one of my favorite writers and so glad you liked The Odd Women.
Ooh, I have to go look up the Gornick commentary! Do you happen to know if there is a good Gissing biography available? (I am definitely putting New Grub Street on my reading list sometime next year!)
Hi Hannah, Vivian Gornick is another favorite writer of mine and she wrote a book The Men in My Life and one chapter is devoted to George Gissing and she goes into not only Gissing's books but his life and Vivian has many interesting things to say about Gissing but also other male writers who have influenced her in her book The Men in My Life. Unfortunately I don't think a definitive biograohy about George Gissing's life is out there. But I do see a book Gissing A Life by Paul Delaney but it's expensive and can't vouch for the quality.
@kathyvullis172 Thank you very much! I actually wrote a formal review of one Gornick book: openlettersreview.com/posts/unfinished-business-by-vivian-gornick
Thanks Hannah and I really liked your review of Vivian Gornick's Unfinished Business. I haven't done as much rereading in my life as I should have and when I did I found that I loved the Good Earth by Pearl Buck as much as I did when I was in high school but Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck didn't hold up for me. I will be sure to check out your other very fine reviews.
@@kathyvullis172 You are very kind!
Gissing is so unusual and unexpected. I’ve read three of his books so far and each one has thrilled me but also made me a little uncomfortable. Definitely going to explore further.
Which others have you read? New Grub Street and Netherworld? or...? What do you think is at the heart of the discomfort? I felt it a bit too, but couldn't quite figure out why. (Thinking about you and your family a lot lately.)
@@HannahsBooks Yes. Started with New Grub Street. Was recommended The Nether World and picked up The Odd Women most recently. On the one hand Gissing is just a bloke writing about women. On the other hand he has as much empathy for the human condition as anyone else I have read. Reading about Gissing sent me to Zola and I'm now three books into his Rougon-Macquart series. I think both these authors somehow managed to make the late Victoria era seem much closer to a world that I recognize than any other authors.
Thank you for thinking about us. We are all well and hoping for more peaceful times.
@GuiltyFeat I have only read Zola’s The Ladies’ Paradise-and really ought to go back and put it in context.
Thank you, so much Hannah, for meeting us 🎉 When I return, we'll do some things we didnt have time to see! (Love the #Victober mug) I finally got to Gaskell's _North and South,_ shall finish it tonight. Ive got her _Gothic Tales,_ too, so that's next 😊❤😊
It was a joy, Allen. I'm already looking forward to next year! So glad to hear that you finished North and South. I'm eager to hear what you think.
Thanks Hannah. It was great to meet up with you. You’re not the first BookTuber to praise The Odd Women. I need to check it out someday.
It was so lovely to meet you!
I started the audio of The Odd Women last Friday, but I didn't get very far. I am eager to get back to it and experience the aspects you discussed.
The book definitely picks up speed once we see Monica meet Mary and Rhoda. Looking back, the slow intro fits--but I wasn't sure where the book was going for a while. I hope it will work for you.
I'm so glad your meeting with Allen and Greg worked out. I found The Odd Women fascinating. I appreciated the way the ending didn't marry off our main protagonists. And Gissing gave voice to so many different ideas. On the other hand I found there was something quite harsh about some of the descriptions of the minor women characters who didn't meet the standards he sets.
I watched the Reading Sprints video--not live, sadly--and was thrilled to hear that you had just finished it. I do hope you'll talk about it in a future video. Gissing had something of a reputation as a misogynist, actually. There were a few quotes from him in the introduction to the edition I read that made my skin crawl. (He seemed to think women ought to get some education just so they won't be so annoying to men. )
ooooou nice shots. i love it. i wish we could travel 💙💙
Thank you! I would really love to do some traveling, too!
Thanks for sharing your meetup. Looks like you had a lovely time.
I love George Gissing but this book was not my favorite ( my favorite of his is workers in the dawn).. Now I want to.give this another try as its been a few years since my last read.
Which is your favorite Gissing! New Grub Street is on my 2024 list, I think.
@@HannahsBooks workers in the dawn is my favorite :)
Oh my! I remember being fascinated by Watson and the Shark during my “rest time” as a youngster. It was in a Reader’s Digest art book that I was obsessed with. What a thrill for you to see the original! I loved The Odd Women and wish it got more notoriety. I think I first heard of it in the book Silences by Tillie Olsen. Great video! 🙂
Oh my goodness! The coolest part of your story is that you know Olsen's Silences! I recently acquired a biography of Olsen and I think I will be reading it early next year.
I read The Odd Women in 2020 and really enjoyed it for it being such a different type read for me of the era. Your outing sounds fabulous!
Yes--definitely different from most of the books I've read from the Victorian period, too--although it does seem pretty Victorian in other ways. So nice to see you here!
I'm glad you got to meet with friends. That sounds lovely. I like the idea of The Odd Women. I don't think I could have survived in the Victorian age. I would have been one of those unmarried women, but too ill to work. I might have been locked in an asylum.
I too can't quite imagine life back then. I suspect a lot of us booktubers might have met each other in an asylum...
I want to read Gissing, but I chose Eliot over him this month because her book was shorter _(Silas Marner_ vs. _New Grub Street)._ Maybe there will be a place for him another day. 😢
I haven't read Silas Marner yet--but I am a huge Eliot fan and it needs to go on my list sometime soon!
WARNING--SPOILERS AHEAD: I just finished The Odd Women and my reaction is so different. I felt that Gissing was sneering at women, who are portrayed as mostly weak and childish, like the Madden sisters. That only a cold, hard woman like Miss Nunn can possibly survive in the world of men. That marriage and male-female relationships are a contest of who can control (or out-maneuver) the other. At least Anne Bronte's heroine Helen Graham (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall), who leaves her abusive husband, is allowed to live. But Gissing's poor Monica leaves her abusive husband, and so is punished and left to die.
These are interesting takes! I wonder if the fact that I had low expectations for Gissing made it easy to exceed my expectations, while my high expectations for A Bronte were hard to meet?