Virginia and Alice Madden are odd women', growing old alone in Victorian England with no prospect of finding love. Forced into poverty by the sudden death of their father, they lead lives of quiet desperation in a genteel boarding house in London. Meanwhile, their younger sister Monica, struggles to[...]

The Nether World (1889), generally regarded as the finest of Gissing's early novels, is a highly dramatic, sometimes violent tale of man's caustic vision shaped by the bitter personal experience of poverty. This tale of intrigue depicts life among the artisans, factory-girls, and slum-dwellers, docu[...]

'there are half a million more women than men in this unhappy country of ours ...So many odd women - no making a pair with them.' The idea of the superfluity of unmarried women was one the 'New Woman' novels of the 1890s sought to challenge. But in The Odd Women (1893) Gissing satirizes the prevail[...]

George Gissing (1857–1903) räknades under 1890-talet som en av Englands ledande romanförfattare. Som ung man slog han sig ner i London och kom i nästan ett decennium att leva bland de allra fattigaste, ett hårt liv i oeldade rum med ständig brist på både mat och pengar. Gissing använde [...]