The only other printings in Gissing’s lifetime were reissues. These were: the First American Edition, for which unbound copies of the second edition were bought by Macmillan of New York who added a new title-page; the Colonial Issue from Heinemann and Balestier; and one from A. H. Bullen after he broke his partnership with Lawrence. The textual history of The Odd Women is therefore simple. This edition uses the text of the first (three-volume) edition with only corrections of obvious errors. Some of these corrections are taken from the second edition with which the first has been collated. The chapters have been renumbered continually, and the original volume divisions are marked in the text.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography

Collie, Michael, George Gissing: A Bibliographical Study (Winchester: St Paul’s Bibliographies, 1985).

Gissing’s Non-Fictional Writing

The Collected Letters of George Gissing, ed. Paul F. Matthiesen, Arthur C. Young, and Pierre Coustillas, 8 vols (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1990–7).

The Letters of George Gissing to Members of his Family, ed. Algernon Gissing and Ellen Gissing (London: Constable, 1927).

The Letters of George Gissing to Eduard Bertz, 1887–1903, ed. Arthur C. Young (London: Constable, 1961).

George Gissing’s Commonplace Book, ed. Jacob Korg (New York: New York Public Library, 1962).

London and the Life of Literature in Late Victorian England: The Diary of George Gissing, Novelist, ed. Pierre Coustillas (Hassocks: Harvester Press, 1978).

Contemporary Criticism

Coustillas, Pierre, and Partridge, Colin (eds.), George Gissing: The Critical Heritage (London: Routledge, 1968).

Biography

Halperin, John, Gissing: A Life in Books (Oxford University Press, 1982).

Korg, Jacob, George Gissing: A Critical Biography (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1963).

Criticism

The following books contain interesting sections on The Odd Women:

 

Goode, John, George Gissing: Ideology and Fiction (London: Vision Press, 1978).

Poole, Adrian, Gissing in Context (London: Macmillan, 1975).

Selig, Robert L., George Gissing (Boston: Twayne, 1983).

Sloan, John, George Gissing: The Cultural Challenge (London: Macmillan, 1989).

Articles on The Odd Women:

Arata, S. D., ‘Realism, Sympathy, and Gissing’s Fictions of Failure’, Victorians Institute Journal, 23 (1995), 27–49.

Benvenuto, Richard, ‘The Odd Women and the Foreshadowing of Jude the Obscure’, Colby Library Quarterly, 14 (1978), 191–7.

Chase, Karen, ‘The Literal Heroine: A Study of Gissing’s The Odd Women’, Criticism, 16/3 (Summer 1984), 231–44.

Comitini, P. ‘A Feminist Fantasy: Conflicting Ideologies in The Odd Women’, Studies in the Novel, 27/4 (Winter 1995), 529–43.

Cotes, Alison, ‘Gissing, Grant Allen and Free Union’, Gissing Newsletter, 19/4 (Oct. 1983), 1–18.

David, Deirdre, ‘Ideologies of Patriarchy, Feminism and Fiction in The Odd Women’, Feminist Studies, 10/1 (Spring 1984), 117–39.

James, T., ‘Language and Conflict in Gissing: Articulating Class’, Pretexts: Studies in Writing and Culture, 2/1 (Winter 1990) 14–37.

Kennedy, George E., ‘Gissing’s Narrative of Change: The Odd Women’’, Gissing Newsletter, 18/2 (April 1982), 12—27.

Ledger, Sally, ‘Gissing, the Shopgirl, and the New Woman’, Women: A Cultural Review, 6/3 (Winter 1995), 263—74.

Linehan, K. Bailey, ‘The Odd Women, Gissing’s Imaginative Approach to Feminism’, Modern Language Quarterly, 40 (1979), 358—75.

Markow, Alice B., ‘George Gissing: Advocate or Provocateur of the Women’s Movement’, English Literature in Transition, 25/2 (1982), 58—73.

Selig, Robert L., ‘The Gospel of Work in The Odd Women: Gissing’s Public Standard’, Gissing Newsletter, 15/1 (Jan. 1979), 17—25.

Sjoholm, Christina, ‘The Haunting Headmistress: Fredrika Bremer’s Hertha and Gissing’s The Odd Women’, Gissing Newsletter, 25/2 (April 1989), 5—14.

Toynton, Evelyn, ‘The Subversive George Gissing’, The American Scholar, 59/1 (Winter 1990), 126—38.

Further Reading in Oxford World’s Classics

Gissing, George, The Nether World, ed. Stephen Gill.

———— New Grub Street, ed. John Goode.

A CHRONOLOGY OF GEORGE GISSING

1857

Born in Wakefield, Yorkshire (22 November); his father, Thomas Gissing is a pharmacist, who dies when George is 13.

1872

Wins scholarship to Owens College, Manchester; a Multiple prizewinner, clearly destined for a successful academic career.

1876

Meets prostitute Marianne Helen (‘Nell’) Harrison (31 May); caught stealing money in college to further plan to save Nell from prostitution; expelled and stripped of honours, he serves one month’s imprisonment; sails for America (September), where he supports himself by teaching and, latterly, short-story writing.

1877

Returns to England (October) and begins life in London; lives with Nell Harrison; publishes short stories written in America and begins first novel, unpublished.

1879

Having come of age he receives £300 from his aunt’s estate; marries Nell (27 October); finishes Workers in the Dawn.

1880

Workers in the Dawn published; gets to know leading positivist Frederic Harrison and for four years tutors his sons.

1882

Separates from wife, now alcoholic; rejects positivism and writes essay, ‘The Hope of Pessimism’, much influenced by Schopenhauer.

1884

Publication of The Unclassed (June) marks real beginning of his career as a novelist.

1886

Demos published to generally favourable reviews, but he is living in constant poverty; manages first visit to France; Isabel Clarendon published.

1887

Thyrza published.

1888

Death of Nell (February); A Life’s Morning published; visits Italy for first time and is overwhelmed.

1889

The Nether World published; visits Greece.

1890

Meets Edith Underwood (September); The Emancipated published.

1891

Marries Edith (25 February); moves to Exeter; New Grub Street published (April), to acclaim; son Walter born (10 December).

1892

Denzil Quarrier and Born in Exile published.

1893

Returns to London (June); The Odd Women published.

1894

Moves to Epsom (September); In the Year of Jubilee published; during this period his reputation grows, and there is a modest improvement in finances.

1895

Eve’s Ransom and Sleeping Fires published; also many short stories, which now become a staple of income.

1896

Son Alfred born (20 January); meets H. G. Wells (20 November); The Paying Guest published.

1897

Leaves wife and home (February); slight emphysema diagnosed; moves to Devon, but returns after four months; The Whirlpool published to better sales than any previous novel; finally parts from Edith (September), and makes another visit to Italy; away seven months.

1898

Charles Dickens: A Critical Study published; settles in Dorking; receives letter from 29-year-old Gabrielle Fleury (June), enquiring after French translation rights of New Grub Street; meets her (6 July) and soon decides to live with her.

1899

Leaves England for France; eventually settles in Paris with Gabrielle and her mother; The Crown of Life published; health begins to deteriorate.

1901

Our Friend the Charlatan published; returns to England and stays with H. G. Wells; By the Ionian Sea published; returns to France (August), eventually settling in St Jean de Luz, south-west France.

1902

Writes Will Warburton, not published till 1905.

1903

The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft published (January); lung condition now severe; dies (28 December).

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THE ODD WOMEN

CONTENTS

1. THE FOLD AND THE SHEPHERD

2. ADRIFT

3. ANINDEPENDENT WOMAN

4.