Advent Calendar, box no. 19 - The Odd Women by George Gissing

So, how are you doing with your Christmas preparations? I am lucky to say that we are ready to go, and take it quite easy this week. It is rather grey, but cold here in the south of Sweden. Lacking snow though. At least I like a typical Disney winter land.

Recently, in the Brontë Reading Group we read an author, new to me,  George Gissing. I missed out when we read his New Grub Street, which everybody seemed to like. This time we read and talked about The Odd Women. The 'odd' for the women refers to women who were not married and had to support themselves by working (we are talking 19th century here). The novel seems very modern in its way of thinking as regards the independency of women.

We meet a set of different women. Some who traditionally marries, some who help young women to educate themselves for a job (other than being a governess), and one who even considers living together with the man she loves. It is a set of very different people and through their relationships we get a view of the whole spectre when it comes to relationships. It is a great book to talk about in a book group, and we had lively discussions and the views varied as well. As a classic it is still readable today. Gissing himself led a different life and it seems that he partly wrote from his own experience. A rather fresh novel considering its age.