Story summary
Streszczenie książki Kobiety nadliczbowe
- 7 min czytania
- 10 parts
- Nagranie wkrótce
Three surviving sisters face poverty in London while Rhoda Nunn trains women to need no husband.
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Kobiety nadliczbowe — najważniejsze informacje
Streszczenie: 7 min czytania
- Czas czytania
- Około 9 h 10 min7 h 15 min fast, 10 h 55 min slow
- Długość
- Liczba słów: 131 200
- Poziom trudności w bibliotece
- Średni longer sentences, everyday words
- Pierwsze wydanie
- 1893by George Gissing
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Ile czasu zajmuje przeczytanie klasyków · Zaktualizowano
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Kobiety nadliczbowe in short
The Odd Women follows sisters who inherit refined manners and almost no money. Alice and Virginia drift into small rooms and small hopes, while Monica trades a draper's counter for a respectable marriage. Rhoda Nunn and Mary Barfoot try another road, training women to work and to live without a husband.
What Kobiety nadliczbowe is about
What happens to a woman when nobody has taught her how to earn a living? George Gissing asks that question in The Odd Women, a novel of 1893. His answer comes through the Madden sisters, six daughters left almost penniless when their gentle father is killed in a fall from his dogcart.
The title comes from Rhoda Nunn, who points out that England holds half a million more women than men. She wants to train these odd women for useful work instead of pitying them. You get a story of money, work, courtship and marriage, and a lively argument that never settles into easy answers.
Dla kogo. Readers who enjoy Victorian novels about ordinary lives, who care about work, money and marriage, and who like characters who argue, hope and change their minds.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A kind father leaves six daughters unprepared
The book opens in 1872 on the downs above Clevedon. Dr Madden, a gentle widower, tells his eldest daughter Alice that he will at last insure his life for a thousand pounds. After twenty years of work he has saved almost nothing.
The doctor loves poetry more than medicine. He reads Tennyson aloud and believes women should never be troubled by sordid matters, so he has never trained a single girl for a career. At tea a guest named Rhoda Nunn, fifteen and eager, says plainly that she will have to earn her living. The doctor answers with a joke and turns the talk to a nightingale.
That evening an urgent call takes him away alone. His old horse is weak in the knees, and on the road home it stumbles. The doctor is thrown headfirst into the road. Love without preparation leaves daughters defenceless.
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Poverty scatters the sisters and wears them down
When the estate is settled, it comes to about eight hundred pounds for six girls.
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A letter from Rhoda Nunn offers another road
A letter arrives from Rhoda Nunn, whom the Maddens have not seen for years.
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Monica finds the shop hours crushing and men persistent
Monica Madden is pretty, dark-eyed and cheerful.
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Rhoda trains the odd women as a reserve
When Monica asks Rhoda what goal she is working toward, Rhoda answers that she wants to make women hard-hearted.
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Widdowson courts Monica with solemn, anxious devotion
Monica keeps her promise to meet Widdowson, and they row on the Thames.
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Everard Barfoot arrives and tests Rhoda's principles
Miss Barfoot's cousin Everard returns from Japan and Egypt, tall, graceful and softly spoken.
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Marriage turns into a gentle prison for Monica
Widdowson believes he is the happiest man alive.
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Money, work and marriage press on every woman
The novel keeps returning to the cost of living.
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Gissing tells the story with cool irony and contrast
Gissing writes in a plain, observant voice that comments as it describes.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Rhoda Nunn A sharp, proud teacher of typing who champions unmarried working women and has resolved never to marry herself.
- Monica Madden The youngest Madden sister, pretty and warm, who wants a gentler life than the shop counter gives her.
- Alice Madden The eldest sister, a worn governess who clings to respectability and to the small savings that keep her from the workhouse.
- Virginia Madden The second sister, a delicate companion who dreams of independence and takes comfort wherever she can find it.
- Mary Barfoot A dignified woman of private means who runs a school that trains educated young women for office work.
- Everard Barfoot Mary's charming cousin, back from abroad, who loves pleasure and wants to understand Rhoda Nunn.
- Edmund Widdowson A lonely, wealthy, solemn gentleman who wants a wife entirely his own and cannot bear to share her.
- Mildred Vesper A prim, dry-witted worker at Miss Barfoot's school who shares a room with Monica and is content with simple things.
How it ends (spoiler)
Monica dies after giving birth to a daughter. Before her death she writes a full confession and gives Widdowson proof that the child is his. He forgives her and arranges for Alice to raise the baby. Virginia goes to be treated for her drinking. Rhoda and Everard meet once more and part, and Everard goes on to marry Agnes Brissenden. Rhoda stays loyal to her work.
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Pytania o Kobiety nadliczbowe
What is The Odd Women about?
It follows the Madden sisters, left nearly penniless after their father's death, and the women of a London school who train others for office work. It looks at marriage, money and independence in Victorian England.
What does the title The Odd Women mean?
Rhoda Nunn uses it for the half million or so women in England who outnumber the men and so cannot all marry. She sees them not as wasted lives but as a reserve for useful work.
When was The Odd Women written and is it a true story?
George Gissing published it in 1893. The characters are invented, but the wages, working hours, rents and attitudes toward women's work reflect real conditions in London in the 1880s.
Who is Rhoda Nunn?
Rhoda is a strong-minded assistant to Mary Barfoot at a school for working women. She believes women should earn their own living and avoid marrying for support, and her views are tested when Everard Barfoot begins courting her.
Is The Odd Women easy to read today?
Yes, the story moves through clear scenes and lively conversations. Short chapters, vivid people such as Monica, Rhoda and Mildred Vesper, and plain, observant prose make the Victorian setting easy to follow.
Zacytuj to wydanie
Gissing, George. The Odd Women. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-odd-women.
Gissing, G. (2026). The odd women. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-odd-women (Original work published 1893)
Gissing, George. The Odd Women. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-odd-women.
@book{gissing2026odd,
author = {Gissing, George},
title = {The Odd Women},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-odd-women},
note = {First published 1893}
}
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