Women's Role in the Late-Victorian England: George Gissing's The Odd Women and the 19th century Debate on Marriage and Divorce

1 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
Women have always been an interesting subject of study for the late 
Victorian author George Gissing (1857 – 1903). All his life he had 
studied women. In many of his novels there are female characters 
depicted in all human situations, with virtues and faults; their accurate 
description is due to the great influence that many women, in 
Gissing’s life, exerted upon him. The woman who influenced the 
author’s novels of the first period was Marianne Helen Harrison, 
‘Nell’, a young prostitute who became his wife in 1879. At this stage 
of his life, Gissing believed that this "disease" was caused by poverty 
and the social indifference of stupid people who did not understand 
that these poor girls were just victims of circumstances and that they 
could be redeemed
1
. 
Nell met Gissing when she was seventeen; she lived in a brothel on 
Water Street. She was sexually abused by her stepfather and took 
refuge in drink and alcohol; the cause of her fall was probably this 
sexual drama. When Gissing met her, he wanted to save her life, to 
destroy her old identity and to turn her into a new woman, but all his 
efforts were useless, she demanded more and more money; the author 
even stole from his friends of Owens College, where he studied, in 
order to get the money to help Nell. Unfortunately, he was discovered 
and arrested. The sentence was one month hard labour. He was 
expelled from college and had to start a new life. In 1876, he left for 
                                                           
1 See James Haydock, Portraits in Charcoal - George Gissing’s Women, Bloomington, 
AuthorHouse, 2004, pp. 9-12.