At no point was I floored by Gissing as a writer. He is one of those where you can see snatches of talent shining through in particularly poignant phrases, but it’s only here and there. For example the book opened with:

“"Mrs. Madden- having given birth to six daughters, had fulfilled her function in this wonderful world”

There is such gravitas in that sentence, especially in the contact of the rest of the scene where the audience is introduced immediately to a doubtful figure of a father who continues to put off action that would provide for his children. And he dies, leaving few savings to his untrained girls. It sentences like that, and a few excellent quips in arguments, that lets you know Gissing could be powerful, but more often than not I feel that the characters are one dimensional, we never see or understand their retinence to make a decision, or sometimes their actions seem flamboyant with little to know description of why things suddenly became so heated. In the end the narrative falls a little flat.

We then skip a head a number of years. Half of the sisters are dead from sickness, overwork, and suicide (all really results of the aforementioned overwork). There were several complains in our book club that skipping straight to their destitution made it hard to relate to the characters. People wanted to know more about their suffering. I think it’s important to realize that their suffering is not what this book is really about, at least not in my opinion.

It was not difficult in this time to see the suffering of the underprivileged. It wasn’t required for Gissing to reintroduce you to it, it was common knowledge, what he wants to talk about is the venues open to women to improve their station, and what they can expect from that. That is why the book follows in equal parts Monica, who decides to wed, and Rhoda who is a fanatical feminist trying to carve a new path for women. You continue to see the sisters and others working in the background as a reminder of what WAS happening in Britain.

Gissing spend a lot of time developing rhetoric around the different “feminist questions” that were being put to the task in Victorian England, questions such as is it better for a woman to wed or is marriage a naturally degrading conformity required by society. Such questions are still asked today, so its an interesting look back. Still most of his female characters are frustrating and often petty or jealous, so I feel like he backslid in the argument he was trying to make.

In the end it was an interesting look back into early feminism. There were discussions on society and class structure that certainly made at least one chapter of the book deeper than the rest. However, in the end, it just didn’t stack up for me. I won’t be rushing off to read more Gissing.