In this respect, Swinnerton sees Gissing as another school of critics have seen him - as a "proto-feminist" (Chase 231). Through her, as Swinnerton shows, Gissing analyses the causes of women's inadequacies, and lends his support to the growing call to remedy them by education and training. But he does admire the novel's central character, the spirited Rhoda Nunn, who has decided to dedicate herself to preparing single women to lead an independent and meaningful life. He would certainly have understood why some find Gissing misogynistic (see Chase 231 and 243, notes 1 and 2). He is quite harshly critical of Gissing's The Odd Women, finding the choice of title heavy-handed, the women characters "mostly repulsive" (106), the men no better, and the ending depressing. His book on George Gissing is a very much a critical biography. The author of many novels, he was also an essayist, literary critic and biographer, and, for many years, associated with major publishers - first with Dent, and then for much longer with Chatto and Windus. Frank Swinnerton (1884-1982) was a prolific writer.
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