# Is "The Odd Women" by George Gissing a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Odd Women by George Gissing (Lawrence & Bullen, 1893) is identified by: First published in three volumes by Lawrence & Bullen, 16 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London, in 1893, near the end of the Victorian three-volume 'triple-decker' era, which collapsed within a few years after Mudie's and W.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First published in three volumes by Lawrence & Bullen, 16 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London, in 1893, near the end of the Victorian three-volume 'triple-decker' era, which collapsed within a few years after Mudie's and W. H. Smith's June 1894 ultimatum on library purchase terms
- A genuine first edition must therefore be in three separate volumes bearing the Lawrence & Bullen imprint and the 1893 date; every later printing of the novel is a single volume, making the three-volume format itself the key identifying point
- Surviving library sets, such as the University of Illinois copy digitized by the Internet Archive, confirm the three-volume collation, with the third volume alone running to 348 pages
- Publisher imprint reads Lawrence & Bullen
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | George Gissing |
| Publisher | Lawrence & Bullen |
| Year | 1893 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First published in three volumes by Lawrence & Bullen, 16 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London, in 1893, near the end of the Victorian… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First published in three volumes by Lawrence & Bullen, 16 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London, in 1893, near the end of the Victorian three-volume 'triple-decker' era, which collapsed within a few years after Mudie's and W. H. Smith's June 1894 ultimatum on library purchase terms. A genuine first edition must therefore be in three separate volumes bearing the Lawrence & Bullen imprint and the 1893 date; every later printing of the novel is a single volume, making the three-volume format itself the key identifying point. Surviving library sets, such as the University of Illinois copy digitized by the Internet Archive, confirm the three-volume collation, with the third volume alone running to 348 pages.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Any one-volume edition, including the numerous later reprints, postdates the three-volume 1893 first; check specifically for the three-decker collation and the Lawrence & Bullen imprint.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Odd Women* by George Gissing a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-odd-women
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.