A Room of One's Own

May 29, 2008 Kelly rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, fiction, brit-lit, always-on-my-mind, 20th-century-early-to-mid, owned, vita-virginia-violet-and-kindred, grande-dames

Every woman should read this. Yes, everyone who told me that, you were absolutely right. It is a little book, but it's quite likely to revitalize you. How many 113 page books and/or hour long lectures (the original format of this text) can say that?

This is Woolf's Damn The Man book. It is of course done in an overtly polite British way... until she brings up her fountain pen and stabs them right between the eyes. She manages to make this a work of Romantic sensibility, and yet modern, piercing,...more Every woman should read this. Yes, everyone who told me that, you were absolutely right. It is a little book, but it's quite likely to revitalize you. How many 113 page books and/or hour long lectures (the original format of this text) can say that?

This is Woolf's Damn The Man book. It is of course done in an overtly polite British way... until she brings up her fountain pen and stabs them right between the eyes. She manages to make this a work of Romantic sensibility, and yet modern, piercing, and vital.

Woolf was asked to give a speech on "Women and fiction." She ended up with an entire philosophy on the creative spirit, though with special attention to that of women, of course. Her thesis is simply that women must have a fixed income (500 pounds a year in her time) and a room of her own with a lock on the door. It is only with independence and solitude that women will finally be free to create, after centuries of being forced to do as men please because they support them, and to work in the middle of a drawing room with a thousand practical interruptions, ten children to see to, and a sheet of blotting paper to cover the shame of wasting her time with "scribbles," (as Jane Austen did whenever someone outside the family came into the room) when there was a house to keep and a family to raise. She also shows the creative powers of women tortured and hidden through the allegory of Shakespeare's sister, who never had a chance to express her genius and killed herself after being defeated at every turn.

Woolf takes her readers through the history of women writers, and makes sure that the reader cannot fail to see how brief it is and how limited, and why. Woolf states that all modern women should acknowledge their ancestors who fought for five minutes and a few pieces of paper to jot down lines of Jane Eyre, Middlemarch, or Pride and Prejudice. She makes sure that women know that they can reject the framework and the form down to the very sentences that are given to them by men to find their own voice. However, this voice should be, ultimately, sexless. In her view, one should be "man-womanly," or "woman-manly," to write enduring classics. She doesn't let women down easy, either. The end of the book points out all the advantages young women have(/had, 1929) and yet they still don't run countries, wars, or companies, and there's no excuse for that. It's an exhortation to not squander everything the women's movement fought for.

I probably could have said this in a much shorter way: "Damn the patriarchy, find your own way and your own voice in life, seize the day, just DO something. How dare you waste the opportunities that so many others would have died to have."

Inspiring words on any topic, I think. I think I'll keep this by my bedside to reach for when I feel discouraged or lazy or bitter about my future or my current situation in life.(less)

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Apr 21, 2013 Samadrita rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Aspiring writers

Shelves: 1001-and-more, own, britain, european-literature, gen-non-fiction-essays-critique, feminism-feminist-undertones, cherished, awesomesauce, by-women-who-matter, brain-fodder

Words fail me as I seek to express what I think of Virginia Woolf. Or to sum up in a few measly paragraphs, a book that may just have shattered into a million pieces all my illusions about the art of writing and reshaped my whole perspective.

Have you ever imagined a disembodied voice whispering into your ears, the wisdom of the ages as you flipped through the pages of a book? how often have you conjured up the vision of the writer talking to you, teaching you, humoring you and coaxing you to ope...more

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Jan 02, 2008 Trevor rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: psychology, philosophy, social-theory

There are so many books that one ‘just knows’ what they are going to be about. I have always ‘known’ about this book and ‘knew’ what it would be about. Feminist rant, right? Oh, these people do so preach to the choir, don’t they? Why do they hate men so much? In the end they are no different to the male chauvinists they are attacking. Why can’t they just be more even handed?

That none of this is the case, of course, does not matter at all, because reiterating received wisdom seems to be all that...more There are so many books that one ‘just knows’ what they are going to be about. I have always ‘known’ about this book and ‘knew’ what it would be about. Feminist rant, right? Oh, these people do so preach to the choir, don’t they? Why do they hate men so much? In the end they are no different to the male chauvinists they are attacking. Why can’t they just be more even handed?

That none of this is the case, of course, does not matter at all, because reiterating received wisdom seems to be all that is necessary today – read 99% of the critiques of The God Delusion and the horrifying thing you will find is either a mindless acceptance or a mindless rejection of Dawkins. It is enough to fill me with near complete despair.

The blurb on the back of the Penguin edition of this book says that this is “one of the greatest feminist polemics of the century”. There is a quote too from Hermione Lee (apparently, Woolf’s greatest biographer) which reads, “fierce, energetic, humourous”. Look, I really loved this book and would recommend it whole-heartedly – but it is none of those things.

A polemic is a strong verbal or written attack – to say this book is even an attack is really stretching the friendship. This is the most mild of books. Its central argument is that women need money of their own and a room of their own, with a lock on the door, if they want to write. How can one really be ‘fierce’ if that is all one is going to argue? She ends with a quote from a man who provides a list of the greatest poets of the last couple of hundred years (c.1900) of which Keats was the only one who was not either a university person or of independent means.

So, I guess her recommendation is that if you want to write you need to be independently wealthy – something I haven’t quite achieved yet. But eminently sensible advice all the same.

This book is based on a series of lectures she gave to women at Cambridge Uni on Women and Fiction and it is a delight that rather then make this a polemic she actually makes this a work of fiction – creating a series of Marys who go off into the world and be idol – as this is one of the criteria necessary for writing great fiction (no matter what you genitalia are up to) and part of the reason why being wealthy helps.

She also says that the best fiction is not written by men or women, but by men or women who have lost a sense that they are writing as men or women. That writing that focuses too closely on explaining past hurts – however well justified – ends up being bad writing. That fiction, when it is done properly, has a truth of its own that ought to be authentic and followed by the writer despite any agenda of the writer. This is such a lovely idea – and much more interestingly about fiction than about women. And this is as it ought to be.

Some of Woolf’s writing – I’ve also just finish reading To the Lighthouse – feels heavy now, some of her paragraphs go for three pages and that can make reading her feel a bit of a struggle – but she writes so beautifully and has the annoying habit of making sense that it is no wonder that so many people have become so annoyed with her.

In the end I think it is only possible for people to say this is a fierce book or a polemic on the basis of their views, not Virginia’s. Her views on feminism expressed in the book today seem rather depressingly self-evident and expressed in a light and very careful way. But to a society that is not prepared to listen even the mildest expression of unpopular views will seem harsh, polemical and, well, just plain wrong.

Not the book I suspected, infinitely better than that.
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Sep 06, 2012 Mala rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: female-writer, non-fiction, lit-crit, all-time-favourites

Review of 'A Room of One's Own' by Virginia Woolf
Shelf: Essays,lit-crit,female writer,feminism.
Recommended for: Virginia Woolf fans,serious readers (Actually both are usually the same!).

This slim little book is so like its author: delicate,fragile-looking yet brimming with intellectual vigour & a whimsical feminine charm!
Jam-packed with quotable lines, it'll make anyone look intelligent & at 112 pages,it is a boon for slow readers like me,only the catch is; once you finish it,you want to...more

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Apr 02, 2012 Misha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, classics, british, ordered-bought-2012

This is only the second Virginia Woolf book I have read (shocking, right?). Like the first one (Mrs. Dalloway), I find it a bit difficult to express how I feel about this book.

Though this has been described as a feminist classic, I think this can be read (in fact must be read) by anyone interested in women writers in history. The author offers some excellent insights on the role of women and the reasons they weren't active in the literary world. She never claims that one sex is better than the o...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Cheryl rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: essays

What insights and truths has Woolf confirmed in this slim text of 125 pages? Most importantly, conditions necessary for the creation of works of art are a room with a lock and the luxury of money. "By hook or by crook, I hope that you will possess yourselves of money enough to travel and to idle, to contemplate the future or the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream."

Woolf encourages women not to limit themselves...more What insights and truths has Woolf confirmed in this slim text of 125 pages? Most importantly, conditions necessary for the creation of works of art are a room with a lock and the luxury of money. "By hook or by crook, I hope that you will possess yourselves of money enough to travel and to idle, to contemplate the future or the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream."

Woolf encourages women not to limit themselves to works of fiction, but rather to research, scholarship, history, biography, criticism, philosophy and science. "These efforts will effect the art of fiction, as books always influence each other." She introduces women to the idea of writing in the mindset of both sexes which neutralizes biases and presents reality as a more intense experience for the reader.

Why was there an absence of women's writing prior to 1928? It is here that Woolf's integrity manifests itself, as she diligently combs records in the British Museum and scans bookshelves for evidence of women's past contribution to literature.

From the ancient Greeks to the 19th century, women were idealized by male writers but, practically they had no power over their choice of partner, money, or education. Law and custom narrowed their role to producing children and meeting their needs until adulthood. Reading and grammar was unknown to them, and with no women's writing tradition, they were locked out.

There was no encouragement from men, as they compared themselves favorably to women's status which provided men a feeling of superiority they were unwilling to give up.

But the activity and production of the mind showed itself in the late 18th century when women began meeting, writing essays on Shakespeare, and translating the classics. Women started to make money from writing, and "money dignifies what frivolous if unpaid for".

Woolf proposes that women initially wrote novels rather than poetry because they had no separate rooms to provide privacy and concentration. Jane Austen wrote in the "general sitting-room, subject to all kinds of casual interruptions" limited to relationship issues which provided content for her novels.

The author asks that women earn money and have the luxury of a room with a lock for freedom of thought and privacy and see human beings not always in relation to each other but in relation to reality.

Elegant questions answered for the women of 1928, today and tomorrow. Highest Recommendation!

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Dec 24, 2012 Jimmy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: and-a-half-stars, female, year-1920s, non-fiction, united-kingdom

Interesting thoughts on women and fiction, written as a hybrid between story and essay. One wonders if Woolf stumbled on this fictive-voice through a need to re-invent the essay form to fit a more feminine, less authoritative perspective? If so,

it would mirror many of the themes she discusses in the book itself. And also seems to be a precursor to the kind of rambling consciousness of a Thomas Bernhard, which I could not help but be reminded of when reading humorous passages such as this:

Anythin

...more Interesting thoughts on women and fiction, written as a hybrid between story and essay. One wonders if Woolf stumbled on this fictive-voice through a need to re-invent the essay form to fit a more feminine, less authoritative perspective? If so,

it would mirror many of the themes she discusses in the book itself. And also seems to be a precursor to the kind of rambling consciousness of a Thomas Bernhard, which I could not help but be reminded of when reading humorous passages such as this:

Anything may happen when womanhood has ceased to be a protected occupation, I thought, opening the door. But what bearing has all this upon the subject of my paper, Women and Fiction? I asked, going indoors.

She makes a lot of well reasoned points here, not only about women but about men, society, writing, and art in general. I will not try to summarize her points since it is such a short book, so just read it yourself. I did want to share this one quote though:

It is much more important to be oneself than anything else. Do not dream of influencing other people ... Think of things in themselves. p115

One of the impressions I had of Virginia Woolf and her narrator Clarissa Dalloway when I finished Mrs. Dalloway a few weeks ago was that they were both fiercely themselves, and just as they would not want to be converted ("conversion" was a big word in Dalloway) by the Sally Setons and Peter Walshes of the world, they would not want to see the Peters and Sallys changed or converted either. That is what made Mrs. Dalloway, the book, so unique to me:

it celebrated each and every voice for what it was, presenting varied points of view without setting up a hierarchy. Yet

when Woolf looks back at the history of women and fiction, she sees that women have been defined and confined by men. Not been allowed to be themselves, not given a voice. I also share this deep sentiment with Woolf. As master gardener Ruth Stout once said:

"It would never never occur to me to tell any other grown human being how to put some flowers in a vase!"

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Nov 05, 2012 Sheila rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have a room of my own.

And a slim desk on which sits my computer where I sometimes write. I have a steady income, but every day I have to work for it. An inheritance is nice to have, but I'm not certain, I doubt very much, that I'll come into it someday.

But that is alright, I imagine Ms.Woolf telling me while we sit idly in a cafe.

These days, Shakespeare's sister only needs to get an agent or an internet, especially if she likes to experiment. The challenges of women writing fiction that Ms....more

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Mar 09, 2007 Molly Jones rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: no one

This book is absolutely infuriating!!! (Note the 3 exclamation marks.) Woolf claims that all a woman needs to write is a room and a fixed income. That's not the infuriating part. She goes on to attack all of her fellow female writers, claiming that their opinions about the opposite sex wrecked their novels--that these women (her comments on Bronte were especially enraging) wrote from anger or other emotions and didn't allow the true nature of their characters to come through. Being a writer is a...more

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Wayne You DO realise that this book is catalogued under FICTION.
It is NOT Virginia Woolf talking but the persona of Mary Beton who tells us how her rich aun...more
Jun 21, 2010 02:24am

Kajah I love Jane Eyre, but Woolf/Benton's critique was completely justified, because she was talking about woman writing at the level of Shakespeare or, I...more
Dec 10, 2010 12:06pm

Aug 18, 2007 Kimberly rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this book one summer when I was living in an apartment, on my own, and though it didn't do much to inspire skilled writing from me, it made me appreciate that time and space that I was inhabiting, to cherish the solitude. Simultaneously, this book has had a huge impact on my personal ideas and philosophy. The whole premise is that we cannot measure the abilities of women based on their current status. It's because we were silenced for so many years, left out of histories because we were t...more

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May 18, 2009 Rebecca rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics

*refuses to applaud own goal*
If women had been educated as men, the novel would never have been popularised.
*envisions Woolf in a 'Back to the Future' scenario*

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May 22, 2008 Cathy Day rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Tia Smith

I'm not sure how I got to be this old without reading A Room of One's Own. But in a way, I have read it before, because the arguments Woolf made in 1928 form the foundation of most feminist intellectual thought. But I think if I'd read this book in my twenties or early thirties, it wouldn't have made the impact it made this time. I think this quotation from Woolf is very interesting: "Where books are concerned, it is notoriously difficult to fix labels of merit in such a way that they do not com...more

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May 09, 2007 Vickie Wang rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Blossoming feminists

Woolf’s fictional tale of Judith Shakespeare’s tragic life brings to mind the choices women today face as working mothers. My mother grew up earning straight A’s while taking care of her family, writes beautifully in both English and Chinese, was named Best Actress for her college play performance and was overall a renaissance woman. She then went on to work as a teacher’s assistant at the university, got married, and had me. After juggling work and home for 12 years, she decided that my rebelli...more Woolf’s fictional tale of Judith Shakespeare’s tragic life brings to mind the choices women today face as working mothers. My mother grew up earning straight A’s while taking care of her family, writes beautifully in both English and Chinese, was named Best Actress for her college play performance and was overall a renaissance woman. She then went on to work as a teacher’s assistant at the university, got married, and had me. After juggling work and home for 12 years, she decided that my rebellion was a cue for her to step back and become a full-time mom. She quit her job at a blooming publisher’s that she helped built, and after the turmoil of my teens, she started teaching children English from home, which is a well-paid job the allows her to work at home with flexible hours and plenty of free time. But I can only imagine what she would’ve accomplished by now had she stayed with the publisher, which is now a literary empire and the head of publishing in Taiwan. And if she had left me fend for myself against the melodrama of adolescence, would I have turned out fine? And more importantly, what would replace the praises that followed her resignation if I failed school because she was not there to nurture and guide me? She would likely to be deemed an irresponsible, selfish career woman who should’ve put her family first, to sacrifice.
Shakespeare’s sister probably would’ve lived a bland but peaceful life, had she chose to smother her talent and surrender to social standards if she were more like Jane Austen in her character. Money and power, or the lack there of, might be less of an issue for modern day women, but that doesn’t take away the social burden that women have carried for centuries. It had always been my mother’s dream, to have a room of her own, which has yet to come true at the age of 46.
The basics of material and social conditions can still prevent women from creative work. Most women today may be able to own properties, choose whom they marry and work in occupations previously only available for me. But that doesn’t mean we have achieved equality, nor does it suggest that women today do not struggle. The choices women face today as mothers, daughters and a part of the work force corresponds with the social situations women have dealt with in history.

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Jan 27, 2013 Rowena rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, non-fiction, feminism

I hadn't really made up my mind about how I feel about Virginia Woolf, until now, that is. This book definitely showed her genius and I loved it. I enjoyed reading about the history of women writers including one of my favourites, George Eliot, and how they have been suppressed systematically by patriarchy. I filed this book under "feminism" but in no way does it ridicule men or say women are better than men, it simply states that women have not been given adequate chances in literature in the p...more

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Mar 30, 2009 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

This book is, quite uncharacteristically, a quick and easy read. Perhaps Virginia did this because she was writing about something important and wanted the piece to actually be read. Or, it could simply be that the very seeds of the work were cultivated towards public presentation. In any case, I'm impressed by her ability to maintain her artistry within the format. What's more, she was able to freely write a book about writing -- and the writing of women, no less! I feel paralyzed by self-consc...more

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Nov 26, 2011 Kevin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autobiographical

This book is part of Penguins 'Great Ideas' box set (which is worth reading through..quite a neat collection of essays and excerpts of some famous writers). Its is a written talk she made regarding Women authors throughout history in 1928, and what it meant to create literary works of fiction for Women during a period where Women were not supposed to study and write books and poetry - that was a male exclusive thing. However, Women did start to become bored by just being housemaids and appendage...more This book is part of Penguins 'Great Ideas' box set (which is worth reading through..quite a neat collection of essays and excerpts of some famous writers). Its is a written talk she made regarding Women authors throughout history in 1928, and what it meant to create literary works of fiction for Women during a period where Women were not supposed to study and write books and poetry - that was a male exclusive thing. However, Women did start to become bored by just being housemaids and appendages on the arms of their husbands, so slowly at first, and then quite fast, Women start to craft words into sentences, paragraphs, chapters and finally books, mainly starting from the late 18thC onwards and they became a force to be seriously reckoned with the Brontës masquerading as men with Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights (of course there is also George Eliot and Jane Austin too as well as a few others, but these really started the pivotal change).

What Virginia Woolf is saying though, and she pulls up an amazing insightful quote from Charlotte Bronte in Jane Eyre into that Womans life that explains her point, is that Women, whilst still writing about societal norms of the time they produced their novels, are hankering after freedom and away from their oppressive lives they are made to lead. How creative the Bronte sisters must have been to describe some very descriptive scenes, paint a very fluid portrait of locations where they base their novels whilst they, Woolf argues, rarely traveled, had limited finances and were almost constantly interrupted whilst writing because they didn't have a 'room of ones own' (plus £500 a year that Virginia was receiving for life from a dead relative)?

Virginia Woolf then pulls it back to the modern day (being late 1920's) and she notices a change in what the (then) modern Woman authors were starting to write about - more contemporary, modern issues that actually are starting to challenge societal norms and Womens role in it. This was a period also after which Women became enfranchised in 1918. I wonder however, what this great writer would make of our modern day Women authors and the great independence that Women have in out twenty-first century society? When she made this talk in 1928 I expect that even for those times it must have been groundbreaking to see more Women appear in bookshops? Interesting little read. (less)

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Oct 06, 2011 Jeana rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction-memiors

I'd forgotten I was a feminist AND I'd forgotten how much I LOVE taking notes inside books. This is the type of book that carried me back to my college days when I was eagerly reading, taking notes, learning about life, art, the world.

The premise of this book (which was originally written to speak to aspiring young female writers at a time when it truly was an uphill road) is that a woman who intends to write (or write well) should have two things: 500 pounds a year (or enough money so that she...more I'd forgotten I was a feminist AND I'd forgotten how much I LOVE taking notes inside books. This is the type of book that carried me back to my college days when I was eagerly reading, taking notes, learning about life, art, the world.

The premise of this book (which was originally written to speak to aspiring young female writers at a time when it truly was an uphill road) is that a woman who intends to write (or write well) should have two things: 500 pounds a year (or enough money so that she doesn't have to think about making a living) and a room with a lock on it, to stare out the window, muse, and write without being disturbed. It makes sense. Ms. Woolf then goes through and talks about women and fiction through history.

I loved learning and reading about Woolf's thoughts on writing and most of all, being inspired to write:
". . . Shakespeare had a sister. She died young--alas, she never wrote a word. . . Now my belief is that this poet who never wrote a word and was buried at the crossroads still lives. She lives in you and in me, and in many other women who are not here tonight, for they are washing up the dishes and putting the children to bed. But she lives; for great poets do not die; they are continuing presences; they need only the opportunity to walk among us in the flesh. This opportunity, as I think, it is now coming within your power to give her. For my belief is that if we live another century or so and have five hundred a year each of us and rooms of our own; if we have the habit of freedom and the courage to write exactly what we think; if we escape a little from the common sitting-room and the human beings not always in their relation to each other but in relation to relation; and the sky and the trees or whatever it may be in themselves--then the opportunity will come and the dead poet who was Shakespeare's sister will put on the body which she has so often laid down. Drawing her life from the lives of the unknown who were her forerunners, as her brother did before her, she will be born. . . She shall find it possible to live and write her poetry. But I maintain that she would come if we worked for her, and that so to work, even in poverty and obscurity, is worth while."

I think this is a must-read for any woman writer.(less)

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Feb 25, 2013 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Another book that sets out to talk about writing, but ends up talking about life.
A Room of One's Own is about Virginia Woolf herself, about the reader, about people, about humanity, about life -- about being able to look at the sky and cherish it, and to be able to tell others what one saw in it.

oh right.
I FUCKING LOVE THIS WOMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Jan 14, 2013 Carol rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, woolf

I just love this woman's writing! Virginia Woolf was asked to give a talk about Women and Fiction in 1928. The talk eventually became this book. Woolf shows very convincingly how women have found it difficult to be taken seriously in the world of literature. Her famous suggestion that women can only play a full part in writing if they have an income of five hundred year and a room of their own - with a lock on the door. Woolf agreed with Coleridge who stated that a great mind is androgynous. "It...more

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Aug 11, 2011 Rachel rated it 2 of 5 stars

I've been meaning to read something by Virginia Woolf for a long time now. I was trying to decide between two and three stars, but opted to go with two because I found her so self-praising and so intellectually vain that I could hardly make myself continue reading.

Granted, the prose are fantastic and there are some great lines, but for the most part I found it difficult to read as I was picturing her sitting there with a self-satisfied smirk on her face telling me and every other woman all of th...more

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Mar 28, 2013 Nicole rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, favorites

This is the first piece of writing I've read by Virginia Woolf, and overall I enjoyed it thoroughly. I've read criticisms that talk about how she's writing from a place of privilege, because of course not everyone can achieve "500 a year and a room of one's own". Woolf does address that a little, but I see the larger meaning of the point she's driving at. For most creative people, they need a space in which they can pretty much control their environment to minimize distractions. Without that, cr...more This is the first piece of writing I've read by Virginia Woolf, and overall I enjoyed it thoroughly. I've read criticisms that talk about how she's writing from a place of privilege, because of course not everyone can achieve "500 a year and a room of one's own". Woolf does address that a little, but I see the larger meaning of the point she's driving at. For most creative people, they need a space in which they can pretty much control their environment to minimize distractions. Without that, creating their work becomes much harder, although not impossible. For some people, just force of will is enough, and they can block out distractions even in busy public areas (thus creating their own 'space' even if it is not a literal 'room' of their own). Others really do need a room where they can close the door and block everything out except their creativity. I don't think the literal room is as important as the idea of having a controlled environment, with a variable meaning of 'controlled' depending on the person.

But the reason I could only rate this four stars (maybe 4.5) is that for all the parts I loved and agreed with absolutely, there were other parts that I disagreed with just as strongly. First, it's clear that Woolfe is not really a fan of novels in general and prefers poetry, which is fine except that I found a lot of her further analysis of novels and women writing novels showed some of that bias at the expense of the analysis. Then, even considering when this essay was written, sometimes the way she described women writers and male writers was disappointing. On the one hand I agree that each writer has strengths and weaknesses, but I don't agree that those are necessarily based on gender. I think it has much more to do with experience--back in even the '20s, of course, women's experiences were still limited. But when Woolfe goes on to talk about masculine vs. feminine sentences, I found myself disappointed that she carried the gender divide that far.

However, being unfamiliar with her other work, it is possible she was trying to be clever and I just missed it, that she was trying to show how ridiculous it is TO try and ascribe a masculine or feminine label to something like a sentence. If that's the case I didn't pick up on that subversion at all.

In the end, though, I derived more enjoyment and inspiration from this than annoyance. I think Woolfe especially did an excellent job at trying to explain WHY women have been at such a disadvantage creatively, and some of the issues (lack of education, respect, etc.) are still relevant even today.

ETA: I forgot to add that one other part I did not agree with was the idea that one shouldn't write under the influence of emotions. While I can see Woolfe's point about this on some level, I also think that some of the best writing is done when a person is having a profound emotional reaction to something (even if the emotion is anger). And, given the social climate under which someone like Charlotte Bronte was writing (the example Woolfe uses in her essay), how could Bronte NOT write about what was bothering her? Sometimes it might lead to a disordered story, but writing without direct emotional influence can lead sometimes to sterile writing: both approaches have their flaws. One just has to decide which risk is more worth taking (and the answer will vary person to person).(less)

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Feb 13, 2013 Avital rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I marked what I found interesting historically or intellectually in yellow and what made me smile, sharp ironies in pink, and I think that in the end I had equal measures of yellow and pink. (It's not a reflection of my clothes.)
It's hard to believe that in 1928 women couldn't enter a university library without an authorization of some male figure. Well, it's hard to believe that today even in democracies women gain less than men for the same jobs. But clearly, we're getting there.
Anyway, Virgi...more I marked what I found interesting historically or intellectually in yellow and what made me smile, sharp ironies in pink, and I think that in the end I had equal measures of yellow and pink. (It's not a reflection of my clothes.)
It's hard to believe that in 1928 women couldn't enter a university library without an authorization of some male figure. Well, it's hard to believe that today even in democracies women gain less than men for the same jobs. But clearly, we're getting there.
Anyway, Virginia Woolf was so brilliant I wish she lived longer and wrote more.
Something I found interesting: she declares that writers need to be calm regarding other aspects of their lives in order to write without any distortion. Some did despite the pressure, (Jane Austen, she says) but usually she finds that the pressure is reflected in the work, as in Jane Eyre.
I think that nowadays readers enjoy seeing the pressure (the author's mood) expressed in the work. What do you think?
Other thoughts:
Woolf points out that most of men’s literature until her time illustrates women’s inferiority, and in any case, if only men wrote about women, it would give a half of the picture. Of course.
More interesting-she argues that when women write they should include the body, since books depend on the body of their writers.
And a quote from p.37: "Again, the nerves that feed the brain would seem to differ in men and women, and if you are going to make them work their best and hardest, you must find out what treatment suits them."
This observation may reflect an essentialist approach that identifies gender according to biological factors. I agree with her that men carry the experiences of men before them and women carry those of women, but I won't go too far about what biology allows or limits due to your gender, since it all takes us back to hierarchical dualism and oppression.
Then again, I like the conclusion that the ideal state of mind is reached by a fusion of man and woman, because in this mental condition nothing is required to be held back.(less)

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Sep 17, 2010 Chantal rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A woman needs money and a room of her own to achieve literary genius is the message behind Virginia Woolf’s essays in A Room of One’s Own, so I’ve often heard, being that these two things will allow for the long concentrated hours of uninterrupted quiet necessary to create quality literature. But, having finally had the opportunity (there’s a good word) to read this work myself, I realize that Woolf’s papers say so much more than this.
Requested, in 1929, to speak to the young women at Cambridge...more A woman needs money and a room of her own to achieve literary genius is the message behind Virginia Woolf’s essays in A Room of One’s Own, so I’ve often heard, being that these two things will allow for the long concentrated hours of uninterrupted quiet necessary to create quality literature. But, having finally had the opportunity (there’s a good word) to read this work myself, I realize that Woolf’s papers say so much more than this.
Requested, in 1929, to speak to the young women at Cambridge on the subject of women and fiction, Woolf wrote the two essays (her lecture) which have come together to be published under the title A Room of One’s Own. Of the response she anticipated this work would receive, Woolf wrote in her diaries:
I shall get no criticism, except of the evasive jocular kind… the press will be kind & talk of its charm & sprightliness; also I shall be attacked for a feminist & hinted a sapphist… I am afraid it shall not be taken seriously… It is a trifle, they shall say; so it is, but I wrote it with ardour and conviction….

There are three points of interest regarding the above journal excerpt. First, Woolf was accurate in her forecast. Secondly, it is available for us to read today, almost a century later, whereas, as Woolf points out in her essays, the internal musings of Jane Austin, the Brontes, George Eliot and other worthy female writers before Woolf have not been preserved for public reading unlike the diaries of many of their male counterparts; this is evidence of progress. Thirdly, it is interesting that Woolf, while pleading for honesty from her young female audience, has admitted to writing “with ardour and conviction” and in the same sentence referred to this work as trifling.
In order to convey her weighty and controversial message, to contain the broad aspect of it while illuminating the subtle complexities within it, Woolf “making use of all the liberties and licenses of a novelist” creates a character, a female writer, Mary (Beton, Seton or Carmichael) and tells her story, claiming that this fiction “is likely to contain more truth than fact.” And certainly it does!
Mary’s story begins at Oxford where she is refused entrance into the library and disallowed to walk in the soft grass, both privileges reserved for men only. The essay goes on to compare the bland meals served at female colleges with the elaborate feasts set before male students and the lack of funding available for girls’ schools versus the “unending stream of gold and silver” that had flowed forth for centuries from kings and fathers to support the education of young male scholars. She considers the lives of mothers dedicated to birthing, feeding and raising children instead of earning money to put toward their daughters’ educations. She turns to the history books to study the lives and rights of women historically, or rather the absence of any rights (and lives for the history books had not recorded these).
Then Mary fingers the books on her shelf and Woolf examines the history of fiction written by men and the women who appear within it. She ponders truth in fiction and she questions the male ability to accurately write about the female. She complains of the ego innate to so much male literature, and she examines the why of this. She invents a female counterpart to Shakespeare, his genius sister, Judith, and she imagines the life Judith would lead, the conflicts she would face and her inevitable failures (she comes to commit suicide) as a brilliant female poet in a strenuously patriarchal world that had no room for her (the pun is yours for the taking or leaving).
Woolf’s two short works encompass all of this and so much more. Then, in her passionate conclusion, having reminded her audience of the significant recent strides attained by women:
…there have been at least two colleges for women in existence in England since the year 1866; …after 1880 a married woman was allowed by law to possess her own property; and that in 1919 … she was given a vote!

Woolf rallies women, both poor and wealthy alike, to write in the name of truth, in the name of literature, in the name of sexual equality and in the name of mankind, claiming that we owe that to dear, dead Judith Shakespeare and the women she represents, to the Jane Austen’s who toiled before us and their less successful counterparts, to ourselves and to our daughters.
It is a conclusion that had me clutching the book to my chest. It brought tears to my eyes and a grin to my face. It empowered me. It is anything but trifling! And that Woolf would dub it such speaks to her own argument. There she was in 1929, a supremely well-respected female author, but for the inferiority of women and female literature that had been ingrained in society’s conscience, Woolf -- despite being a lead authority on the competence of women writers and the importance of female literature, despite the evidence in her research, despite the passion exuding from the pages of A Room of One’s Own, despite her acknowledged and overwhelming literary talent, despite all this -- was ready to belittle her work, even within the personal space of her private diary, because these thoughts, these arguments, these universal truths of women could just as easily be considered mere female railings, trifles.

(less)

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Jan 20, 2011 sarah gilbert rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kitchen-table-mfa, will-re-read-and-re-read

It starts slow; one gets confused with Mary Seton and Mary Beton and Mary Carmichael, Professor X, Mr. Greg, the everpresent Beadle. One wonders how much, indeed, five hundred pounds might be today; one examines her own life to see, has she had already too many children? Has she missed already the vital call to fiction? Has she given up locked rooms in haste and in terrible, terrible error?

But by the last 40 pages, I am gulping and stopping, filled with a thrill of possibility and a conviction o...more

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Jun 15, 2009 Henry added it · review of another edition

Shelves: theory-criticism

"Now the writer, as I think, has the chance to live more than other people in the presence of this reality. It is his business to find it and collect it and communicate it to the rest of us. [. . .:] For the reading of these books seems to perform a curious couching operation on the senses; one sees more intensely afterwards; the world seems bared of its covering and given an intenser life."

Whoa, do I have to make some sort of apology now that I'm actually appreciating Virginia Woolf? I'm tempte...more

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Aug 29, 2008 Taylor rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: creators, artistic types, women in general

Shelves: non-fiction, own, recommended, favorites, just-like-a-woman, women-writers

Unsurprisingly, I loved this.

Originally written as lectures for two women's colleges, then expanded, Woolf's meditations on women and fiction have a lot of weight, even far beyond the intersection of those worlds.

There are a couple points that drive the book. Her thesis is that women need a room of their own and a steady income in order to achieve creatively. She reaches this point through a variety of ways, and a multitude of sub-topics, particularly that for so long women weren't given the sam...more Unsurprisingly, I loved this.

Originally written as lectures for two women's colleges, then expanded, Woolf's meditations on women and fiction have a lot of weight, even far beyond the intersection of those worlds.

There are a couple points that drive the book. Her thesis is that women need a room of their own and a steady income in order to achieve creatively. She reaches this point through a variety of ways, and a multitude of sub-topics, particularly that for so long women weren't given the same opportunities that men were, and she also examines behavior, that sort of old school thought that women should be at home having babies and making meals while men are out there fighting and providing. Being monetarily independent means that women are less pressured into domestic roles, and having one's own room applies to this, as well, as traditionally, women had little time on their own, as they were busy cooking, taking care of children, entertaining, etc.

These big points are not surprising, obviously, but still need to have attention drawn to them. Woolf doesn't just point and say, "This is unfair," though. She breaks down exactly why and how these things affect women, particularly women with literary ambitions.

But she doesn't just examine women, either. She also examines men. Even though women are the intended audience for this, I absolutely think that men can take away something from this, as well. It may not affect them as profoundly, but she has plenty to say on the habits of men, and no, it's not just male bashing.

The things she discusses, really, apply to women who want to do things beyond fiction, as well. It helps to think about the attitudes towards women that have both hindered and helped our development.

One of the more impressive things about A Room of One's Own is that, even though she's dealing with a hefty and deep subject matter, her writing isn't remotely dense, and is really a pretty breezy read. The most time consuming part isn't so much the reading, but what you take away from this and the thoughts that develop from her research and statements.

Personally, I was intrigued by the section where she talks about how women were used by some men, for a long time (and realistically, probably still), to make men feel more confident about their abilities, and this is why the idea of a female critic is so terrifying to them. As a critic in the field of journalism, and someone who pays attention to other critics, this is an interesting take on a field that has been - and largely still is - a man's domain. I don't think she originally meant it in regards to the world of professional critics, but her argument certainly applies.

The ballsiest part of A Room of One's Own is that Woolf more or less says that for women writers to be successful, to be highly regarded, they have to put aside their gender. Many of the more extreme feminists, I'm sure, would find this idea appalling and say that we should claim our gender and be proud of it, etc. But she points out that many established male authors are, as we might say in modern times, "in touch with their feminine side," or as she says, androgynous. Shakespeare and Proust are her big examples, but she talks about others, as well. I don't know that I agree with her 100%, but she makes a solid argument, and it makes sense logically, as well - how can you write something that appeals to a broad spectrum of people when you're excluding half of them? She also points out that even though women have had more worlds opened to them, not much had yet changed. Touche! (Though, hey, it takes some time to master new things.)

A quick read and an enlightening one - and who knew a book could be both of those things? Next time you fear reaching for that 600+ page-r, but still seek a little mental stimulation, grab this. It's not only the kind of book that will open new doors, but the kind you'll want to revisit.(less)

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Sep 27, 2009 Foroogh added it · review of another edition

این کتاب در واقع مقاله ای طولانی است که در ان وولف به مشکلات زنان نویسنده و مقایسه شرایط انها با مردان می پردازد"زنی که می خواهد داستان بنویسد باید پول واتاقی از ان خود داشته باشد،واین کار همانطور که خواهید دید معضل بزرگ ماهیت واقعی زن وماهیت واقعی داستان را حل نشده باقی خواهد گذاشت"از متن کتاب
"با ملایمت به انها گفتم که شراب بنوشند واتاقی از ان خود داشته باشند"
the diary of virginia wool

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Jan 20, 2008 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of those classic essays that I should have read a long time ago, but of course one can never read absolutely everything that one should read.

Woolf's argumentative strategy is very different from standard Western philosophical argumentation. One the surface it meanders and goes out on tangents, and yet her arguments are uncommonly powerful. They possess more power than standard Western philosophical argumentation because they are grounded and because her prose is vivid. As I read through, I...more

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Apr 12, 2010 Jackie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: feminist, classics, britian

So here is an embarrassing admission: I had believed that this was fiction. I thought it was about an imaginary sister of Shakespeare. Turns out, no. It's a critique of literature and women's place in literature through 1920.

I'm making efforts to educate myself on feminism and the women's movement. Yes, I think there were some good points. But really could not figure out how deciphering the rambling sentences was worth while. Not being a specialist in 1920s literature I didn't know most of the w...more

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Mar 19, 2009 Kevin Slater rated it 2 of 5 stars

Sorry, call me everything that's wrong with men today but I did not like this book. I felt that Virginia Woolf, though justified in the idea that women needed more equality in being accepted to libraries and colleges, is still searching for what will never bring happiness. If we truly abandon everything that makes us male and female for some androgynous ideal that we'll be unhappy, besides being impossible anyhow. There is a great wrong that's been done to women through the ages, they never rece...more

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Erin Drazich Hmm. I think you rather missed her point. I think her point is not that we should strive for some androgynous ideal or male/female composite, but that...more
Sep 20, 2009 08:10pm

Tim "It would be a thousand pities if women wrote like men, or lived like men, or looked like men, for if two sexes are quite inadequate, considering the...more
updated Dec 15, 2012 08:43am

Jessica Adding to Tim's quote:

"It would be a thousand pities if women wrote like men, or lived like men, or looked like men, for if two sexes are quite inade...more
Dec 15, 2011 08:11am

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Goodreads Librari...: Page number addition (ISBN: 0521485908)	2	15	Dec 31, 2012 01:23pm
An essay for the ages.	5	64	Dec 21, 2011 10:45am

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