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    A Room of One's Own
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    A Room of One's Own
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    A Room of One's Own
    Ebook128 pages2 hours

    A Room of One's Own

    By Virginia Woolf

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    About this ebook

    This carefully crafted ebook: "A Room of One's Own" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. The book is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf. First published on 24 October 1929, the essay was based on a series of lectures she delivered at Newnham College and Girton College, two women's colleges at Cambridge University in October 1928. While this extended essay in fact employs a fictional narrator and narrative to explore women both as writers of and characters in fiction, the manuscript for the delivery of the series of lectures, titled "Women and Fiction", and hence the essay, are considered non-fiction. The essay is generally seen as a feminist text, and is noted in its argument for both a literal and figural space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by patriarchy. Virginia Woolf was one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century, transformed the art of fiction. The author of numerous novels and short stories, she was also an acknowledged master of the essay form, and an admired literary critic.
    LanguageEnglish
    Publishere-artnow
    Release dateMay 1, 2013
    ISBN9788074845048
    Author

    Virginia Woolf

    Virginia Woolf was an English novelist, essayist, short story writer, publisher, critic and member of the Bloomsbury group, as well as being regarded as both a hugely significant modernist and feminist figure. Her most famous works include Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse and A Room of One’s Own.

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    Reviews for A Room of One's Own

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    • 5/5
      37. A Room of One's Own (audio) by Virginia Woolfreader: Juliet Stevensonpublished: 1929, 2011 audioformat: 5:02 Libby audiobookacquired: Librarylistened: Jun 20-26rating: 5includes four short stories: Monday or Tuesday, A Haunted House, Kew Gardens, The New DressI think I'm supposed to say something about feminism after reading this, but while I was listening I was too distracted by the way Woolf writes (and the way Juliet Stevenson reads her) to really be thinking about her points. Woolf is a wonderful stylist, who stands apart on many levels from anything written today. Clever, formally structured, elegant, but also everything is designed to bring in the reader's interest, give a universal perspective, and provide a sense of lingual precision. This is my first time reading her, I was kind of in awe at just listening to how she says what she says. She is writing about women and fiction, but really about sexism in general, and what this has meant for women then (1928) and throughout history. At one point she explains that she looked through all the books on women, all written by men, and she feels they can offer her nothing because instead of careful unbiased analysis, these books are all, everyone, pervaded by anger. She has to turn elsewhere, a point that really stuck with me. As for the rest, it was all true, all frustrating, all good to read, but also all stuff I felt we all already know and (at least in our little community here) pretty much all fully agree with. You can read this for 1928 feminism, but my recommendation would be read this to read Woolf in essay form, and be rewarded with literary critiques of the Brontës and Jane Austen, or the impact of WWI on humanity, and also with her views on feminism....Despite the cover Libby uses, I didn't get the Ali Smith introduction, but instead did get four short stories. The New Dress was my favorite and I'll have it in mind when I get to Mrs Dalloway, one of these days.
    • 4/5
      extended essays about women in writing and feminism in general
    • 5/5
      This is the first book I've ever read where I am sad I didn't read it earlier in life. It is a feminist book without being militant, angry or bitter. In fact, Woolf delivers her feminism with a smile, wink and a great deal of wit. Her defense of women shouldn't offend men. In fact, I imagine most people would nod along with her. Except fans of Charlotte Bronte. But, because of Woolf's winking demeanor through the entire paper (it was originally a lecture to women at Girton, I believe?) I wonder if she was indeed skewering Bronte for losing her message due to Bronte's "anger" or if Woolf was skewering the critics (men) who said the same about Bronte? I'm not familiar enough with Bronte, her critics, fans or otherwise to say. (I don't remember anger or bitterness in Jane Eyre, but I haven't read it in a few years.) But, I do think Woolf has an excellent point: write without anger or bitterness and your message will come across better.

      I listened to the Juliet Stevenson narration of A Room of One's Own. I will listen to anything Juliet Stevenson performs. She is one of the best audiobook narrators out there, especially classics. However, I wish I had the physical book to read along. This book begs for underlining and multiple reads.
    • 2/5
      Essay, op basis van lezing uit 1929, over het lot van de vrouw en mogelijkheden om er uit te breken. Zeer wervend en met mooie inzichten, maar niet altijd vlotte lectuur door onduidelijke opbouw.
    • 4/5
      Essential.
    • 5/5
      After a friend recommended it I found a copy and read it through in a day. It is really amazing and full of hard, crystallised truth, discursive and contemplative and philosophical and fervent. Wonderful stuff that had me jotting down extracts in my notebook over and over. I need to read more of her.
    • 5/5
      I have been questioning much in my life lately with particular guilt about how much I have let both myself and my sex and my children down, given the opportunities that I have had. I have parents who throughout my childhood have actively encouraged me to get a good education and who have nutured and supported me to achieve my best and I squandered it. I have worked in life and had some great jobs but right now I am completely dependant on my husband for a living - shame on me!!!! I am time rich - I have loads of time. Every day I am dripping in time and I waste it on Candy Crush Saga and yet I am so terrified that there is hardly any time left at all - what a travesty!!!!!I read A Room of One's Own in two sessions - I could not sleep after the first session as my mind was already racing.After completing the essay this evening I am compelled to write down my thoughts in this review.So firstly, Virginia Wolf got me thinking, her essay made me look at myself and my responsibility not only as a woman but as a human being. What I take from what she writes in her argument is that historically women have been denied opportunities such as education, freedom of movement etc and as a result they have in general been unable to achieve in the same way as men - eg academically or vocationally but in 1928 those opportunities are improving for women and so women can no longer hide in excuses so long as they are well off, which I believe is the second point she is making in so much as it doesn't matter whether you are male or female you still need to have money to write. I think it goes further and really it is also about respect. Not about men having respect for women but about us all having respect for ourselves as human beings and respect for each other. Let's stop blaming men and just embrace who we are men or women we all count. There will always be exceptions to any rule but basically at the end of the day it comes down to this. Stop making excuses and blaming others and just do it - whatever it is JUST DO IT because nowadays anything is possible by anyone. (so long as you have your freedom, have access to education and can afford to live ) This is what I took from the essay on first reading - oh and there is something about lesbianism in it too.
    • 3/5
      This is a book based on a couple of lectured given by Virgina Woolf. Published in 1928 it is an interesting read. She starts with her ideas as to why women are under represented in history and in literature. The surmise is, roughly, that men who have written are those that have had the money and space to be able to find the time to write. They are not being dragged from one job to the next in order to feed the family, therefore they have the time to be able to create. She uses a hypothetical sister of Shakespeare to make her point. How did Judith manage? Well she didn't get to go to the Grammar school, so her learning was whatever she managed to pick up from William's school books, and she was always being told to put that book down and do her chores. She, similarly, fled to London, but you can't put a woman on the stage, so she gets treated as a lady of small repute and ends up, knocked up, in an unmarked grave under the roundabout at Elephant & Castle. The surmise that in order to create you need to have the time and space to do so I can believe.What didn't chime with my way of thinking was that women & men are different, and that they would write differently as a result. A woman shouldn't try and write like a man, but should continue to write in a predominantly female manner. Woolf does suggest that each sex is a mixture of both manly & womanly characteristics and that both sexes should use both characteristics when writing. So a woman shouldn't try to write in a purely manly manner, but use elements of that style to augment the feminine. I have a spot of bother with that, as it assumes that men & women are chalk & cheese. I don't think they are. I prefer to consider that, by nature, there are differences, but they are in an overlapping continuum. There are things that remain relevant in this now, 90 years later, and in some ways it is god to see how things have moved (women are granted degrees and have had the vote, for almost a century, for instance). On the other hand, there seems to be any number of ways in which this was still contemporary. There remains much to do.
    • 2/5
      Essay, op basis van lezing uit 1929, over het lot van de vrouw en mogelijkheden om er uit te breken. Zeer wervend en met mooie inzichten, maar niet altijd vlotte lectuur door onduidelijke opbouw.
    • 3/5
      3.5 stars. I enjoyed the overall tone of this book as well as Woolf's writing style (for the most part). There were some sections that were just a little too stream of consciousness for my taste. I had mixed feelings throughout though.
    • 5/5
      Made me really appreciate the things I take for granted, living in a modern, western country - the ability to own property, have a job, control my money and have a political voice and choices in my life: It pays to be reminded that it hasn't been that long since women had none of those things and we should never take them for granted.
    • 3/5
      I felt the book covered as much about men as it did women. Woolf was such a widely read author that almost every page had me wanting to pick up another work mentioned. I am still wondering though could the room of one's own be oneself and the strength of character, pride and sense of self be the 500 pounds?
    • 5/5
      Virginia Woolf essays speak the truth about Women and writing fiction. A true feminist.
    • 4/5
      Essentially an essay on feminism. Woolf explores historical women writers and her contemporaries. Looking at their works, their personal situations and compares to male writers in similar times. In particular how men are afforded more advantages to successfully write and very few women are provided any opportunity at all, much less an education. She also looks at how women writers are viewed, specifically looked down on and those who are extremely successful are seen as oddities. Woolf makes cases for far less renowned women writers who were provided little education, lack of a work environment (outside a kitchen) and makes a case for how these women are possibly even more amazing than their more famous contemporaries because of what they can do given their society imposed constraints.The book took a little to get its feel and where Woolf was going, but once you were there it was enjoyable.
    • 5/5
      There is no summary of this essay that will do it justice so I’ll simply say, “Read it”.When I picked up Woolf’s essay, I thought I’d be in for a feminist rant. After all, it has been hailed as one of those amazing, post-suffrage bits on how women relate to the world and to men. If it had been, I would have been satisfied but it was so much more.She begins with Cleopatra and moves to the eternally modern woman. Her thesis is that women have the capacity and potential to have potential, that they are not genetically stunted but are limited in lack of education, means, and plain old space, in a way that stunts true creativity that men have been allowed.She does not exactly rave on about how men are either superior or inferior, simply that women have been banished from conversations, resources and institutions where learning is gained by the male mind. One of the best lines in the work, in the regard to the above observation, comes from a discussion of limited access to public and private works based on gender. Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind. p.76In this, there is not a hatred but a defiance and a plan of action to settle a score.As the piece moves toward a steadier, more hopeful light, she discusses the art form of writing as it has emerged from society through men and then women, creating different paths through the sexes and through time periods. The novel, Woolf proposes, was an original and natural platform for artists like Austen and the Brontes to explore the publishing world as it allowed printed expression through the emotional intelligence taught in parlors, not parliament. Moreover, a book is not made of sentences laid end to end, but of sentences built, if an image helps, into arcades or domes. And this shape too has been made by men out of their own needs of their own uses. There is no reason to think that the form of an epic or of the poetic play suits a woman any more than the sentence suits her. But all the older forms of literature were hardened and set by the time she became a writer. The novel alone was young enough to be soft in her hands – another reason, perhaps, why she wrote novels. p.77As far as the work holds up to 2010, it shows the same as it showed nearly a century ago: We have come far but we have a long way to go. Women are only getting started and are, thus, both more stringently and less harshly judged. There is no mark on the wall to measure the precise height of women. There are no yard measures, neatly divided into the fractions of an inch, that one can lay against the devotion of a daughter, or the fidelity of a sister, or the capacity of a housekeeper. Few women, even now have been graded at the universities; the great trials of professions, army and navy, trade, politics and diplomacy have hardly tested them. They remain even at this moment almost unclassified. p. 85In the end, she concludes that women should not strive to be like men as their highest goal but should not seek to hold their accomplishments higher. It is simply, an androgynous goal of egalitarian intellect that she is striving for. It would be a thousand pities if women wrote like men, or lived like men, or looked like men, for if the two sexes are quite inadequate, considering the vastness and variety of the world, how should we manage with one only? p. 88So, truly, this is not a man-bashing, vote collecting, sapphically saturated sack of silliness. It is, without a doubt, a peaceful, academic call to analysis and research on the subject of the ways in which men and women relate to each other, rather than holding one above and the other below.
    • 4/5
      The substance of this book is a couple of talks that Virginia Woolf gave to women on the topic of women and fiction. Her writing is so eloquent. She constructs a scene, a person, an event with language that is tangible. You can almost taste and touch what she is describing. Although nonfiction, "A Room of One's Own ponders what "women and fiction" means. Is it about fiction that women write? About women who write fiction? Fiction about women? She blends all of these themes into her essay with herself as a fictional narrator in various situations where she ponders women writers, men's view of women, the value of education, financial independence etc. Why only 4 stars? I suppose, as much as I love the writing and find it a rewarding read, it is not an easy one. I had the courage to read this book because it was short. I would have loved to read it in a literature class focussing on women writers. As it is, I just have to stumble along by myself. Highly recommended!
    • 3/5
      This book isn't actually fiction, it is better classified as an essay or an argumentative discussion.As is predictable with Virginia Woolf's writing, the basis is feminism. At one point in her "essay," Woolf imagines that William Shakespeare had a sister. This sister was equal in genius to her brother, but because of a lack of means to express or develop her talent, she never so much as sets a word to paper in her entire life, and commits suicide rather than be shamed by pregnancy out of wedlock.I think that Woolf's paper, of sorts, would have been more interesting had she focused on this fictional idea. But it does not even take up an entire chapter, which I was disappointed to find.Most of the book is a wordy, boring discussion that reads like a speech or a dry text book at school.This short work of non-fiction is extremely boring and hard to get through, but still has skillfully presented psychological and feminist aspects.
    • 5/5
      Virginia Woolf was one of the first feminists of all time. She was one of the first women to speak up and voice her opinion about how women are equal to men. She emphasized the fact that women are treated unequally in society and this is why they have produced less impressive works of art and literature than men. Most famous works of literature were written by men because women never had the freedom to express their ideas. Woolf urged that there would be female Shakespeare's in the future, when woman can find fixed incomes and rooms of their own; the two keys to freedom. Because women do not have power, their creativity was ignored throughout history. When someone has a room of one's own, they have nothing to hold them back from expressing their feelings and ideas. A room of her own would provide a woman with the time and the space to engage in uninterrupted writing time. It is there that a woman may allow herself to open her imagination to create beautiful works of art. I highly recommend this book because it is a great book and Woolf is an amazing argumentative writer.
    • 5/5
      I finished A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf this morning.my thoughts and comments:What a lovely book. It is an essay on why men were always more intelligent than women; on why men were always better writers than women; on why men wrote and women didn't; on why men were educated and women were not; on why one could not be an author if one or one's family did not have money; on why one could not be successfully as a writer unless one had the privacy in which to write.It sounds so cold and calculated and statistical. However I found it to be a very warm and inviting read. I have never read Virginia Woolf previously. But I love her writing. She is very lyrical, honest writer, she doesn't hold back nor pull punches and I hope that she has a novel out there somewhere that I can find and read. In the notes at the back of my copy it only listed essays and critiques she had written. I don't know, but I would imagine that Virginia Woolf was a fascinating woman.
    • 4/5
      So much has already been written about this classic work; this book is often read in courses on literature or women's studies, and people much more "learned" than me have had very profound things to say. I find it difficult to offer up any unique point of view. I'm just an avid reader with strong feminist leanings. So this book is right up my street. Published in 1929, A Room of One's Own is in fact a very long essay, taken from lectures given by Ms. Woolf. She explores several feminist themes:- the importance of female education, income, and independence- the absence of both women's history and the feminine perspective on history- the evolution of women's writingWhile I'd like to think these themes are now familiar and accepted, I can certainly understand the ground-breaking nature of this work. In 1929, British women had only had the right to vote for 10 years. Female authors were making their voices heard in new and often unwelcome ways: another example from that time period is Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness, a work of lesbian fiction banned after an obscenity trial. So what does A Room of One's Own offer the contemporary reader? For young women of education and privilege, it is a means to connect with and understand their foremothers' journeys. And Woolf's ideas on education and independence are still important for those advancing the cause of women around the world. Experiencing this book as a reader, not a scholar, I found myself simply enjoying Woolf's writing talents. I flagged more interesting passages in this book than anything else in recent memory. I'll close my review of this memorable book with just a few examples.Comparing women in fiction and in real life, during the time of Elizabeth: A very queer, composite being thus emerges. Imaginatively she is of the highest importance; practically she is completely insignificant. She pervades poetry from cover to cover; she is all but absent from history. She dominates the lives of kings and conquerors in fiction; in fact she was the slave of any boy whose parents forced a ring upon her finger. Some of the most inspired words, some of the most profound thoughts in literature fall from her lips; in real life she could hardly read, could scarecely spell, and was the property of her husband. (p. 43)Considering women in fiction a bit later:It was strange to think that all the great women of fiction were, until Jane Austen's day, not only seen by the other sex, but seen only in relation to the other sex. And how small a part of a woman's life is that ... (p. 81)And finally, humorously challenging the prevailing view of women:I thought of that old gentleman, ... who declared that it was impossible for any woman, past, present, or to come, to have the genius of Shakespeare. He wrote to the papers about it. He also told a lady who applied to him for information that cats do not as a matter of fact go to heaven, though they have, he added, souls of a sort. How much thinking those old gentlemen used to save one! How the borders of ignorance shrank back at their approach! Cats do not go to heaven. Women cannot write the plays of Shakespeare. (p. 46)Read and enjoy.
    • 5/5
      This is a book I love to hate. The depth of classism is so apparent in this book. I love to debate the book, scream at the author and find others who are just as furious as I am about the message of the book.
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed this and found it really interesting. It gave me a lot to think about, and also now looking at female writers who have had their work published since then, so much has changed. Things aren't completely equal (and I don't think we'll have another Shakespeare), but they are getting there. It was a bit of a slow start and took a while to get into.
    • 3/5
      Virginia Woolf is never easy to read, but I found this slim volume especially difficult. Originally written as two papers to be read to the Arts Society at Newnham and the Odtaa at Girton, the papers were too long to be read in full and were then altered and expanded into book form.Within its 125 pages Woolf explored her opinions on the impediments to women who want to write coming up with her famous conclusion that women need a room of their own and a less famous parallel conclusion that she also needs an income of 500 pounds per year.If one has the patience to wade through Woolf's dense prose you'll find this book one of the early modern feminist tracts. You ill also have some surprises. For example, she talks about how she receive the news of a legacy from an old aunt (the proverbial 500 pound/year) on the same day that women in England were granted the right to vote. An she says, Of the two - the vote sand the money - the money, I own, seemed infinitely the more important. Personally, I was very pleased to see this practical side of her personality.I would put this volume in the "it's good for you" category. Some things you just have to read because they're there
    • 5/5
      The book is a fascinating look at fiction, the female author, and what's necessary to write well. While some of her arguments might seem untrue, they always warrant consideration. I was surprised to find her prose accessible, her personality evident and embracing no matter how fervently she agued. A book worthy of reading by any reader or writer.
    • 5/5
      This book is near perfect when Virginia Woolf writes about "Women and Writing". She hits it spot on too - women don't have the resources that men do - so they never get a chance to have a proper education because they aren't allowed in the men only libraries of the time. They don't have their own space or their own income, and she points out this is true for anybody, but women mostly (because men can become "made", while their wives will only move up to more drudgery).It is written with a gentle humour that hides a scathing argument. She uses anecdote to statistics to point blank obviousness to stand against the arguments made by men (that women don't have the mental capacity to write fine poetry, or think, or play politics, or even have a say in the world)- this book, while slim, manages to argue each point and does it with grace.
    • 4/5
      I don't generally enjoy Virginia Woolf's writing very much, I must confess. I don't find her writing, in general, very compelling. But reading this essay, I did. I didn't want to put it down. It helps that it has a narrative, kind of a story, and that it's well-suited to a stream-of-consciousness style.

      The things she says are not irrelevant yet, either. Certainly not when you're looking at the development of women's writing, but also not when you're thinking about women's writing now. I'm sure modern female writers disagree about such ideas as the androgynous mind being necessary, or the idea that one might need to get away from having a family to be a writer, or whatever, but I think it's still important to read this. All the better if men read it too. If nothing else, the last few pages, where she points out the impact that women have not -- yet -- had. We're closer now that we were then, but still not close enough.
    • 4/5
      I've always thought that Virginia Woolf was really underrated. This is much different than reading her fiction such as in To The Lighthouse and Orlando because it's a nonfiction examination of many female writers such as Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen. It supposes how difficult writing was for women in the 1800s and earlier as well as how female writers were perceived. It's a really good landmark to show how far women have come through the years. However, Woolf misses the mark in some ways in terms of an elitism in dwelling on the idea of genius existing mainly in the upper and educated classes. Still, a very interesting and thought provoking read.
    • 4/5
      For such a spot-on piece of feminism, this had some very narrow-minded literary criticism. I don't even know how to rate it - there are a few 5-star sections and even more 2-star sections, and I could tell you precisely where each begins and ends.

      Maybe it's just that the rant about writing has aged badly. One can only blabber so much about women writers and men writers before the modern reader starts asking for information about people writers. Still, I can't help but think that, for a bisexual bipolar intellectual woman, Woolf was a bit of a literary fundamentalist. Women must write as women, not as men - but they mustn't try too hard or the writing will become whiny and tainted (apparently literary genius and self-expression are mutually incompatible - yes, she says this explicitly). Except the best writing minds are androgynous, so they should avoid becoming dissociated from their inner man. I'm sorry, what?

      Anyway, let's say that the lit-crit part has aged badly. Why, then, does the feminist discourse in this ring so modern and real? It's just as old as the rest of the book, yet it's not even remotely as outdated. The more I think about this, the more frightening it seems to me.
    • 5/5
      A little Candlemas reading for the wolf month.

      I read this when I was 20 or so, and it seemed a historical document, something I was indebted to, as if she were speaking only to women who'd written before me, before the third wave of feminism, so confident was I that things had changed.

      I've been writing for 20 years now. After two decades of sacrifice and focus, writing "deformed and twisted" books while watching only certain women's voices and stories being rewarded with a broad readership, Woolf's argument is entirely necessary, "...to work, even in poverty and obscurity, is worth while."
    • 4/5
      I have read sections of this book, but I believe this it the first time that I have read it in its entirety. Here one sees the nascent women's studies movement ready to take flight, for better or for worst. Here, for better. Woolf's approach is light and, even at times humorous. She poses illuminating what ifs, such as what if Shakespeare had had a gifted sister? What would her fate have been? What if women had had money of their own? The book contains one of the very best attempts to define what makes a book a classic that I have come across. If the book has any faults, I would say that there is a tendency to be too precious and like-able. It seems a bit of a put on at times and a bit condescending. All in all a worthy and important look at women in literature by the early 20th century