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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
    Ebook129 pages2 hours

    A Room of One's Own

    By Virginia Woolf

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    About this ebook

    A Room of One's Own 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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJA
    Release dateNov 20, 2017
    ISBN9782377938889
    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

    4.5/5

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    • 4/5
      I'm glad I read this book. Or this essay or edited lectures -- whatever. It's surprising to see how little and how much progress the gender equality movement has made. In some respects, Woolf's observations are out of date (gender-segregated colleges, suffragettes, the lawn incident, (near-)contemporary literary references); but what is really remarkable is that most of the issues she raises here are still relevant and not at all outdated: her observations about the male gaze, excessive expressions of masculine superiority, as well as the more general treatment of women in fiction as attachments to a male character could almost have been lifted verbatim from present-day articles. It's bewildering, really. Woolf's stream-of-consciousness approach to these matters makes it sound as if she herself was the first person to write/talk about them -- they feel like discoveries, freshly exposed. This lends the text a pleasantly direct feel: a clever, skilled writer thinking out loud about what she thinks is important and who allows you to be privy to her ruminations.
    • 5/5
      Is it possible to imagine the reception of this book 86 years ago?
      Did it spark minds, light a fire, or at least prime them for further explosive thoughts?
      The era seems so very long ago, and yet what she writes remains true today. Women, 'gender', sex, power...much has changed yet much has not changed.
      It all seems quite self evident, yet it all still needs to be explained, again and again. Why is that?
      Very slowly though, there has been progress. More of us have our rooms and our five hundred pounds.
      And yesterday the majority of the Irish population said it was just fine with them if Chloe likes Olivia.
      I wonder how Ms Woolf would write this book in an update for today...
    • 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.
    • 5/5
      In addition to being a seminal feminist text, A Room of One's Own is one of the most finely crafted essays in the English language. Its informality and wittiness, and the seamless, seemingly effortless way it seems to guide the reader from thought to thought, make it easy not to notice the beautiful logical structure underpinning the whole. It also has some gorgeous examples of Woolf's style of psychological free association. Such a beautiful essay!
    • 3/5
      This book at times confounded me. Not having a lit background or being well-versed in the classics, there were times I found it difficult to stay engaged with. But then at other times, I found her writing incredibly impactful and it will forever change/alter my view of women's role in fiction both as writers and as characters, and made me think about those limitations in ways I hadn't contemplated before. The fact that she made these astute observations close to 100 years ago is all the more amazing.
    • 5/5
      This is a must read for anyone, woman or man. It's a great feminist text but her writing is amazing. It's one of the best essays I have ever read.
    • 5/5
      Just completed this brilliant essay for A Novel challenge. It was originally presented by Virginia Woolf to undergraduates of Girton and Newnham Colleges, Cambridge, England in 1929. In essence it is centred upon the theme of women and fiction - yet she devlops ideas that move through life, literature, philosophy and society. I loved her reflective thinking and the way in which she linked her thoughts so seamlessly. In my opinion it was five star plus plus and one of the most wonderful reads I have ever experienced - on a par to war and Peace in terms of impact ...I reserved this book from the library and received the Hogarth press edition of 1959 - that is an old book! However I simply must get my own copy - it has so inspired me. There is a sense of compulsion as I read that I knew I would have to read this work again. I savoured every page, idea and reflection. If you are interested in women, their place in society through history and their writings this is a must for you!
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 4/5
      Whenever someone talked about Virginia Woolf, they talked about this book, and how much they loved it. They recommended I start here, with A Room of One's Own, a collection of essays given at a speech at various universities.

      I was skeptical. Up until very recently, I didn't read a lot of non-fiction. But this isn't just a collection of essays - you get a sense not only of Woolf's writing, but of the woman herself.

      In this book she speculates that Shakespeare had a sister, and wonders how successful she might've been. (Not very, unless she had A Room of Her Own.)

      The reason I love this book is because Virginia Woolf takes all that is familiar to me as a former history major, (the sexism rife throughout literature) and picks it apart. She's vulnerable, she's frustrated, she's a little bit bitter, but her writing is beautiful.

      I'll leave you with one of the passages from the book that has stayed with me since I read it a few years ago.

      "A 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 scarcely spell, and was the property of her husband.”
    • 5/5
      As a woman who has longed to write but never been able to distinguish herself from those around her, this essay resonates. At certain times in the book, I felt like I was sitting in the room listening to her say, "But almost without exception they [women] are shown in their relation to men...And how small a part of a woman's life is that...(page 82). I wonder if women, for all our triumphs over paternalistic constraints in less than a century, have recognized we are truly separate beings and not defined by the labels - daughter, sister, wife, mother, caregiver - we attach to ourselves? Woolf's contention that a woman needs her own income, idleness and privacy to create is as true today as it was in 1929 and yet how many women are able to claim this time without guilt? Her closing words haunt me, "...if we face the fact, for it is a fact, that there is no arm to cling to, but that we go alone and that our relation is to the world of reality and not only to the world of men and women..." (page 114).
    • 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.
    • 3/5
      Woolf's witty and charming essay on women and fiction, making the assertion that for a woman to succeed as a novelist she must have an independent income and "a room of her own", i.e. space to write. Along the way, Woolf has some fine things to say about the history of women in the arts, and their position at the time of writing. Although the style is clearly Edwardian in tone -- it is hard to imagine someone writing with this voice today -- I found it both attractive and entertaining to read, and the subject still of great relevance.
    • 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.
    • 4/5
      An excellent treatise on what it would take and was taking for women to become serious writers.
    • 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.
    • 4/5
      El feminisme del 1929 explicat per Virgínia Woolf. Una cambra pròpia i una renda de 500 liiures anuals permetran a les dones ser autòmes i tenir llibertat per escriure i transmetre els seus sentiments, les seves experiències i els seus pensaments. Una cambra pròpia vol dir que disposarà de pany i clau per aïllar-se quan en tingui necessitat i no serà interrumpuda contínuament així podrà escriure i desenvolupar tot el seu potencial intel·lectual . Gairebé fa 100 anys d'aquesta conferència però és totalment vigent, encara no s'han aconseguit moltes de les coses que ella reclama per tant la lluita continua. A part de reivindicar la figura de la dona per eixamplar el camp de coneixements de la Humanitat, ens dona una lliçó magistral de literatura anglesa fent-nos anar a cercar els referents literaris que cita i que ens ajuden a emmarca els seus raonaments. També cal remarcar la visió unitària del ésser humà on es barregen la part masculina i femenina, vindicant homes femenins i dones masculines per guanyar-hi tots.
    • 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
    • 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?
    • 3/5
      I read this both for a class at the University of Chicago and for a weekend spent discussing some of the works of Virginia Woolf that also included To the Lighthouse and Three Guineas. A Room of One's Own was written to be delivered as two talks delivered to female college students. This coincided with the trial of Radclyffe Hall's lesbian novel, The Well of Loneliness, at which Woolf testified in the novel's defense. This context, the female college setting, and Woolf's personable style are captured in the famous passage of A Room of One's Own in which she imagines discovering a new kind of writing, by a future novelist named Mary Carmichael. Woolf's main argument is that there have been few great women in history because material circumstances limited women's lives and achievements. Because women were not educated and were not allowed to control wealth, they necessarily led lives that were less publicly significant than those of men. While the argument has gained more adherents since this book was written the book retains its popularity and has become a classic along with much of Woolf's oeuvre. It is a short work that raises interesting questions and is written with impeccable style.
    • 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.
    • 4/5
      It almost seems ridiculous for me, lowly college student, to presume to judge a work of Virginia Woolf's. Sacrilegious, even. But, ah well, my opinion is what it is. Overall, I enjoyed this book, or "extended essay," I suppose it technically is. Writing in 1928, Woolf proposes that a woman must have a room of her own and "five hundred a month," or rather, the ability to properly contemplate and the authority to think for herself, in order to create. More specifically in order to write. Her observations were thought-provoking and sometimes troubling relatable to the state of literature today. A couple of passages in particular startled me with their modern relevance:"Yet it is the masculine values that prevail. Speaking crudely, football and sport are 'important'; the worship of fashion, the buying of clothes 'trivial'. And these values are inevitably transferred from life to fiction. This is an important book, the critic assumes, because it deals with war. This is an insignificant book because it deals with the feelings of women in a drawing-room. A scene in a battle-field is more important than a scene in a shop--everywhere and much more subtly the difference of value persists."^^That is so precisely the (Jennifer Weiner) argument being had today over the merits of so-called "chick-lit.""Making a fortune and bearing thirteen children--no human being could stand it. Consider the facts, we said. First there are nine months before the baby is born. Then the baby is born. Then there are three or four months spent in feeding the baby. After the baby is fed there are certainly five years spent in playing with the baby...If Mrs Seton (the mother), I said, had been making money, what sort of memories would you (the child) have had of games and quarrels? What would you have known of Scotland, and its fine air and cakes and all the rest of it?"^^Again, that is so the modern working mother struggle, in a nutshell. Parentheses in that passage are mine.There were flaws, of course. I don't know how much Woolf's advice could help very poor or non-Western women. Some bits were convoluted/a bit boring. She dissed my girl Charlotte Brontë a bit (in the nicest way possible, and she was probably right).But meh. She's still a genius.
    • 1/5
      I'm only half way through, but thus far, sigh, it's so monotonous and she goes on and on repetitively about men. Alright already, we got it!
      I find it interesting that in just 54 pages she has already mentioned women suicide at least four times and I wonder if she had already been having issues with her illness at that time.
      She does a disservice to women; going mad and killing herself. For all her snooty snubbing about poor people being so inferior to the rich.
      So one must be a rich woman with a room of her own to be intelligent or be an artist of any kind? According to her writing, this is what can be surmised.
      What a long rant against men. . . and women in some parts. She comes off as a very miserable person.
      pg 108 "a poor child in England has little momre hope than had the son of an Athenian slave to be emancipated into that intellectual freedom of which great writings are born." That is it. Intellectual freedom depends upon material things.
      Women , then, have not had a dog's chance of writig poetry. That is why I have laid so much stress on money and a room of one's own.

      The limitation of her mind, of her thoughts.
    • 4/5
      a feminist classic every Women's Studies student (formal and informal) should read
    • 4/5
      Based on a series of lectures on women and fiction, Virginia Woolf in A Room of One's Own examines both women as authors and the portrayal of women in literature written by men. The lectures were given in 1928 and were published a year later, just a decade after women had secured voting rights in Great Britain. Woolf encourages young women to aspire to financial security and space for solitude in order to find their voice. The condition of women that Woolf describes is foreign to me some eighty-five years later, and she might be surprised that I find her exhortation to write to be more limiting than encouraging. She seems to assume that all women would want to write if given the opportunity to do so. There's little encouragement for women whose interests and passions lie elsewhere. This book represents an important step in women's history and women's writing and it rightly deserves the continuing attention it receives. For me, it provided a good point of comparison with the greatly expanded educational and vocational opportunities that were available to me when I came of age.
    • 4/5
      Virginia Woolf's classic essay on women and writing.I am not a big fan of Virginia Woolf. I had to suffer through studying Jacob's Room during my undergrad and abhorred it. The only thing that saved me from completely writing off Virginia Woolf was my knowledge that she highly respected Jane Austen, and I just can't hate anyone who appreciates my favourite author. After reading this essay, I may succumb to all of those suggestions to give Woolf another try.Her prose and her arguments are seductive. In just a little over 100 pages, Woolf discusses the immensity of the topic of Women and Fiction and reaches her very famous conclusion that in order for a woman to be able to write, she must have £500 a year and a room of her own. In the process of reaching this conclusion she explores the position women have held in society, their role in poetry and fiction, and the writing of women. What I found most appealing in Woolf's argument was that writing should not be done solely from a single gender perspective but rather that writer's should strive to be "man-womanly" or "woman-manly." Woolf's essay is definitely feminist but not one of the man-hating variety. Instead, in her conclusion, she exhorts her audience of women to simply take advantage of the opportunities now available to them that women in the past have not had. They have the chance to possess the £500 a year and a room of one's own and should exercise that privilege to share their unique genius with others.
    • 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
      Asked to talk about Women and Fiction, Virginia Woolf approached the topic in her unique conversational style, moving from one stream of thought to another. This essay, delivered as talks in women's colleges in the 1920s make the case for the importance of women having their own space and income to allow them to explore their own feminine voices. Taking the examples of established authors such as Jane Austen, who famously wrote in the family's sitting room and George Eliot, who not only took on a male nom de plume but also wrote weighty tomes adopting a male narrative style, Woolf also makes the case for the fictional Judith Shakespeare, the would-be sister of the famous playwright. She compares the siblings, who, having equal potential and talent are nonetheless given very different opportunities, the one having access to education and being allowed to work in the theatre as formative experiences and the other being denied these options by virtue of her sex. The author also discusses the importance of women finding their unique mode of self-expression, something which she not only advocated but also took pains to explore in her own work, taking as she did the risk of appealing to a narrower readership while making her mark as an influential writer. I first read this book in the late 80s as part of a Women's Studies course and can't say I got very much out of it the first time around, mostly focusing as I did on the fact that much of the arguments Woolf was making were seemed to me at the time to be no longer relevant to contemporary women. But with this reading, I was very much interested in the argument she made for the fact that women in the past had had to work against challenges far more daunting than those their male counterparts ever faced, with the whole of public opinion set against their efforts to distinguish themselves as anything other than wives and mothers, which makes their achievements that much more valuable. While it's true we've come a very long way, I couldn't help but be once again surprised how plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, since although the majority of women today—at least in the Western world—have all the options they might wish for, more often than not have to sacrifice their artistic ambitions, if not in the name of family then in the name of career, or at least feel they must do so, while those who choose to live for their art are still often regarded as eccentrics and outcasts.
    • 5/5
      I'm utterly gobsmacked (even a couple of days after finishing this) by the passion and eloquence of Woolf's prose. I also found the sheer intensity and imagination of her arguments in favor of women's equality and independence quite persuasive, especially her invention of a sister of Shakespeare who has the same talent but nowhere near the opportunities that he received. (This was particularly relevant to "Book of Ages," the Jill Lepore biography which contrasts the life of Jane Franklin with that of her famous brother Benjamin.) Some of Woolf's ideas I had a hard time grasping, such as her theory about the androgynous mind, and I disagree that women necessarily, by sole virtue of their gender, should and have to write differently (to me, this could play into the hands of the male critics she liberally quotes from, who felt women just didn't have the capacity for thinking or writing). But the general line of her essay is an inspiring call to arms.