A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
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Book Reviews of A Room of One's Own
Book Review: Provision for Feminist Future
Summary: 5 Stars
70 years have passed since the first publication of "A Room of One's Own," and yet we have not seen as many dramatic changes, let alone improvements, in social mentality as early feminist thinkers like Virginia Woolf wished to provoke to establish women's new role as equal to men's. She argued that the reason why there was no female Shakespeare is not that women are biologically inferior to men but that there was simply no "room" for women to develop themselves, both metaphorically and realistically speaking. Therefore, in this book she encourages women to have a room of their own and a stable income to ensure a career. However, women, in the past as well as the present, have long been "grounded" by men. For a woman to have a room of her own and a stable income means that the woman is invading (from male chauvinistic viewpoint) men's territory, and this kind of behavior (and thoughts) is not to be allowed in male-dominated societies. Early feminist thinkers like Virginia Woolf provided later generations with iron-cast proof (as far as I'm concerned) that women are no "second sex" by pointing out the false discriminations men put against women for men's own convenience. (Ironically, I see men suffer as well from doing so.) Thinkers like Virginia Woolf provided "rooms" to develop feminist thoughts, and these rooms also provoke controversies and debates because feminist way of thinking is revolutionary. At any rate, there would be no improvements of women's role in society if there were no Virginia Woolf and other first-wave feminist thinkers.
At the end of the twentieth century, in spite of the burgeoning "industry" of feminism, the real condition of women appears to be quite depressing. The real condition of women goes like this: "During the last decades women's representation in education has grown enormously but so has our [their] participation in low paid and part-time work. So that, for example, the percentage of women in German higher education has doubled yet the degree of confidence German women express for women in non-traditional jobs is one of the lowest in Europe...," and "similarly feminist literary criticism has created a lively and substantial body of work in the last decades but continues to exist in a hostile and often marginal academic place." ("A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Feminist Literary Criticism", 1994: 290) One cannot fail to see (if one is willing to open his or her eyes) that we have made just a tiny bit of progress since the first-wave feminism. There is room for improvement, indeed, but people's ignorance of women's real position in society, women's subordinate educational, economical, and political conditions, and the overall social status of women being secondary, must first be recognized. In this sense, Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" appears to be especially inspiring.
In my opinion, feminism is not only for or about women, it is also for and about men, because the world is composed of both sexes, and men suffer (without understanding, because of stupidity) from the traditional, male chauvinistic attitude as well. What is important is that feminist way of thinking is a breakthrough, revolutionary philosophy that challenges the way we perceive the world for centuries. "A Room of One's Own" opens my mind's eye; it is, no doubt, a classic that must be read.
Book Review: Witty and Intelligent Argument on Behalf of Female Writers
Summary: 5 Stars
Virginia Woolf is a writer of intelligence and grace. A Room of One's Own is a skinny little treasure of a book with words and wisdom that will stay with the reader long after it is read. The essay contained in the book is the result of two papers that Ms. Woolf read to the Arts Society at newnham and Odtaa at Girton (England) in October of 1928. She was asked to speak about the topic of "Women and Fiction", and after doing so, she expanded her papers and later published them as this book.Woolf begins the essay by writing, "I soon saw that [the subject of women and fiction] had one fatal drawback. I should never be able to come to a conclusion. I should never be able to fulfil what is, I understand, the first duty of a lecturer- to hand you after an hour's discourse a nugget of pure truth to wrap up between the pages of your notebooks and keep on the mantelpiece for ever. All I could do was to offer you an opinion upon one minor point- a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction... At any rate, when a subject is highly controversial- and any question about sex is that- one cannot hope to tell the truth. One can only show how one came to hold whatever opionion one does hold. One can only give one's audience the chance of drawing their own conslusions as they observe the limitations, the prejudices, the idiosyncrasies of the speaker."
It is in this straightforward and honest manner that Woolf writes about women and fiction. Although the speech was given and the book was published in 1929, all of its points are still important for women- and especially women writers and artists- today. In A Room of One's Own Woolf examines classic literary works of the past and wonders why most, until the 19th Century, were written by men, and why most of the works published by women in the 19th Century were fiction. She comes to the logical conclusion that women in the past had little to no time to write because of their childbearing and raising responsibilities. There is also the fact that they were not educated and were forbidden or discouraged from writing. When they did begin to write, they only had the common sitting rooms of Elizabethan homes to do so in, which did not provide much solitude or peace of mind, as it was open to any interruption and distraction that came along.
Woolf argues passionately that true independence comes with economic well-being. This is true for countries, governments, individuals, and writers, especially female writers. Without financial security it is impossible for any writer to have the luxury of writing for writing's sake. It is also a very inspiring book for any aspiring write to read. I end this review with Virginia Woolf's own hopes for women in the future:
"... I would ask you to write all kinds of books, hesitating at no subject however trivial or however vast. 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."
(If you liked this review, please read my other book reviews under my Amazon profile...)
Book Review: Still Relevant and Important
Summary: 5 Stars
One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.
~Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
Virginia Woolf's very intense A Room Of One's Own, is actually a long essay she wrote "with ardour and conviction" on the the topic of women and fiction, that she prepared when asked to speak about this subject at women's colleges. A Room of One's Own was published in 1929, when young women were still discouraged from attending college (due to genuine fear that a good education would make women unfit for marriage and motherhood), and although it's not angry in tone the essay reflects a society in which severe limitations were put on women and their achievements. Virginia Woolf speaks about the creative process that lead to her talks, of her notebook in which she recorded a multitude of ideas, thoughts, and mental meanderings, and writes about the train of thought that led to her conclusion, that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction". In A Room of One's Own Virginia Woolf grapples with what is exactly meant by women and fiction (not a simple matter), and demonstrates and expresses the complexity of her thought in her trademark stream-of-consciousness writing. Defying conventions of the time, she talks about the actual food served at the luncheon party, of the soles and partridges and potatoes, and of the importance of food to the artist in a more general sense. She discusses numerous things in this full, layered essay of her thoughts, among them a sense of loss due to the war which began in August of 1914, that changed the underlying current of life--previously filled with music and poetry, with romance--and of the special difficulties women artists face (still relevant today!). Her message is simple (though the means is not), that women must have money (a fixed income) and a room of their own (privacy) in order to have the freedom to create, luxuries that men may take for granted. She imagines Shakespeare's "sister", equal in talent and genius, but because of her sex, never writes a word, never expresses her genius, never lives to old age because she takes her own life in quiet desperation. Her essay is meant to encourage young women, to inspire them to create, as she's sympathetic to their plight. In A Room of One's Own,Virginia Woolf wants the limitations removed, and for women to have the same intellectual freedom that men have had for centuries, so that they, too, may express their genius.
(This is a passage slightly modified from my blog about books, Suko's Notebook, suko95.blogspot.com, which I invite you to visit.)
Book Review: The Genius in A Room of One's Own
Summary: 5 Stars
In this book, Virginia Woolf explores the following thesis: "Intellectual freedom depends upon material things. Poetry depends upon intellectual freedom." Writing at a time when, as she herself stated in her diary, writing was not a respectable occupation for women, Woolf showed great courage in propounding this profoundly simple, pithy book.The book began as a lecture which she prepared for a girl's school. Asked to lecture on the subject of women and fiction, she determined to propound her theory that financial independence was necessary for the creation of genius. In her way of thinking, women throughout history may have had genius, but were never given the opportunity to develop it, being always dependant upon men for their social and financial standing. She urged women to earn their own living through writing; to break free of these social and financial constraints. However, in speaking out against the male-dominated intellectual scene, she did so without anger, without acrimony. Her usual good humor and simplicity, found so clearly in her diary and letters, shine throughout the book, making it invaluable not only as a social statement, but also as a precious insight into her personality. She is in turn serious, playful, mocking, and tender.
A Room of One's Own is not so applicable today as it was seventy-five years ago, but it is still valuable as an historical document; as a moral boost for aspiring young women writers; and as a further insight into the character of Virginia Woolf.
Book Review: Completely likeable
Summary: 5 Stars
Ah, Virginia! Never is she more charming or likeable than when she writes this book. This is a very important book nowadays, I think, when a lot of women who have gained a lot from the feminist movement are now saying "I'm not a feminist", perhaps because the word is now associated with aggression and intolerance. Let's not get into that argument! But anyway, A Room of One's Own, is cool because it makes you feel good about being a woman, and it highlights so gently and kindly and humorously the biases that may exist in your own mind and in society around you about what women can and can't and should do. I read somewhere that VW was motivated to cheer up young women who seemed so depressed. It works! I don't know what other people think: is there irony in the way she talks about how women must flatter and please and be charming to get their way; and then she herself is so flattering and charming in this book? I don't know. I learnt a lesson, though, about how to argue. I wish VW were alive. I've wanted for years now to contact her and say thankyou, and then to tell her how things are going these days.