A Room of One's Own

By Virginia Woolf

Originally published in October 1929, A Room of One's Own was based on a series of lectures Woolf gave at Girton and Newnham Colleges in Cambridge during the previous year. The overriding theme concerns the conditions necessary to allow a woman to write for a living in a society (her own) that is a patriarchy. The requirements, Woolf suggests, are that she have a room of her own in which to work – hence the title – and a yearly income, ideally a trust from which to draw.
Of course, these are merely the pegs onto which Woolf hangs a treatise that is an essential feminist text. At times the writing is disjointed and in some places extravagant, but throughout we see one of the great novelists turn her ire upon a society that excludes women physically and mentally from what they every right to enjoy in life. Whether those exclusions are educational – Woolf begins with an anecdote about being barred from a college library – social or sexual, the writing is, in contemporary terms, unflinching.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 3, 2013
• ISBN: 9781291546750

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.

Reviews for A Room of One's Own

[dchaikin_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[margaretfield · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

extended essays about women in writing and feminism in general

[melissalenhardt · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[bookomaniac-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

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.

[dreamingtereza_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Essential.

[judtheobscure · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[readandfindout · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[maxernst11 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

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.

[helenliz_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[mariannehusbands · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[sasham-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[mmoj_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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?

[caanderson-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Virginia Woolf essays speak the truth about Women and writing fiction. A true feminist.

[rayski_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[aegossman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I just re-read this and I think it means more to me know that I am a father. No, I am not a father of a daughter yet. When I recently read the Autobiography of Malcolm X I thought it would be essential for me to encourage my newborn son, in years to come, to read. I have a bit of a pile- Walden Pond, Plutarch, H Rider Haggard, Malcolm X, and now I think this is absolutely essential to make sure my masculine little boy understands.

Something I want to highlight- "Literature is open to everybody. I refuse to allow you, Beadle though you are, to turn me off the grass. 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. 75-76. Instead of making her feel inferior, instead of spending all of your energies pushing her down why not, dear son, spend the time and energy lifting her up? Then you can work together, then your work will be so much better.

In fact I think this might be good for a men's group. I was at a party once with some of our couple friends. We played that game, "Battle of the sexes" (I find it trite and stupid). They were so impressed with me that I knew what the reference "A room of one's own" referred to. It made me sad, this book should be common knowledge. To BOTH men and women.

Come on, people, let's stop being stupid.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An excellent treatise on what it would take and was taking for women to become serious writers.

[evilmoose · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I feel full of feminist rage now.

[bostonian71 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A short essay presented in book form, and yet one of the most powerful statements ever made in support of the freedom of women to follow their dreams. The way that Woolf structures and builds her essay, step by step from the foundation stones to the steeple-like point, should be a lesson to all aspiring writers.

[thebookjunky · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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...

[dazzyj_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A complex and humane polemic which is a bracing reminder of the winds against which women like Woolf bravely fought in the early twentieth century.

[trilliams · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There are so many great points in this book - the duality of mind, forced intellectual constriction, the patriarchy's effects on creativity, even just that you should write more - and no matter what you take from it, you have to admit it's well written.

On a side note, "Material Girl" came on while I was reading this and it was really bizarre.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[thedivineoomba · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[ianclary · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Absolutely incredible! A must read for all Christians.

[lucybrown_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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

[lydia1879 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.”

[jimmychanga · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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. p115One 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!"

[xicanti_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN is a long essay on the way women relate to and write fiction. Portions of the text were originally presented as a lecture in two parts during October of 1928; however, the full essay was too long for the venue, and had to be truncated. Woolf later expanded it for publication.Woolf argues that a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write, and she introduces many examples to support her point. She rambles on about the roles women have traditionally occupied throughout history, citing instances from academia, business, and home life. It's fascinating stuff, all of it, and it made me so angry I could've hurtled the book against the wall. I think we tend to forget, here in the first decade of the 21st century, that the world was once closed to women. We were considered inferior - morally, socially, physically. And we're still struggling with that, I'm not saying we aren't, but things are a hell of a lot better for us than they were for Woolf and her contemporaries. She never says it in so many words, but you can tell that the state of the world pisses her off. I concur.Whether or not you agree with it, A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN is a thought-provoking read. I found myself pausing at frequent intervals so I could consider what Woolf had just said. How did her observations relate to my own life? Did I agree with her? If not, how would I refute her point? How did my social status differ from hers? How much of that tied into the time period; how much tied into class? I read slowly, milking each idea for all it was worth. There were a couple of times, too, where I needed to reread whole pages because I hadn't a bloody clue what her point was. (She's a stream of consciousness kind of a girl. I like it, but I can't always digest it easily). It was a time-consuming process, but I can't regret a moment of it. This is a wonderful, wonderful book, and you ought to rush out and get yourself a copy.But as fascinating as the book is, it's not perfect. I learned a lot, and I feel like Woolf gave me an excellent framework within which to explore some of my own ideas about women and writing, but I found that she held certain class- and gender-based biases that kept me from committing to her argument on a literal level.First and foremost, she's a raging classist. I found certain of her remarks downright insulting. The way she tells it, only middle- and upper-class persons have any business even trying to write, because only middle- and upper-class persons have true financial freedom and/or the time to write in long, uninterrupted blocks. Apparently one cannot write if one has not experience Real Life, which includes lots of fancy luncheons and international travel. Everyday Life doesn't count.I must say, too, that I found her entire conception of gender a little iffy. Near the end, she claims that no woman could possibly appreciate the work of any staunchly male author, like Kipling or Galsworthy. Male writers should all be androgynous in their thought processes so that anyone, male or female, can understand them. That rule doesn't seem to apply to female writers, though. All women ought to write like women. They should shuck off masculine turns of phrase so's to make their writing accessible to women, first and foremost.And there were a dozen other niggly little things that made me wrinkle my nose. So I can't get completely behind Woolf, but I can understand where she's coming from and what she's trying to do. The past is a different country, my friends, and Woolf is a product of her time. She's reacting against the dominant paradigm by treating it as inferior to the new paradigm she'd like to put in its place. It's a classic reaction, and it does tend to get results. I don't really agree with it, myself, but I can see why someone in Woolf's situation would resort to it. Everything looks different when you've been pushed to the brink.And really, I'm not sure I'd have gotten as much out of A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN if I were 100% behind everything she said. I had a blast figuring out just where my opinion differed from hers, and I'm looking forward to rereading it somewhere down the line. I wonder how my opinons will change now that I've spent so much time thinking about the text and considering my own reaction to the material? I'd highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in women's history, fiction, and the ways the two intersect.(A much longer, more involved version of this review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina).

[nuriagarciaturu · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.