A Room of One’s Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf. First published on the 24th of 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 and characters in fiction, the manuscript for the delivery of the series of lectures, titled Women and Fiction, and hence the essay, are considered nonfiction. The essay is 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.
A Room of One’s Own
Virginia Woolf
(1929)
Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
Every single time I sit down with Virginia Woolf I come away a different person, whether I liked the book or not.
After reading this book I came away with a few questions.
Why a novel?
What does having space do for creativity?
How are the themes still relevant today in 2023?
Originally published in 1929 it’s hard to imagine the world Woolf lived in. This essay is a collection of two pieces that began as lectures given to students at women’s colleges.
I have some criticism that is mostly excused by this being a historical piece of literature. The takeaway for me is that for fiction and creativity to occur one must have choices, the freedom the make them, and the space in which to do them.
I can work with that.
This book has been on my to-be-read list for a long time. I am so glad to have finally read it.
A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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