Much as it’s hard to critique a William Shakespeare or a Mark Twain, it’s hard to critique Virginia Woolf. She pioneered women’s literature in the early twentieth century and helped lay its foundation for an incredibly successful, bustling marketplace in today’s world. Despite nagging misogyny, women writers receive deserved respect because of Woolf’s proposals to let women’s genius work. So in one sense, this book offers a distilled, timeless essay worthy of historical study for decades, if not centuries, to come.
In another sense, this work needs urgent study for today’s politics. Will women’s social progress continue? Will women’s minds continue to bear fruit for us all? Or will we indulge in circular arguments about their social roles – or even their inherent capabilities? Machismo culture is still rampant in some circles, and in today’s newspapers, those circles seem to be expanding, not retracting.
In this six-chapter essay, Woolf imagines what would have happened if Shakespeare had an equally brilliant sister. Would her brilliance had found its audience? Probably not due to social impediments. Wolf observed that such obstacles were decreasing the decades before 1929. Can women find meaningful tasks, which Woolf defines as a steady income and a “room of one’s own…” with a lock on it? She answered a resounding yes, and subsequent decades support her assertion.
In the century-or-so since Woolf’s essay, most Western societies have invested, albeit imperfectly, in women’s independence. We all have benefitted substantially from their social contributions that extend beyond caretaking and housekeeping. Yet women and men still waste too much energy fighting each other about their own social places, whether a domestic life is superior or inferior to a working life. Recently, many have rediscovered Woolf’s allusion to Coleridge’s “androgynous mind” in the form of gender fluidity. Perhaps reproductive roles isn’t as all-encompassing as some make them out to be; perhaps the reality of our lives is a lot more interesting than mere sex.
Therefore, this book is at once both a historical capsule and a living classic. As a man, it helped me further understand women’s history and the choices women in my life still face. As we approach its 100th anniversary, I humbly suggest it should still be read and pondered. Woolf broke a lot of barriers and earned a prominent place in history. Less obviously but more acutely, she can keep earning that place if we take the time to read this short work.
A Room of One's Own
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DO NOT READ THE FOREWORD
Awesome book but the foreword is completely misinterpreting Woolf. If you read the foreword before you read the actual book, the point of the book will fly over your head.
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- Gunjan MaheshwariReviewed in India on August 29, 2019
An extraordinary read. Please read this book.
A Room Of One's Own by Virginia Woolf is an extended version of essays based on lectures she gave on Women and Fiction. It's straight, cut through feminists and so accurate.Gunjan MaheshwariAn extraordinary read. Please read this book.
Reviewed in India on August 29, 2019
Woolf has talked about Women in Literature from the time of Shakespeare and how a women couldn't write a play like he did but what's interesting, laughable and disturbing is that 21st century is not much different from 18th or 19th century in terms of women education as a whole. They are still not "required" to become an artist or an astronaut or a scholar. They don't "need" this in their life but only depend on their father or husband because women are defined by men. I mean it has been almost 200 years and we are still stuck in somewhat same situation in many parts of the world where men are still walking with their ego and exploiting women because they want to feel superior.
She clearly points this out, which is true to its core that not being dependent on a man for the basis needs opens up a whole new world with the liberty of asking questions without any second thoughts and being subjected.
Also, the last two pages just blew my mind. Woolf asks women to do something for themselves, make money, get a room of their own and stop making any kind of excuses because it is now the time to rise and stand for themselves.
Truth be told, I could have just highlighted the whole book. It might take a little time to adjust to her writing style but definitely go for this.
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