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hannah_go03's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
nvrrrdie's review against another edition
slow-paced
2.0
I have no doubt that Virginia Woolf is an intelligent and contemplative writer. I think this book is of historical interest about theory related to opportunity, poverty, and success and the changing position of Englishwomen in society, and that this text was a very early contribution to a field that has since grown extremely more wide and deep. However I dreaded reading this and found the style very hard to parse. Overall it did not leave much of an impression on me and I will likely find more benefit from later generations of writing.
vivian_m_anderson's review against another edition
4.5
so so good! just as relevant today as it was when woolf wrote it—was fun to read for my gender studies independent study!
rebeccabattin's review against another edition
3.0
Had some good points but overall the book is written really pretentiously and Woolf spends its last pages blaming women for not trying hard enough to apply themselves to writing. Not great.
thatgrace's review against another edition
4.0
The way Woolf writes in a stream of consciousness was, at first, disorienting. Then, quickly, comforting. Despite intangible points in the book, which were distressing, I found myself intrigued and seen even though I do not attach the crippling expectations I feel to men --how can anyone write while feeling a looming presence over them? How do we fight the expectation of the self from friends, family, society as a whole, and ourselves? Mostly, I think Woolf wants to encourage connection to the self and others without social constructions getting in the way. To start, we must know what holds us back.
kirsten0929's review against another edition
5.0
[1929] Everything I had heard and hoped it would be. Woolf explores the history of women and fiction, how the freedoms of men and the restrictions on women determined the course of literary history. The effects linger even now, ninety years later. Loved this book so much.
rituxa's review against another edition
5.0
“If we have the habit of freedom and the courage to write exactly what we think; if we escape a little from the common sitting-room and see human beings not always in their relation to each other but in relation to reality(…) 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 only to the world of men and women, then the opportunity will come and the dead poet who was Shakespeare’s sister will put on the body which she has so often laid down.”