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bigmacmel's review against another edition
Tough read. Needs full concentration and correct headspace
jjhatton's review against another edition
I got bored. It was very slow paced and her writing is very flowery which is lovely for fiction but I find it too much for non-fiction. I enjoyed a room of one's own, but this book very much put me in a reading slump.
chairmanbernanke's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting writings on society and our roles.
hay_jude's review
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Of the two long essays in this book 'A Room of One's Own' is much the better known and the better piece in my opinion as the arguments are more cogent and persuasive and invested with a degree of wit and humour that perhaps isn't so prevalent in the latter. In part this is of course to the context of when each was written. In 'A Room of One's Own' Woolff is writing following the achievement of women's suffrage but is setting out the many ways in which the struggle for some kind of equality for women in numerous aspects of their lives, still has a long way to go. Her distillation of the obstacles to progress - limited educational opportunities, a lack of financial independence and of a space in time and place in which to write - is effective and the evidence with which she backs up her arguments is obviously very well researched and really interesting to read. I also like the fact that, although her main focus is on women as writers she also comments on other aspects of women's creativity such as music and painting which seems now to have been addressed only fairly recently - which shows how ahead of her time she was.
'Three Guineas', written in the lead up to the Second World War is also interesting but her firm anti-war stance is possibly harder to justify in the face of Hitler's aggression, although perhaps it can be argued that this was before the very worst elements and policies of the Nazi regime were clear. In the linking of feminist concerns to pacifist ones, it seems to be more difficult for Woolff to maintain a consistent line and her apparent ambivalence on some issues such as the difference in men's and women's attitudes to militarism and nationalism, weakens her arguments and in some cases gives the impression of her shoe horning evidence to fit. Even so, she makes some telling points, for example about how fascist regimes sought to control women and subjugate them to men.
'Three Guineas', written in the lead up to the Second World War is also interesting but her firm anti-war stance is possibly harder to justify in the face of Hitler's aggression, although perhaps it can be argued that this was before the very worst elements and policies of the Nazi regime were clear. In the linking of feminist concerns to pacifist ones, it seems to be more difficult for Woolff to maintain a consistent line and her apparent ambivalence on some issues such as the difference in men's and women's attitudes to militarism and nationalism, weakens her arguments and in some cases gives the impression of her shoe horning evidence to fit. Even so, she makes some telling points, for example about how fascist regimes sought to control women and subjugate them to men.
readingoverbreathing's review
5.0
"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 opinion one does hold."
Every time I pick up something new by [a:Virginia Woolf|6765|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1419596619p2/6765.jpg], I am left just more and more in awe of her. No one in the English language writes like she does. No one. The rhythm of her sentences, her choice of words, the flow from paragraph to paragraph — the only way I can describe it is that it's like sitting in the ocean just past the point where the waves break for a long, long time, so long that when you return to the shore you still have that phantom feeling of the water's rocking, ebbing lull about you.
I've read a few essays of Woolf's here and there in my studies as an English student, but before this I hadn't really sat down and read any of her nonfiction in its entirety. I am so glad, however, that I finally did. A Room of One's Own blew me away. I don't think I've ever read anything so well-written in my entire life. I don't know if I ever will again. And I don't know how I've gone for so long, as a student, as a reader, as a woman, without reading this. Anyone, especially any woman, who cares at all about fiction, or even who cares about the place of women in society, ought to read A Room of One's Own. I'll recommend this book now until I die.
Three Guineas I did love less — it's a lot of the same themes, but centered around war rather than fiction, which naturally meant it didn't quite appeal to me as much. But still, Woolf's talent as a writer, the only talent that honestly matters to me anymore, cannot be denied. She's not only a phenomenal writer overall, but is also a gifted essay writer, which, as anyone who has ever undertaken a university degree knows, is quite admirable. Her arguments are brilliant and brilliantly-executed; every time it appeared she'd gone on a tangent, she would suddenly slam home some genius point and leave you totally speechless.
I haven't sticky-tabbed a book like this in years; it took me probably twice as long to read this as it normally would have because I kept having to stop and mark things. That fact alone tells you just how very much I loved this book.