wiiicked_witch 's review for:

Trois guinées by Virginia Woolf

5.0

informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

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In this essay, originally published in 1938, Virginia Woolf replies to a man's letter asking for her support in preventing the looming war in Europe. She responds by reflecting on how she might use three guineas for this purpose, hence the title.

The first guinea goes to rebuilding a university for girls. Indeed, the first part of the book deals with the inequalities in the education of young women and men. The author doesn't seem to believe that academic institutions have the intrinsic power to prevent war or inculcate rejection of it, but “the influence that an independent opinion based on an independence of income can have” must pass through study, then through professional activity, which is the subject of the second part. This second part discusses the advantages and disadvantages of professional activity, and concludes that the second guinea will be given to a society whose vocation is to help women enter the workforce.

In the third part, Virginia Woolf considers how protecting culture and intellectual freedom could help prevent war. She ends by attributing her third guinea to the association of the author of the letter to which she is replying, before explaining why she does not, however, wish to become a member.

Nearly a century after this book was written, most of the subjects are still sadly relevant nowadays, and Virginia Woolf's treatment of them is as interesting as ever for today's readers. Sophie Chiari's new French translation, published by Le Livre de Poche and which I was lucky enough to read via Netgalley, brilliantly brings the author's voice back to life, with all her characteristic wit. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexism, War