A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of A Room of One's Own
Book Review: Provision for Feminist Future
Summary: 5 Stars
70 years have passed since the first publication of "A Room of One's Own," and yet we have not seen as many dramatic changes, let alone improvements, in social mentality as early feminist thinkers like Virginia Woolf wished to provoke to establish women's new role as equal to men's. She argued that the reason why there was no female Shakespeare is not that women are biologically inferior to men but that there was simply no "room" for women to develop themselves, both metaphorically and realistically speaking. Therefore, in this book she encourages women to have a room of their own and a stable income to ensure a career. However, women, in the past as well as the present, have long been "grounded" by men. For a woman to have a room of her own and a stable income means that the woman is invading (from male chauvinistic viewpoint) men's territory, and this kind of behavior (and thoughts) is not to be allowed in male-dominated societies. Early feminist thinkers like Virginia Woolf provided later generations with iron-cast proof (as far as I'm concerned) that women are no "second sex" by pointing out the false discriminations men put against women for men's own convenience. (Ironically, I see men suffer as well from doing so.) Thinkers like Virginia Woolf provided "rooms" to develop feminist thoughts, and these rooms also provoke controversies and debates because feminist way of thinking is revolutionary. At any rate, there would be no improvements of women's role in society if there were no Virginia Woolf and other first-wave feminist thinkers.
At the end of the twentieth century, in spite of the burgeoning "industry" of feminism, the real condition of women appears to be quite depressing. The real condition of women goes like this: "During the last decades women's representation in education has grown enormously but so has our [their] participation in low paid and part-time work. So that, for example, the percentage of women in German higher education has doubled yet the degree of confidence German women express for women in non-traditional jobs is one of the lowest in Europe...," and "similarly feminist literary criticism has created a lively and substantial body of work in the last decades but continues to exist in a hostile and often marginal academic place." ("A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Feminist Literary Criticism", 1994: 290) One cannot fail to see (if one is willing to open his or her eyes) that we have made just a tiny bit of progress since the first-wave feminism. There is room for improvement, indeed, but people's ignorance of women's real position in society, women's subordinate educational, economical, and political conditions, and the overall social status of women being secondary, must first be recognized. In this sense, Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" appears to be especially inspiring.
In my opinion, feminism is not only for or about women, it is also for and about men, because the world is composed of both sexes, and men suffer (without understanding, because of stupidity) from the traditional, male chauvinistic attitude as well. What is important is that feminist way of thinking is a breakthrough, revolutionary philosophy that challenges the way we perceive the world for centuries. "A Room of One's Own" opens my mind's eye; it is, no doubt, a classic that must be read.
Book Review: Room better left unvisited
Summary: 1 Stars
Although this critique might be viewed by my professors as academic suicide, I shall plunge headfirst and hope that the branches of tolerance break my fall. I do not like A Room of Ones Own. I understand the concept of stylized writing, but the content of the book does nothing to draw in the reader. Certainly, Woolf's mastery in writing should be applauded on its merit; however, I am not progressed far enough in my education to fully appreciate Woolf's subtleties. There is nothing in A Room of One's Own that remains once the book is closed, although the pages are full of wonderful ideas. The presentation of these ideas; however, are uninteresting and handled in a very preachy manner. It is my opinion that such revolutionary ideas should have been shot forth from a canon rather than whispered in a libraryBook Review: Smooth transaction
Summary: 5 Stars
Transaction went smoothly and got the item quicky in the condition promised. Would purchase again.Book Review: Still Relevant and Important
Summary: 5 Stars
One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.
~Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
Virginia Woolf's very intense A Room Of One's Own, is actually a long essay she wrote "with ardour and conviction" on the the topic of women and fiction, that she prepared when asked to speak about this subject at women's colleges. A Room of One's Own was published in 1929, when young women were still discouraged from attending college (due to genuine fear that a good education would make women unfit for marriage and motherhood), and although it's not angry in tone the essay reflects a society in which severe limitations were put on women and their achievements. Virginia Woolf speaks about the creative process that lead to her talks, of her notebook in which she recorded a multitude of ideas, thoughts, and mental meanderings, and writes about the train of thought that led to her conclusion, that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction". In A Room of One's Own Virginia Woolf grapples with what is exactly meant by women and fiction (not a simple matter), and demonstrates and expresses the complexity of her thought in her trademark stream-of-consciousness writing. Defying conventions of the time, she talks about the actual food served at the luncheon party, of the soles and partridges and potatoes, and of the importance of food to the artist in a more general sense. She discusses numerous things in this full, layered essay of her thoughts, among them a sense of loss due to the war which began in August of 1914, that changed the underlying current of life--previously filled with music and poetry, with romance--and of the special difficulties women artists face (still relevant today!). Her message is simple (though the means is not), that women must have money (a fixed income) and a room of their own (privacy) in order to have the freedom to create, luxuries that men may take for granted. She imagines Shakespeare's "sister", equal in talent and genius, but because of her sex, never writes a word, never expresses her genius, never lives to old age because she takes her own life in quiet desperation. Her essay is meant to encourage young women, to inspire them to create, as she's sympathetic to their plight. In A Room of One's Own,Virginia Woolf wants the limitations removed, and for women to have the same intellectual freedom that men have had for centuries, so that they, too, may express their genius.
(This is a passage slightly modified from my blog about books, Suko's Notebook, suko95.blogspot.com, which I invite you to visit.)
Book Review: Still a masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
Written in the late 1920's this long essay/book continues to be fresh and pertinent. The cause of feminist equality has improved somewhat in the intervening years but is still falls shamefully short of full emancipation.
As Woolf so eloquently puts it, a woman needs money and a room of one's own. And it is still a rare woman who has both. Her use of the imaginary tale of Shakespeare's sister and her "feminine" fate still has weight and packs a significant punch of truth.
The other significant factor that Woolf does not touch on in this essay is time. The weight of child rearing, housework and domesticity still falls heavily on women. There has been some movement with men being involved in that area but the movement is very, very slow. Added to that, it is a rare woman who does not have to work and bring income into the household.
Woolf continues to speak with honesty to the issues of feminism and women over the intervening bridge of years. This book still resonates. Highly recommended.