Mrs. Dalloway / A Room of One's Own

English language

Published Feb. 13, 2010

ISBN:
978-0-547-44734-6
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A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf, first published in September 1929. The work is based on two lectures Woolf delivered in October 1928 at Newnham College and Girton College, women's constituent colleges at the University of Cambridge.In her essay, Woolf uses metaphors to explore social injustices and comments on women's lack of free expression. Her metaphor of a fish explains her most essential point, "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction". She writes of a woman whose thought had "let its line down into the stream". As the woman starts to think of an idea, a guard enforces a rule whereby women are not allowed to walk on the grass. Abiding by the rule, the woman loses her idea. Here, Woolf describes the influence of women's social expectations as mere domestic child bearers, ignorant …

12 editions

About women writing, and much more

This was my second time reading this. The first time was long ago in school—from which I remembered the general premise, the fact that I liked it, and little else. This time I read it with a reading group. The other members of this group drew my attention to aspects of, and ambiguities in, the book that I might otherwise have missed. It’s a book with a lot of interesting and powerful ideas to ponder. It is also a very entertaining and often funny book. Well worth reading for its place in the history of women’s literature, for its exploration of the history of women in (Western) society, and for its analysis of, and ponderings on, literature in general.