Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

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I'm about halfway through A Room of One's Own, spurred to pick it up immediately by the enthusiasm of my favorite former student, P., who (coincidentally) just finished reading it. Knowing P., she probably leapt from her chair when she finished and did a little Virginia-Woolf-is-a-genius dance. She and I are going to get together in a few weeks to talk about it over prunes and dry biscuits. Meanwhile, it has made me want to go out and find the poems of Anne Finch (Lady Winchilsea).

ETA: Actually, P.'s exact words to describe Virginia Woolf were "a freaking genius."

I finished A Room of One's Own a couple of weeks ago. I'm packing to go out of town, but I will return to the discussion in a day or two. (Leaving this message so I can find y'all again!)

Well, I would not express myself in precisely the same manner as the favourite student mentioned in #2 but I could not agree more with her sentiments regarding this little volume.

So glad you made it over here MusicMom - see you on your return.

I'll be blogging on my reading for Project 1929 throughout 2009, and I've posted my first thoughts about A Room of One's Own here.

I had occasion to think about A Room of One's Own when I was in Oxford for a conference on Sylvia Plath in October 2007. I visited Somerville College, the women's college founded in 1879. Its distinguished alumnae include Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Sayers, Winifred Holtby (for all you Virago fans) and Margaret Thatcher.

As I strolled about this Victorian campus, I remembered Woolf's comments in AROOO about the fictitious "Fernham College" - serving stodgy food and unable to generate endowments from its rarely-wealthy female graduates. Cramped and ugly, Sommerville was indeed another country as compared to the hallowed grounds of the beautiful Oxford men's colleges. And there were no tourists but for myself. And yet, it is truly a historic place - as was my own Alma Mater, Queen Mary & Westfield College in London, which has its roots in Westfield College, founded in 1882 as a pioneering institution for the higher education of women.

Well, it's sad that more people don't pay more attention to this kind of history. Woolf certainly called it. I try to think of her when I'm in any danger of forgetting how recently women gained access to higher education. And, of course, how many women around the world still don't have it...

Thank you for that reminder, cocoafiend.

As a classicist, I was interested in the ghostly cameo in A Room of One's Own by Woolf's Bloomsbury friend, the classical scholar Jane Ellen Harrison, who died in the spring of 1928: "...a bent figure, formidable yet humble, with her great forehead and her shabby dress—could it be J— H— herself?" Harrison spent most of her career at Newnham College, Cambridge, and was certainly one of the pioneering university women in Britain. One of the books on my TBR pile is classicist Mary Beard's biography of Harrison, The Invention of Jane Harrison.

Incidentally, my wife and I graduated from Oberlin College, in Ohio, which has been co-educational since 1833, and awarded its first degree to a female graduate in 1841. (One of my wife's own maternal ancestors graduated in 1847.)

I have a tug of war relationship with A Room of One's Own I find I go back to reread it every other year or so and I used it in my Master's thesis. I am always still torn because in part Woolf is right and in part she goes through the history of women's writers and rips them apart as not good enough and it sort of breaks my heart that she thinks so little of her predecessors.

I still try and grapple with the fact that part of her essay is that it was difficult for women writers to exist and write but Woolf does know about the women who did manage to write and she still finds them lacking. I do find merit in these earlier women and it makes me sad that she deals with them so casually.

Rob I went back and read your thoughts which are always appreciated. I think part of it ties to Woolf's ideal of the androgynous mind. She has a very high and specific standard she sets for the ultimate writer that takes outside of certain spheres- especially the circumscribed sphere for women. While she admits that Jane Austen is a genius she still struggles with the circumscribed world of her genius.

I am suddenly reminded of a favorite professor I had who said that Shakespeare may not have had any sisters but hid didn't have any brothers either.

It is interesting that you mentioned the coming of the androgynous haircuts and styles of the late 1920s and the loss of men during the war. I had read somewhere I think as part of the information on Vita Sackville-West in one of my Viragos that Vita was her model of the androgynous woman and model for Orlando which seems to be Woolf's hope for the woman of the future.

I am just rambling now so I'll break off.

Maren, I also feel your ambivalence about A Room of One's Own. Woolf seems to want women to entirely escape or "burn away" their circumstances in the white hot heat of their intellect. But I like books that explore and bemoan and occasionally celebrate those circumstances. Why shouldn't Charlotte Brontë express her anger? Perhaps it's part of her art, not external to it, or a distraction from it.

In light of the two Harlem Renaissance novels I've read this month, I find that the blurring of gender and racial identity—androgyny and biracial identity—seem to be an important recurring issue in 1929. The old dualisms—man/woman, black/white—seem to be collapsing a little.

Thank you Maren and Rob for your thoughts - Maren I agree regarding her almost dismissive view of other women authors but I feel her passion for her conviction was such that she did want exactly what Rob phrased 'burn away'. On the theme of loss of men through war I have two books touching this theme coming up very soon A Fine of Two Hundred Francs(Virago Modern Classics) by Elsa Triolet and Not so quiet : stepdaughters of war by Helen Zenna Smith.

Edited for touchstones.

Thank you Rob and Julie for your comments. I am drawn to the book again and again perhaps because I struggle with it. Perhaps because I wish I could burn away a little more of myself when I write.

I do think identity seems to become more of an issue in the 1920s. I had not thought of the issue of race as well I will have to give it more thought.

Julie, thank you for the book picks. I will have to add them to the list.

There's an absolutely amazing essay by Zadie Smith in the New York Review of Books that strikes me as an Obama-era version of A Room of One's Own. I highly recommend it.

Thank you Rob I will check it out.

I am about to start reading this book for the very first time. It's my first Project 1929 read, and I decided to read it now because International Women's Day is coming up (March 8). I've enjoyed reading all of your comments, and am looking forward to the Zadie Smith essay as a companion piece (thanks Rob!)

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts Laura!

I really enjoyed this book. An excerpt from my review:

So much has already been written about this classic work; this book is often read in courses on literature or women's studies, and people much more "learned" than me have had very profound things to say. I find it difficult to offer up any unique point of view. I'm just an avid reader with strong feminist leanings. So this book is right up my street. ... So what does A Room of One's Own offer the contemporary reader? For young women of education and privilege, it is a means to connect with and understand their foremothers' journeys. And Woolf's ideas on education and independence are still important for those advancing the cause of women around the world. Experiencing this book as a reader, not a scholar, I found myself simply enjoying Woolf's writing talents. I flagged more interesting passages in this book than anything else in recent memory.

Great stuff!

Excellent news and review Laura - so pleased you relished some of my favourite pieces of writing!

>13 rbhardy3rd: Rob -- Smith's article IS amazing and outrageously insightful -- I've sent it to my kids, my colleagues, and will keep if for my students. What a trek into our multicultural, multilingual world!

I loved Smith's article too! Rob, thanks for sharing it.

Laura, enjoyed your review of Woolf's A Room of One's Own. I am looking forward to reading it myself this year as part of my 999 Challenge.

Thanks er60!

#13: Rob, I wish I had heard her deliver that. It was brilliant to read it.

>23 tiffin:: I agree, Tui ... I just read it this weekend and thought it was incredible.

>13 rbhardy3rd: Rob, thanks for Zadie Smith's essay. What a wonderful 'voice' she has. Intellectually stimulating and insightful. I loved her first book White Teeth. I thought it was brilliant. I read Woolf's book A Room of One's Own decades ago, it has such an evocative title. I still long for a room of my own! I have found it by writing on the train every morning. Just completed my novel of 103k words in my own little room on the train.

~ TT

Tonight, or should I say this morning, I shall start reading A Room of One's Own.

ER, if it's your first read of it, I'm actually envious of you encountering it for the first time. It knocked my proverbial socks off when I read it yonks ago.

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf. I enjoyed this very much, especially the idea of Judith Shakespeare. If only!! This small volume gives much food for thought. A definite re-read for the future.

Tiffin-I read a bit of it years ago but not the complete book. It was definitely a treat to read.

Dear Tiffin and ER - just catching up in the 1929 group and had to stop by when I read of your encounters with A Room of One's Own. I agree with that sense of a first time read - it is so very special. Simply so pleased to hear of your enthusiasm!

Thanks Julie:-)