"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf


Rating: 3.0

What it's about:
In one of the most entertaining and brilliant essays ever written on the importance of freedom for women, Woolf brings her literary imagination and defiant wit to bear on the relationship between gender, money, and the creation of works of genius. -taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:
I can concede that the theme of this essay is noble...but...the content is a bit boring and dry. I will say that Virginia Woolf had some poetic ideas! There are two main ideas that I particularly liked in this essay. The first being Shakespeare's Sister.

Woolf points out that if Shakespeare would have had a sister who was born with the same genius that is Shakespeare, she would not have been remembered because her artistry would have been allowed no outlet.....because she was a female.

The other point I took away from this essay ties in with Shakespeare's Sister. Women need "a room of one's own" and freedom from the worry of everyday living in order to write fiction. Woolf illustrates how these needs were not met throughout history for women. That is why there is no Shakespeare's Sister.

This essay is not the most exciting book I've read lately. But taken for what it is, Virginia Woolf does make her point heard.

1 comment:

tina FCD said...

Never read this one.