The Feminist Orchestra Bookclub discussion

From modern feminist voices to a classic, I hope you are all as excited as I am for the 2nd bookclub book.

On a side note, I plan on reading The Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf this month too so if a few others are interested I'd be more than happy to create a separate discussion thread for that book as well, just let me know!

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but I love this quote from the essay, it is so spot-on about how discrimination develops:

'Life for both sexes-and I looked at them, shouldering their way along the pavement-is arduous, difficult, a perpetual struggle. It calls for gigantic courage and strength. More than anything, perhaps, creatures of illusion as we are, it calls for confidence in oneself. Without self-confidence we are babes in the cradle. And how can we generate this imponderable quality, which is yet so invaluable, most quickly? By thinking that other people are inferior to oneself.'

I already read A Room of One's Own three times, so I'll probaly not re-read it this month but I'm excited to join the discussion and find out what you all think about it! :D

Wasn't able to pick up the last book, but can definitely find a copy of this! I like to read Woolf's diary and letters from around the same time as whatever book of hers I'm reading to see what kind of influences and events were surrounding her work at the time. If I find anything interesting from this range (looks like 1928-1929) I'll share!

I already got the book - so excited!

my boyfriend already had a copy, so I lucked out! excited to read & discuss :0)

I've owned a copy of A Room of One's Own for a while but haven't had a chance to read it yet. I'm excited about joining in this time around. :D

I read this one about 18 months ago but I underlined so much I'm looking forward to reading it again!

If anyone is looking for a cheap edition, the Penguin Great Ideas version is £5 RRP. Smaller type but it's unabridged.

I read this not too long ago so while I'm not going to reread it, I'm looking forward to following the discussion!

I've owned this for years and even started it once but Virginia Woolf and I have a complicated history (I slightly hated To the Lighthouse in uni) and I ended up getting distracted. Looking forward to having some motivation to finish it! Jean,you are fantastic for setting up this book club,I'm having so much fun and learning loads so far!

Just finished it and I have to say I loved it ! The historical approach Woolf chose to prove her point and her stress on the right material conditions necessary to produce an artistic piece of work was fascinating and made me want to read all the authors she mentioned and analyzed.
Only hitch : I wasn't convinced about her pseudo-psychoanalysis of women. It sounded inaccurate and flimsy.
By and large an excellent perspective on feminism !

I have never read Woolf before although I have attempted To the Lighthouse 3 different times without success. It just doesn't seem to be the book for me. So I thought this would be a good opportunity to try something else by her. I'm not very far into the book yet but so far I am really enjoying it. The writing is excellent. It is a pleasure to read and seems to be chock full of wonderful quotes. I'm looking forward to finishing the book and following the discussion.

Enya wrote: "Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but I love this quote from the essay, it is so spot-on about how discrimination develops:

'Life for both sexes-and I looked at them, shouldering their way along ..."

This is a wonderful quote. The entire book is full of wonderful quotes.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. So much so - that I plan to start it all over again this weekend. I loved being privy to her thoughts. This has inspired me to read her diaries. Such an interesting person.

Anna wrote: "I thoroughly enjoyed this book. So much so - that I plan to start it all over again this weekend. I loved being privy to her thoughts. This has inspired me to read her diaries. Such an interesting ..."

Ooh now I'm doubly excited to get started - what a great feeling ^_^

I'm 17 and I think this is the best book I've ever read so enjoy

Anna wrote: "This is a wonderful quote. The entire book is full of wonderful quotes."


True! I also really love: 'It would be a thousand pities if women wrote like men, or lived like men, or looked like men, for if two sexes are quite inadequate, considering the vastness and variety of the world, how should we manage with one only?'

But at one point she said that women writers can't learn anything from men's writing, which I don't agree with. I think there are loads of people anyone can learn from, regardless of gender.
It's true that everyone needs to find their own voices, for sure. I can see why she would be radical about it and say that women's writers shouldn't conform to male norms in writing, but still.

I think I'll read Three Guineas too since my edition has both essays in it! Can't wait to start it, I've been meaning to read A Room of One's Own for so long! :D

I finished this afternoon and i am blowned away! The top of my head just blew off. What formidable writting and such contemporary thinking. What she stated, almost all of it, resonates to this day with very few changes. I was not expecting this from a woman who lived and wrotte nearly 100 back.
I think that when she says that women have nothing to learn from men (on writting) while radical, she proceedes to imply, further on that men and women have to use the counterpart of their brains, so in a sense, i think that she says that one has to use their full skills to the max, but have their individual voice.

I liked this book and it was nice to get context for several quotes I had heard from it before. As an American whose primary source of information about Oxford and Cambridge comes from British mystery novels (Dorothy Sayers, et al), I felt I was missing out on a few references. But my main problem while reading it- and it was my problem, and not the books problem- was that for some reason I just wanted it to be something different than what it was. I wanted it to be a novel, instead of essays. This is completely my fault of course- taking expectations into a first reading of a book- and may be because I had read The Bell Jar for the first time shortly before reading ARoOO and fell head over heels for it. Like, complete proselytizing, may-be-my-new-favorite-book, everyone-must-read-The-Bell-Jar-or-the-world-will-never-be-whole-again crazy for it. So compared to that, a series of essays felt a bit like wanting to cuddle a soft cat and getting an armful of cold fish instead.

So my questions for all of you are these: What did you expect before you read A Room of One's Own? Was it basically what you thought it would be? Did you like it as much as you thought you would? How do you think the format of ARoOO works, and how do you think it does not work? Are there things it accomplishes that it could not have accomplished as a novel? Are there things it could have done better as a novel than it does in it's current format?

Enya wrote: "But at one point she said that women writers can't learn anything from men's writing, which I don't agree with. I think there are loads of people anyone can learn from, regardless of gender.
It's true that everyone needs to find their own voices, for sure. I can see why she would be radical about it and say that women's writers shouldn't conform to male norms in writing, but still. "

Enya, I agree that both men and women should write in whichever style they want to. I can understand why she was making the point she made, but I think a) in a way it is creating a slightly false dichotomy because we understand gender differently now than when she was writing and also, b) I feel there are probably as many ways of writing as there are writers and c) there are some male writers I would love to write like lol. If there are women out there who can write like those male authors, more power to them. :-)

A few months ago I read an essay by Toril Moi called "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Feminist Readings of Woolf" (If you liked A Room of One's Own, I recommend it!). I was very struck to realise that a lot of feminist literary theorists doesn't consider A Room of One's Own feminist at all.

I only have my notes by the hand right now, so I'll try shortly to summarize the accusations because I think it's an interesting discussion:
- Woolf's narrative prose writing style distracts the reader from the feminist project with repetitions, exaggerations and parody.
- She's also using a lot of narratives, which can create confusion and her own opinion is 'masked' behind other narratives.

But I think that all of those literary devices is actually the strength of A Room of One's Own. Not only because of the beautiful prose, but because Woolf, by refusing the "correct" way to write an essay, is making a statement. I think her intentions, despite the literary devices, was pretty clear throughout the essay.

What do you guys think? Is the literary devices a weakness or a strength? Oh, and also: Considering that Woolf was very privileged in terms of class, how well is the essay in considering the 'average' lower-class woman?

It seems that I'm in the minority here but I really didn't like this book.
There are some interesting concepts that make you think and maybe want to start a discussion, but most of the times that I was actually intrigued by a point made it was immediately tossed aside or discussed coming to a conclusion I completely disagree with. *
It seems to me that it's written from a perspective of great privilege, with several statements coming off as classist, ableist, racist and yes, often, sexist.
I didn't even like the writing style in itself, with so many subordinate sentences I often lost track of what the point was and had to go back to find it, which I would imagine would be an absolute nightmare if this was actually read out loud to an audience as it's supposed to. Perhaps this is a fault of the later editing, but if that's the case things could have been added in much clearer ways than endless sunbordinate sentences.
I also disagree with the views on literature expressed in the book, as some others have mentioned. I agree with Enya that there is no reason to limit oneself to only learn from one gender on principle. I also don't agree that poetry is the highest form of literature and that it should be considered better than the novel. It could have definitely been the case that women were writing novels not because they only knew how to do that, but because they wanted to. The novel was also gaining more and more popularity at the same time in which more female authors were emerging, so I really think it was a choice made freely, not one dependant on "women's limitations".
I think much of the reason this book is so loved is that small pieces can be easily cut out of it and stuck in a literature book, or remembered as stand-alone quotes that make sense, but I think the book as a whole can be quite problematic. I would definitely not recommend it to anyone looking to learn about feminism.
Still, maybe the discussion here will make me gain new perspective and insight. In the end a thing doesn't necessarily have to be good to lead to an interesting discussion!

* (For example, I was pleasantly surprised to see the proposition that two genders, although called sexes in the book, are far too little to define everyone, considering when the book was written. Only to be once again disappointed and enraged by a discussion of the human brain that couldn't be more binary-conforming.)

I'm struggling to get into this one-is it worth persevering with? It probably doesn't help that I am also reading Everyday Sexism & How To Be A Woman at the moment. Maybe it's the fact that too many ideas about similar topics are throwing me off. I do want to finish this though!

I love this book, I have a mug of the original Penguin cover too ^^ I think it's particularly interesting as a piece relatively near the start of the fight for female emancipation, suffrage, and educational rights (for more on this, I would recommend Bluestockings: The Remarkable Story of the First Women to Fight for an Education by Jane Robinson). I am aware of the argument that Wolff's essay is predominantly based around white, rich women with the means to acquire a room of one's own, and I agree with them: a great help this was to the women stuck in poverty or controlling marriages. However, I don't think that it is therefore without merit. The leaders of the suffrage movement and the Bluestocking movement were mostly white, wealthy women, but they spearheaded change that now means women can go to university and vote on equal terms with men. Obviously, the socialist in me says that all should have been represented in their causes, and we should not brush over this, but I still think they, and Wolff, made a momentous contribution.

Sophie wrote: "I'm struggling to get into this one-is it worth persevering with?"

I had an easier time getting through it by listening to an audio book narrated by Juliet Stevenson. Maybe you could try that? I was able to stream it from my library's digital collection. Best wishes!

I'm about to start reading 'A Room of One's Own' and I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into it.

Does anyone have any questions/ideas etc that I could keep in mind whilst reading to enhance my learning of the work and my reading experience?

I'm looking forward to some great discussions in the future! Thank you, Jean, for setting the group up.

Tana wrote: "Wasn't able to pick up the last book, but can definitely find a copy of this! I like to read Woolf's diary and letters from around the same time as whatever book of hers I'm reading to see what kin..."

That is such a fantastic idea! I'm definitely going to try this, with 'A Room of One's Own' and all of my future reading too.

I'm so glad this book was on the reading list. It was such a fantastic read. As others have said, her prose is so wonderful. I'm also so impressed with her writing this a 100 years ago. Even if there are some things I may not completely agree with, she is saying so many great things of importance. And pointing out things we still struggle with today. I wish I had taken notes while reading this but some points really stuck with me, like how women often had to publish their books anonymously. Some of the classics I've read recently were all examples of this. Now I really want to read more books by her.

This is a great book, because, in my opinion, this is the first book that hightlight the importance of the economics circumstances that allow, or inhibit, the literary creation. I enjoy remember it with this discussion.

I have to agree with Maria's comment above. The thing that I think is still really relevant from this book is how one's economic circumstances affect the creation of art (and this can be applied to any art, whether it be writing, theatre, music, or visual art). The people that inhabit these artistic circles and dominate these worlds historically and today are the ones who are given the opportunity (or the fullest opportunity) to do so. And that means those who don't have to work multiple jobs or are weighed down with the simple costs and acts of making a living and who have been given every encouragement and access to education - as creating great art does not also equate to creating great amounts of money.

This is not to say that every person who is well-off economically will be a great artist, merely that they have the chance to see if they could be one, where historically women were never given such opportunities nor were those of other less well-off backgrounds.

When Woolf laments all the untold stories out there, I believe this is what she was referring to.

A Room Of One's Own was specifically about women and to women (of a certain class), and ideas like intersectionality were not around then. If we are to take this essay and give it relevance to our time, we need only to easily open her theory to any underprivledged group - that every one needs a room of one's own and a independent income (i.e. what only upper-class men had, at the time) to have the chance to create art.

Where I think the disappointment lies is that Woolf doesn't offer an alternative solution to this one. How can we offer the same opportunities to create art to any human no matter there circumstances?
How we make the arts more inclusive is something that particularly interests me. When the arts is so underpaid, and mostly not paid at all, those that can afford to do it usually come from one walk of life and this makes our art unrepresentative of our world and closes off those 'untold' stories Woolf speaks of. I think, I hope, that we have more opportunities to correct these imbalances today then Woolf did (though with current austerity measures and cutbacks from government funding in the arts who knows!?) However, there is far more to be done be to bring diversity to the arts.

I have finished reading 'A Room of One's Own' and enjoyed it; I gave it 4 stars. I loved Woolf's writing style and the way in which she expressed herself and her thoughts in particular. She writes quite beautifully!

I agree with Maria and Philippa's points (above) about economic and financial circumstance; it was really interesting to read about her view on the effects of financial circumstance and physical environment for the creation of art and creativity in general - her point applies to men as well as women (though much less so), at the time of her writing, and still very much applies today.

I disagreed with her points about men and women having different minds, and that women cannot learn from men's writing. In my opinion, our minds are not all that different, and we can all learn a lot from each other, regardless of sex, gender, culture, age etc.
Also, I felt, at times, that she diminished female writers by pigeon-holing them a bit, suggesting that there are differences between men and women in writing in regards to concepts, genres and styles, comparing, for example, 'male' topics with 'female' topics. In my eyes, there is no such difference; a topic has no gender. She does later ask her audience, though, 'to write all kinds of books, hesitating at no subject however trivial or however vast'.
Of course, it's important to bear in mind as well that this was written a century ago and her thinking was still very forward by the standards of the day.

However, I enjoyed and agreed with many of her other points. Her anecdote about Shakespeare's sister is a great one, and highlights her point about the sad impossibility of female writers in the C16th and before. I like also that she presents her opinions as such; early on (the second page in my copy), she establishes that she will explore how she came to her opinion rather than suggesting that she is telling us fact: 'At any rate, when a subject is highly controversial - and any question about sex is that - one cannot hope to tell the truth. One can only show how one came to hold whatever opinion one does hold.'

More than anything, the book made me appreciate - more so than I already did - how lucky I am to be a woman today, a woman who is able to read and to spend hours at a time writing fiction in my own space without ridicule.
I think we still have a long way to go, and in keeping with the context of Woolf's essay, I feel this about women in fiction: I think so many female authors are categorised as 'chick-lit' writers, and are taken less seriously because of that, and for the fact alone that they are female, when they in fact are often writing about important matters, such as politics and mental health for example. What do you think about women in fiction today?

I really enjoyed reading 'A room of ones own'. It was my first Virginia Woolf Book and it's certainly not my last.
Something that I took from her essay is once again the importance of the intersectionality of feminism without dividing the feminists of the world.
She talks a lot about social-economics (hence the title of the book) and about the fact that a woman can't get to a point of freedom without having a certain income.
That's still so important.
Feminists from 'western countries' are constantly criticized because they 'don't really have problems', yet we have the Privilege of Education and live in countries where we can talk freely. Woman in other places are much less fortunate and thus it is so important that we understand and use our privilege towards speaking up for those who can't.
I'm generally really impressed by how straight forward and accurately Woolf spoke about the importance of money (for example when she was talking about what would've happened if the woman of the past had been able to safe money).
Social economic status has such a big influence on so many different issues, like sexual harassment at work and it's just so important to talk about it and understand it in order to move past it.

Even though I found the first chapter really long and actually started to wonder whether this book would keep its promises while reading it, I really enjoyed reading this book. From the second chapter onwards, Woolf’s essay takes off in a very impressive way.

I loved Woolf’s style and, as some of you previously said, the book is full of powerful and amazing quotes. I like the fact Woolf’s style felt so personal and varied: some passages are deliciously sarcastic, others are more analytical and detached, some others poetic and just beautiful…

Here are a couple of quotes which I liked, but I could have included so many more: “Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size” (I think this one has already been quoted but I liked it so much I had to include it^^), “the five dots here indicate five separate minutes of stupefaction, wonder, and bewilderment. Have you any notion how many books are written about women in the course of one year? Have you any notion how many are written by men? Are you aware that you are, perhaps, the most discussed animal in the universe?”

Some passages of this book clearly have genius. Regarding the subject of the book, I totally argue with the points made by Maria and Philippa. What I will remember from this book and what is, in my opinion, its strongest point, is Woolf’s theory that creation can only arise under some material conditions (an income and a physical place of one’s own). Women having always been deprived from those (at least until the 19th century, when things get easier for women, as Woolf points out), they have not been allowed to become writers. This point is still totally relevant today and, as Philippa wrote so rightly, this is not only relevant to feminism. The artistic area is still totally discriminatory against those who don’t have the resources, who come from an underprivileged background and don’t have access to creation. That is the great argument of this book: creation depends upon socio-economic factors which have never been favorable to women.

However, I must say that I was a bit disappointed by some other arguments I found in Woolf’s essay. Some of you have already mentioned her opinion about female writers who wouldn’t learn anything from men's writing. I also disagree with that. There are other passages which I totally disagreed with; for instance, when Woolf’s writes that the Suffrage campaign is to blame for making her contemporary male writers so eager to self-assert their sex and its characteristics in their writing. This is everything but a feminist assertion. I also disliked some parts of her analysis of Charlotte Brontë’s "Jane Eyre" and of other novels written by these great female writers who paved the way. First, I do not think that having strong female characters who could be described as feminists make any novel “deformed and twisted” or prove that the author writes “in a rage”. Second, Woolf assumes that "Jane Eyre" is influenced by its author’s resentment towards her position in society and lack of freedom as a creator. Obviously this might have influenced her novels, but it doesn’t mean that everything in her novels is to be related to her life. And if so, why does it even matter as long as the novel remains a pleasant piece of fiction?

Apart from these few arguments which I totally disagreed with, I truly enjoyed this book and thought it contained some very modern, interesting and valuable opinions/theories. I’m really glad I read this classic essay!

Just finished Room of Ones Own, a reread after many years...
It's a beautiful essay, and I think I love it even more now. What amazes me is to see that on the one hand a lot has improved for female artists and women in general (re education, legal equality etc), and that on the other hand many inequality issues remain exactly the same (e.g. the male writer/artist is still considered the 'standard' and the female writer is 'the other' and so called 'male' topics, like sports, are still considered superior).

Hi all, I thoroughly enjoyed this and it has made made me want to read more of Virginia Woolfe. I wasn't completely on board with all of her conclusions, but on the whole I agree with her assertion that female creativity has been stiffed due to suppression. I've put some more of my thoughts in my mini review which I've linked in the blog posts/videos link in this group.

Read this slightly late but thought I'd chime in anyway!

I really enjoyed A Room of One's Own and I'm glad Jean suggested it. It wasn't perfect and I agree with a lot of the criticisms here, however overall I found it an enjoyable and thought-provoking read.

I particularly liked the discussion of the way that women were/are missing from history and what some of the major gaps in history were (in chapter 2 I believe). I also loved Woolf's writing style and found it flowed really well and was easy to read, I wonder if that is partly because of it's original format as lectures.

Amélie wrote: "I also disliked some parts of her analysis of Charlotte Brontë’s "Jane Eyre" and of other novels written by these great female writers who paved the way. First, I do not think that having strong female characters who could be described as feminists make any novel “deformed and twisted” or prove that the author writes “in a rage”..."
I totally agree! In my opinion it's one of the great strengths of Jane Eyre, and isn't detrimental to the novel at all. The passage that Woolf quotes isn't random or out of character for Jane and makes sense within her isolated and restricted circumstances.

I also don't think there's anything wrong with writing with 'rage' about the way women were limited, or writing about what you know. It's impossible for anyone to be completely neutral, and I'd say the majority of writers draw on their own experiences to a certain extent. I'm not convinced it's possible to write with Woolf's ideal of an 'unencumbered' mind, or that everything has to be written with a calm mind.

I absolutely love the book and read it twice already, though there are many points on which I disagree with Virginia Woolf!
I tried hard to compress my thoughts and feelings into a litte video, where I also talk about my personal experiences with feminism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7baz...

Happy reading :)

I finished a few days ago but am so behind on catching up online that I'm just adding my thoughts to the discussion now haha. I will do a video discussion too this week hopefully.

I mean I really enjoyed this book. It was written around 90 years ago and although it was obviously set in a different time it still felt so relevant and insightful: both from a historical perspective on gender and class but also in regard to current day. Obviously there were some elements that were very much of its time but agree with people here who have implied or outrightly said that what makes it so good is that even though it some areas it might be a tad outdated or doesn't have the benefit of foresight the ideas within in it can very much be transposed into our modern day lives and adapted to fit the 21st century.

I agree that she is a little too dismissive of anger, which I think can on many occasions be an entirely rational feeling and reaction and inspire some really positive actions that lead to change. Her comments on Jane Eyre didn't bother me; I found it kind of amusing reading her interpretation just because I'd never heard anyone say they thought Bronte was motivated by resentment or whatever and obviously I don't agree that that comes across in Jane Eyre, which is amazing by the way if you haven't read it.

Generally though banging! I can't wait to read the three guineas after this given that that concentrates more on class and politics and encompasses more than gender I believe, so that should be fascinating and hopefully inspiring.

A Room of One's Own is a phenomenal piece of important feminist lit though and the overarching thesis that women are excluded from creativity in a way men are not because they as a group are not financially independent is such an important observation at that time.

It exasperates me that she was writing this logical essay 90 years ago and this is still such a big issue today, not just for women obviously. It is a such a massive class issue - the exclusion of working class people or those with less money, generally speaking, from creative and academic worlds. Grrrr.

I'm glad we read something that touched on money and class though, even if she only briefly mentioned the working classes as a whole (this essay was about women so no complaints). It is such a massive issue in feminism and in all politics. It does make me consider that question of can you be a right wing feminist though? Because although technically sure you can but how can care about women's rights and not workers rights (or whichever oppressed group)? Right wing politics exists on the basis that some are better than others/some must have more than others so will continuously lead to one group being in the situation that women are in A Room of One's Own.
A whole other issue I know but it was on my mind whilst I read this so I thought I'd include it in my thoughts :).

I'd love to read a modern update on this essay; like some sort of feminist economic commentary haha.

I just finished this book. thought it was ok and some was interesting. I gave it a 3 stars rating.

I have no idea if anyone is still interested in discussing this book but I was just thinking about it. I didn't know Woolf had been sexually abused by her half? brothers and it made me wonder if that had something to do with her strong feelings against emotional, angry writing. In the sense that she probably met with a lot of that kind of stigma against women being emotional or irrational in her publicly speaking out against her abuse as an adult and I imagine this attitude may have been somewhat enforced upon her by (patriarchal) society's attitudes towards women and their emotions.

I know I chatted about this mentality coming from the outside world in Woolf's work but I don't think her abuse was mentioned. I need to read a biography or something of Woolf I think.

Jean wrote: "I have no idea if anyone is still interested in discussing this book but I was just thinking about it. I didn't know Woolf had been sexually abused by her half? brothers and it made me wonder if th..."

Good questions. I was so intrigued with her mind and her thought process. I have decided to read her diaries.

I believe that her personal experience can have influenced some of her work - like Rachel's encounter with Mr. Dalloway in the Voyage Out -, fluelling the desire to explicitly approach such topics.
But in regards of her rebuke against angry, emotional writing, I believe it has more to do with the fact that she believes women are capable of crafting art from other sources than their personal lives... Women are not essentialy emotional beings while men are essentialy rational ones.
I confess I haven't reread this book for the discussion (I am about to do it, which might change my mind rs). However, as of now, I don't think that in her claim for a tradition of women writers she is assuming that there is a way that women write that is essentialy female. On the contrary.
In this sense, I believe that her experience affected her work as it certainly affected her. But I am not comfortable with the ideia of attributing one view or plot or whatever solely to this experience...

(PS: Sorry if there is anything unclear - English is not my first language :) )

I believe that her personal experience can have influenced some of her work - like Rachel's encounter with Mr. Dalloway in the Voyage Out -, fluelling the desire to explicitly approach such topics.
But in regards of her rebuke against angry, emotional writing, I believe it has more to do with the fact that she believes women are capable of crafting art from other sources than their personal lives... Women are not essentialy emotional beings while men are essentialy rational ones.
I confess I haven't reread this book for the discussion (I am about to do it, which might change my mind rs). However, as of now, I don't think that in her claim for a tradition of women writers she is assuming that there is a way that women write that is essentialy female. On the contrary.
In this sense, I believe that her experience affected her work as it certainly affected her. But I am not comfortable with the ideia of attributing one view or plot or whatever solely to this experience...

(PS: Sorry if there is anything unclear - English is not my first language :) )

That said (and sorry for the accidental double post), out personal lives and our intelectual lives are not as separated as we like to assume... Their are intertwined. Even though I agree you cannot approach a work of art from the outside in, like people tend to do in her case explaining every little thing by her psicological issues, certainly her life enabled her to write what she did to some extent. It would be very interesting indeed to read her diaries...

English isn't my first language too, Flora! ;))
Excuse my if I write this out of time, but I really could not wrote before.
I will try to explain right: Should we stop to define a woman by their experiences, especially with regard to her body ? I mean, Woolf is more than a abused woman, but the media likes to underline this circumstance. It is a recreation in the sexuality, or a "easy explanation" for her revolutionary ideas?
On the other hand...What is your opinion about the link of Woolf with the fascism? It was only for a years, but I was socked when I know this.

I will start this book soon and I can't wait after I had read all of your comments

Joey wrote: "It seems that I'm in the minority here but I really didn't like this book.
There are some interesting concepts that make you think and maybe want to start a discussion, but most of the times that I..."

I agree with you. While I appreciate this work and other classic feminist texts (notably A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and The Awakening), I find them very difficult to fully connect with not because of not understanding them, but because they no longer feel on the mark. Like you said, there are definitely great quotes that can be pulled out, but they sit along side other ideas which are problematic and that have since matured in contemporary feminist works.

(Slightly off topic:) To be honest, I'm finding it difficult to justify whether or not to bother with any more non-fiction feminist classics. The main attraction seems to be (1)"she's so ahead of her time!"* and (2)to know where current ideas originated... But in the case of the former(1), I can't help feeling that I bet there were loads of women from the beginning of time going against the grain, but the ones of note were just privileged and lucky enough to get their message out (which is great!) so these women aren't necessarily "ahead of their time". And I guess I feel like that because I believe there have always been people sitting at intersections throughout history who will have been aware of all these things (for example, I'm sure there were lesbian asian women with disabilities waaaay back who would have loads to comment on gender and race and disability and whatever).
In the case of the latter(2), I do value knowing where many of our contemporary ideas originated... This is what I have the most trouble with. How much would I really be missing out on if I just got a book of overviews on gender theory to get a drastically abridged version of historical perspectives as a precursor to reading works contemporary gender theory?? How integral is it to my understanding and ability to contextualise what is being proposed? I'm not sure. I prefer getting my information from as close to the source as possible...but we all have limited time (and I'm a slow reader) haha.

Anyway, I found Woolf's writing style difficult to get into. It meanders too far and too long for me. I understand why other people like that though, and interpret it as rich detail and looking at her mind as it works. I think it's something I do myself when writing (ramble-y comments like this one), but I don't find it at all enjoyable to read through. Chapter 1 seemed to be the worst for that...or maybe it was just more noticeable because it was chapter 1. But she isn't always like that. I loved her (super-)short story "The Moth".

There were definitely parts that I really liked, and I really do appreciate it for what it is/was but overall I found this work to be just OK. And I'm glad I can say I read it now (though future me would probably tell past me that it's OK if I just gave it a pass ;P haha). I hope none of this seems harsher than I mean it to be. If I had to suggest just one non-fiction feminist classic to read, it would still probably be A Room of One's Own (until further notice...since...I haven't read any of bell hooks' feminist texts yet...).

How does everyone else feel about reading non-fiction classics in general??

Jean wrote: "I have no idea if anyone is still interested in discussing this book but I was just thinking about it. I didn't know Woolf had been sexually abused by her half? brothers and it made me wonder if th..."

That's a really interesting suggestion. Her take on women not being angry in their writing makes me think of Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman where they both seem to encourage women to be almost super human (or rather super neutral beings) in a way to combat society's thinking of them as lesser/bad: women must transcend their abuses by not being angry (Woolf) and by being chaste (Wollstonecraft).
Though in the case of Wollstonecraft, I've heard it proposed that she may have advocated this almost facetiously to run counter to the prevailing idea that men are pure, women are seductresses and that is the only reason for male sexual deviation, so women being chaste is how they can solve that problem....which feels like it gets into victim blame territory to me so I wouldn't want to run with that as a realistic solution to women's sexual abuse by men, but I'm sure it would be a common idea for the time if she did intend that interpretation (....or for the current time because we all know that's still what things are like right now...). I don't think I got any of that cheekiness in her words regarding female chastity when I read it simply because she seemed pretty clear when she was joking and when she wasn't, but I've only read that once..