A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf

[sophia_sol]

I've seen this recommended many times, and this is the year! I was expecting A Room of One's Own to be a straightforward book-length essay arguing about the ways a culture of misogyny has gotten in the way of women's writing and the things women need to be successful writers, but it's got a much more interesting structure and approach than that. Woolf uses the conceit of telling the story of a particular (fictional) day in the life of a woman and the things she experienced and thought about over the course of that day, in order to both straightforwardly argue points like I expected but also to just, like, put forward the realities of women's experiences for the reader to ponder upon and draw their own conclusions.

It's fascinating, it's compellingly written, it's extremely more-ish. It's full of both things where I'm like "YEAH YOU'RE SO RIGHT, BRING IT" and things where I desperately want to argue with Woolf, but like, argue (affectionate). And I'm pretty confident that's what she was going for, tbh!! An invigorating read, and now I want to read more things by Woolf.

Comments

[pauraque]

I enjoyed how she lampshaded the expectation that she would write something straightforward on the topic, and was just cheerfully like NOPE, I DIDN'T!

[sophia_sol]

Yes, it was so delightful! And then she puts many of her most provocative statements into the mouth of her fictional woman, and ends by saying that we the listeners will have noticed that the woman whose thoughts she was sharing had her own biases and foibles, as if to say that even Woolf doesn't stand by everything she just said in her talk. She's throwing a bunch of thoughts at her audience and saying "debate!!" It's so much fun.

[lirazel]

It's full of both things where I'm like "YEAH YOU'RE SO RIGHT, BRING IT" and things where I desperately want to argue with Woolf, but like, argue (affectionate).

Yes exactly!!! I'm glad you enjoyed it! Woolf-the-person deserves all kind of criticism (what a snob!!!!) but Woolf-the-writer is so good that I remain fond.

[sophia_sol]

I honestly know nothing about Woolf the person and am promptly going to go google more about her! But yes she is SUCH a good writer!

[lirazel]

Hermione Lee's biography is fantastic and highly recommended but be warned that it is loooooooooong.

Woolf is so interesting on every level, and she left behind extensive diaries and letters so that we know basically what she was doing every single day of her adult life. Which is great, but also makes for a very, very long biography. So I don't blame you if you don't want to read it, but I thought I'd throw it out there just in case.

If you're wanting to start with her fiction, I'd start with Mrs. Dalloway.

[sophia_sol]

Fascinating! Yeah I think a very long biography about her is not where I want to spend my time, but that does sound like it would be a very interesting read! I'll add Mrs Dalloway to my reading list :)

[lirazel]

I totally get that. I have this biography of Buster Keaton that I really want to read but I keep getting intimidated by its length!

Oh, another recommendation: she wrote a short and charming "autobiography" of Flush, Elizabeth Barret Browning's dog.

[sophia_sol]

Narratives about pets aren't really my thing, but that's awesome that she wrote that biography!

[lirazel]

Hahaha omg it isn't mine either! (Though I can't think of a single other example that I've heard of. Is this a real genre? I thought VW made it up!) But the narrative voice is just such fun that I enjoy it a lot.

[sophia_sol]

The one that comes to mind is DWJ's Dogsbody, from the pov of a star who becomes incarnated as a dog and then becomes very doglike, so overall it is the vibes of having a dog pov, and I couldn't get into it. There's also the novelette For He Can Creep, by Siobhan Carroll, from the pov of a monastery cat, which I found tedious but was nominated for a Hugo in 2020. But I can't speak to whether there's more, because it's not a genre I seek out, lol!

[lirazel]

Wild! I had no idea! (Though I absolutely adore the title "For He Can Creep"---loooove a Christopher Smart reference!)

[chestnut_pod]

God, yes, Mrs Dalloway the novel of my heart!

[chestnut_pod]

Woolf IS so invigorating! Exactly because half the time you really do want to argue with her, and half the time because she is always doing something more structurally interesting than you think she will, going in.

If this turns out to be your year of reading Woolf, I will be overjoyed.

[sophia_sol]

YEAH! And we shall find out if this is a Woolfy year! but Mrs Dalloway is going high on my tbr list now, with multiple enthusiastic recs for it :D