A Room of One’s Own

Description

A Room of One’s Own is an essay by English writer and feminist Virginia Woolf, first published in 1929. An extended essay, the work is based off lectures that the author gave at Newnham College and Girton College at Cambridge in 1928. The title comes from Woolf's theory, explored in the essay, that 'a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction'. She writes about the lack of freedom women have in expressing themselves, and how, when they have an idea, something stops them ultimately from expressing that in any meaningful way. She suggests that women have the same ability as men to write great literature, and that it is only lack of opportunity that has prevented them from doing so in the past. Her claim that women need a room of their own to write, and therefore a degree of wealth, has been rejected and criticised by some, who point out that there have been female writers who had neither. Prior to A Room of One’s Own being published, Woolf wrote in her diary that she expected to be 'attacked for a feminist & hinted at for a sapphist' - mainly because in the essay, the narrator speaks guardedly about lesbianism - 'Let us admit in the privacy of our own society that these things sometimes happen. Sometimes women do like women'.

This book has 37,979 words, 56 pages in the PDF version, and was originally published in 1929.

Production notes: This ebook of A Room of One’s Own was published by Global Grey on the 15th October 2021. The artwork used for the cover is 'Woman at desk' by Lesser Ury.