Daisy's Book Club - A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf (November 2018)

Thursday, November 22, 2018

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

It's been quite a while since I wrote a book review or recommendation on my blog, which is ironic considering I'm an English literature student and an avid reader, and so get through quite a lot of books! I used to review books all the time on my blog but stopped as I didn't have enough time to fully create them. Since I've been eager to bring this back on my blog, I thought I'd make it a monthly feature where I take one of the titles that I've read and recommend it to you guys! This week in 'Daisy's Book Club' is A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf, so keep reading to hear more?


H O W   D I D   I   S T U M B L E   U P O N   T H I S   B O O K ?

This book was actually compulsory reading for one of my seminars in university, and I was initially intrigued since I'd read some Woolf before and wanted to try some other titles. I enjoyed this book that much that I actually went on to write one of my essays on it. Although I sometimes find that studying a book can take the fun out of it, this one actually had the opposite effect and it made me appreciate it even more.


W H Y   S H O U L D   Y O U   R E A D   I T?

A Room of One's Own, in a nutshell, is a powerful feminist text that discusses women's position in literature that is dominated by men, pondering how they have been erased from history and are only represented from a male guise. Although some of the viewpoints are out-of-date and reflect middle-class life, it's an eye-opening text that really makes you think about feminism and women's inequality from the perspective of writing and publishing.

Rather than being like an educational essay filled with facts about this, it's instead structured as a fictional narrative where the main protagonist visits Oxbridge, The British Museum and continues their quest to understanding female's position in writing, and deciding that they ultimately need £500 a year alongside a room of their own.

One of the reasons I loved this book is that it's not like your classic novel, instead it adopts more of an essay or lecture format with fictional structures interwoven, and the stream of consciousness style creates a sense of ongoing, unfiltered thoughts that really makes the perspective insightful. It's only a short text, but it contains a lot of pertinent discussions and really makes you consider the inequality of women spanning throughout literature.


M Y   F A V O U R I T E   P A R T

Although there were a lot of stand-out moments for me, I really enjoyed the 'Shakespeare's sister' section, where the main protagonist muses about the eventual fate of Judith, Shakespeare's fictitious sister. It contemplates how her life would pan out alongside her brother and the differences in opportunities that they receive. Having such a striking and thought-provoking narrative really does raise questions about women's position and inferiority.


W H O   I S   T H I S   B O O K   S U I T A B L E   F O R ?

If you're someone who enjoys feminist texts or books empowering women then this is definitely for you. Having said that, I feel as though this is a book that all girls could benefit from reading, and I'd highly recommend this eye-opening text.


I hope you enjoyed this little book review, and I'd love to know your thoughts down in the comments if any of you have already read it or decide to! Thank you very much for reading this post and I'll see you on Sunday with another new post!

Love from Daisy x

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