A Room of One's Own

Summary

"A Room of One's Own" began life as a pair of lectures delivered by Virginia Woolf in October 1928 at Newnham College and Girton College, women's colleges at the University of Cambridge and was published as a stand-alone book in 1929. In this brilliant examination of literature, history and gender discrimination, Woolf posits that the dearth of female writers in literature did not result from a lack of talent; it was the lack of opportunity. Historically, female writers were thwarted in their literary pursuits by a culture that disapproved of female authors, by gatekeepers within the literary establishment who barred women from participating and by societal pressures that attempted to shoehorn women into being primarily wives, mothers and housekeepers. Woolf's devastating critique of these injustices has been hailed as one of the finest pieces of literary criticism for almost a century. "A Room of One's Own" is presented here in its original and unabridged format.