A Room of One's Own & The Voyage Out (Wordsworth Classics)

I bought this book as a gift though I have read a previous edition. After reading a variety of Woolf's work I swiftly came to the conclusion that this is my favourite. Her stream-of-consciousness style does not appear laboured with facts and a lack of creative metaphor, indeed, quite the contrary. Her ideas are simple but profound, and masterfully structured in this little volume. Her thesis, which she moves away and returns to time and time again as she artfully weaves her discussion, is that in order to be independent, what a woman ultimately needs is a room of her own (and an income to boot). This was a lecture she gave at Girton, one of the first women's colleges at Cambridge. I would do anything to hear Woolf give this speech in the flesh. She was truly a Sophist and an incredible thinker, whose thoughts are sure to reverberate through time for centuries to come. I heartily recommend this book, for intellectual profundity and for linguistic artistry!

There are very few large type books available these days they are so much easier on the eyes then using magnifying glasses. This is a lovely book it's hard bound it's easy to read it's nice to have the pleasure of turning pages again with my reduced eyesight. Bravo

Great stories

This book is very good value and the Notes accompanying the Essay and Novel are most helpful. I would highly recommend this book.

Great book for its time and has survived the test of history well. Good for her! Very different subject matters and approaches but both good.

Not easy to read but iconic never the less

WHO DESIGNED THE APPALLINGLY BAD TASTE COVER FOR THIS WONDERFUL NOVEL??? IT'S DISGUSTINGLY TACKY!!! I had to cover mine in patterned sticky backed plastic or else I wouldn't have been able to read the novel! DO BUY AN EDITION OF WOOLF'S "A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN" & "THE VOYAGE OUT" but DO NOT BUY THIS EDITION, PERLEEEEZ!!! If I was an heir of Mrs Woolf I would sue the publisher for this dreadful object!!! And as for the font and layout of the text......... hideous!!!

A really great read for anybody in love with psychological introspection in literature

This Wordsworth edition is good one, although the print size is quite small (as the other wordsworth editions are). With regard to "A Room of One's Own" This is a great work of non-Fiction (it is not a novel although the voyage out is). Virginia Woolf writes on the topic "Women and Fiction", and she analyses many aspects of the problem. She has tried to establish a basic connection between the socio-economic conditions of women and their literary genius. She, very beautifully, argues that before 14th century the women were not given any education, and the attitude of society was hostile to their literary work, then how can one expect them to write? She also observes that in literary works before 18th century (almost all of them written by men) the depiction of women in plays, poetry, novels was very different from the stark realities (the low social-economic conditions of women). Moreover women were discussed most of the times in relation to man, and they were not depicted independently. She provides that a women must have some time for herself and some fixed income to write independently. She further says that women must write not as men write, but they must have their own style. She discusses the approaches of different literary figures. Although, I think that she stretched the relationship of literature and the politics of women inferiority to a far fetched end. Secondly, she has not even mentioned Marie Corelli in her deliberations, which shows that she herself had her own biases or inclinations. Thirdly, she argues that Rmily Bronte had more literary genius than Jane Austen, well I completely disagree there. Moreover, She was too much engrossed in problems for women writers (which gives rise to pessimistic tendencies, and she suffered from it), and her focus on the solutions was not as emphatic as it should have been. Even in the conclusion she gives her message to females only, but she should have given even a stronger message to males because they had been the hindrances in women's literature. Overall, a very good work, a must read by everyone, specially those interested in gender equality. I have not read the 2nd work "The Voyage Out" till now, but I believe it is also a very good work.

I wanted to read A Room of one's own. It was beyond my expectations. The story is well balanced and the language is beautiful. The Voyage Out was an unexpected present, that I read with pleasure. Though you can see that is is her first

Perfecto!

It is a pleasure to have such a beutifully produced book. The cover illustration alone is worth the purchase price.

this is a lovely edition of two of the best and least difficult to understand of woolf's non-fiction and fiction respectively. good price too.