I liked it; it was good
I’m not much of an essay reader, but I got this short book as a part of my Arcturus Classics boxed set of Virginia Woolf’s works. This is the first of her books that I’m reading.
Read: May 18 – May 19, 2024
Genre: Essay
Audience: General
Book contains: 19th & early 20th century views of women
Purchase a copy from Amazon.ca
This book is an essay written by Woolf about the topic of Women and Fiction, and all it entails. Woolf tells the story of how she came about writing the essay when given the topic, starting from what the words mean to a deep-dive of the relationship between the sexes, the attention of women being written about, and some of the inequality of men vs women in literature.
Woolf illustrates her points by bringing up many classic works written by both men and women alike—women like the Bronte sisters, George Eliot, and Jane Austen, and men such as Alfred Tennyson—though she mostly refers to the actions and words of different men rather than specific books or authors.
She (the narrator) explores the gender inequality of the times, inventing a character called Judith Shakespeare who, despite having the same creativity, drive, and tenacity as her brother William Shakespeare, had no chance of accomplishing the same as him. Women had far less access to education, if at all; they were impoverished because for a long time, all of their money belonged to their husbands; and they were looked down on by society for expressing any want of creative expression. It was all very interesting to delve into.
Still, it was an essay, and at time I found myself nodding off to sleep as I listened along to a brilliant reader on YouTube—Audiobook Library, read by Cori Samuel.
I loved the flow and elegance of Woolf’s writing. It was musical to my ears, and I was intrigued by some of the unique aspects of this essay, in which the narrator broke off from thoughts and changed topics as if really walking the reader through her thought process as she brainstormed and gathered evidence for her presentation about the topic.
I recommend this book for all women (especially writers), to gain a better understanding of the prejudice that once ruled the world and how far we’ve come.
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
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