A Life of One's Own: A Guide to Better Living Through the Work and Wisdom of Virginia Woolf [Mass Market Paperback]

Ilana Simons (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 28, 2007

In the tradition of How Proust Can Change Your Life, a unique handbook for using the brilliance of Virginia Woolf to enhance everyday life. One of the most admired writers of the twentieth century, Virginia Woolf is as popular now as she ever was. In this remarkable book, award-winning professor Ilana R. Simons plumbs the depths of Woolf's words and career, drawing on them to produce a lively and accessible guide to more fulfilling, more original living inspired by one of literature's greatest observers of human nature. The result, beautifully packaged, is almost worthy of Woolf herself.

Chapter headings include:

Accept Solitude

Take on Challenging Friendships

Change Routine

Lie to Encourage Your Friends

Read and Be More

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ilana R. Simons teaches at The New School in New York City. A recipient of the Willy Gorrissen Award for Teaching Excellence and the Molberger Fellowship for modernist scholarship, she is in training as a clinical psychologist. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); 1 edition (August 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143112252
• ISBN-13: 978-0143112259
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,384,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a tour de force, September 17, 2007

By 

abaccordion (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Life of One's Own: A Guide to Better Living Through the Work and Wisdom of Virginia Woolf (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is a wonderful companion to Alain de Bottons's "How Proust Can Change Your Life." It's intelligent, insightful, and terrifically well-written: a delight. The afternoon I spent reading it was one of the most enjoyable I've spent in the past few months. Ilana Simons manages to succeed in what would seem to be the impossible: making as unlikely a prospect as Virigina Woolf a guide to the good life.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars insightful read, even for a non-Woolf reader, October 21, 2007

By 

Leigh Torres - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Life of One's Own: A Guide to Better Living Through the Work and Wisdom of Virginia Woolf (Mass Market Paperback)

Despite the fact that I am fairly unfamiliar with Virginia Woolf's work, I really enjoyed this book. The author explains what Woolf's perspective on life is through examples of Woolf's life experiences and with comparative examples of the reality of the world we all live in today. The book is a great blend of philiosophy, physcology and literature. Its a rewarding read that will make you re-evaluate your own self-image and perspective of the world around you.

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars PhD Dissertation?, January 20, 2008

By 

Mom of Sons (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Life of One's Own: A Guide to Better Living Through the Work and Wisdom of Virginia Woolf (Mass Market Paperback)

Beautifully packaged book, and described almost as a poetic self-help book. I eagerly purchased it online and was very surprised to find it is in-depth literary analysis of Virginia Woolf's writings. Is this the author's PhD dissertation packaged as a book? It would be a great text for a class studying Virginia Woolf, but it's not for me.

As for its self-help properties: it begins by saying Virginia Woolf committed suicide -- but...but...this is a "guide to better living through the wisdom of Virginia Woolf! Isn't that kind of like looking for tips for sobriety from Ernest Hemingway?

In any case, it's quite academic, not really meant for casual readers like me who are looking for an engrossing novel or non-fiction read on their nightstand.