Customer Reviews

A Life of One's Own: A Guide to Better Living Through the Work and Wisdom of Virginia Woolf

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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.

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.

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.

This is a book that reads quickly and smoothly. Thirteen short chapters touch briefly on a life lesson. My mind slipped easily into Virginia's pocket of time finding fresh approaches to increase individual potential. What a joy that Virginia's life is not defined nor her legacy destroyed by her suicide. The author Ilana Simons' writing successfully challenges the reader to embrace/endure one's beauty and shortcomings as a guide to better living. Well worth your precious moments of being to read!

I have a feeling that this would have been a better book if the author had waited a few more years before writing it. As it is, it seems to be a mixture of "I am highly educated in Eng. Lit." and "And now I'm studying psychology". There are a number of thoughtful reflections in it, but all the time one keeps wondering why Virginia Woolf - wildly bipolar, bisexual, and an eventual suicide - should be held up as a guide to a better life. I think it needs a far more critical approach than the author appears ready to apply, and that may be because the author (fortunately for her!) has not herself experienced some of the devastation that life can inflict. When disaster strikes, Woolfian aphorisms may not suffice - at least they didn't for the unhappy Virginia.
Trivia: Leonard Woolf is described as having been "managing the British colonies in Ceylon", which is a serious exaggeration: he was, for a brief time, a relatively junior official (in charge of a district) and, given his increasingly anti-colonial sentiments, it seems unlikely that he would ever have risen very far in the colonial civil service, even if he had not resigned.