Adrienne Rich's influential and landmark investigation concerns both the experience and the institution of motherhood.
The experience is her own—as a woman, a poet, a feminist, and a mother—but it is an experience determined by the institution, imposed on all women everywhere. She draws on personal materials, history, research, and literature to create a document of universal importance.
| ||||||||||||||||||
Browse the best books of summer including blockbusters, beach reads, and editors' picks in our Summer Reading Store. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
Asking "But what was it like for women?" with "painful consciousness of my own Western cultural perspective and that of most of the sources available," Adrienne Rich examines pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood from historical, physical, religious, institutional, political, and personal angles. In her introduction to the 1986 edition, she explains "I did not choose this subject; it had long ago chosen me... I only knew that I had lived through something which was considered central to the lives of women... a key to the meaning of life; and that I could remember little except anxiety, physical weariness, anger, self-blame, boredom, and divisions within myself..." Written with a stimulating combination of poetic rhythm, scholarly precision, feminist perspective, and personal reflection, Of Woman Born is both an engrossing read and an affirmative, potentially life-changing examination of what it means to be of woman born. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Jesse Larsen
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Widely read, widely anthologized, widely interviewed and widely taught, Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) was for decades among the most influential writers of the feminist movement and one of the best-known American public intellectuals. She wrote two dozen volumes of poetry and more than a half-dozen of prose. Her constellation of honors includes a National Book Award for poetry for Tonight, No Poetry Will Serve, a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant in 1994, and a National Book Award for poetry in 1974 for Diving Into the Wreck. That volume, published in 1973, is considered her masterwork. Ms. Rich’s other volumes of poetry include The Dream of a Common Language, A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far, An Atlas of the Difficult World, The School Among the Ruins, and Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth. Her prose includes the essay collections On Lies, Secrets, and Silence; Blood, Bread, and Poetry; an influential essay, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” and the nonfiction book Of Woman Born, which examines the institution of motherhood as a socio-historic construct. In 2006, Rich was awarded the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters by the National Book Foundation. In 2010, she was honored with The Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry's Lifetime Recognition Award.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
47 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When I first read OF WOMAN BORN, in the mid-seventies, it was a Godsend. Rich's feminist critique of the institution of motherhood elucidates the source of so many of the world's problems. When women, the source of life, the life givers, the ones who bear each one of us into the world, whether man or woman, are denigrated, oppressed, abused, imprisoned, and exploited by governments, religions, and cultures - everything is off-kilter. Rich accurately describes the state of motherhood in the mid-20th century and the toll it took on mothers and children. She helped me understand that the pressures mothers put on their daughters to conform to sexist stereotypes were part of the oppression they themselves were enduring. Re-reading this book over the decades, I've seen that while some things have improved for women since Rich wrote OF WOMAN BORN, we still have a long way to go before women are treated equally or given the respect they deserve for their role as life givers and nurturers. The worldwide upsurge in the revival of Fundamentalist religions that institutionalize the oppression and second-class status of mothers and their daughters is frightening, as is the rage expressed by some reviewers of this book. People who are threatened by the ideas in OF WOMAN BORN want to return to the days when women were chattel and children were seen but not heard. In the 21st century, don't we owe our children, grandchildren and the world more than the tired, worn-out worldviews that brought women and families so much pain?
51 of 55 people found the following review helpful
By H. Sinclair
Format:Paperback
Those who have criticized this book thus far here are women who derive their sole identity and sense of importance, sadly, from their role as mothers. I know women who thoroughly enjoy being mothers, but they are few and their circumstances are unique. And even some of them still have a clear need to have another identity and a life of the mind they aren't permitted within the "institution" of motherhood. I myself, and most other mothers I know, struggle with the impossible expectations placed upon us to be perfect mothers/providers/etc., struggle to create a new and healthy understanding of motherhood, struggle to do right by our children and yet hold on to our own personhood, thinking, humor,... finding ourselves too often battling with self-hatred, resentment and guilt, knowing inside that no matter what, someone will criticize us for doing it all wrong. This book exposes this unfair situation in which many women who are mothers find themselves in. If to some Rich comes off as "angry," well of course she is. It's a righteous anger. My only criticism of this book is the lack of attention it gives to the experiences of women of color and working-class women.
69 of 80 people found the following review helpful
By Kathy
Format:Paperback
We were asked to do a term paper on Adrienne Rich and some of her poetry. During my research I found this book and it changed my entire view of motherhood..or rather the institution of motherhood. I have never realized how literally confining motherhood is. I look back at what my mom used to tell me about how kids held her back from what she wanted to do, and I realize (with the help of this book) what she ment. Not that was being rude when she said this, just that it is a fact that our patriarchal society uses motherhood to put women in 'their place'. Please if their is one book you take time to read make it this one. Rich writes this analytical book in such a way as to make it sound personal and interesting...not dry and dull. Highly, highly recommend it if you are trying to understand your mother or mothers in general. What an EYE OPENER!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
The second purchase of this book..........and wow to womenhood
Book is a good quality, fast shipping. This book is an eye opener for understanding the mentality of the ultra feminist and women who see no reason for child birth. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Elizabeth A. Wallace
3.0 out of 5 stars
Of Woman Born
Adrienne Rich's book, Of Woman Born, is a book about Rich's own experience of being a mother. She writes from a feminist perspective, and explains how the motherhood institution... Read more
Published 5 months ago by AKH
5.0 out of 5 stars
The whole story of patriarchy, feminism, and religion in a short...
If you want one book that tells the whole story of patriarchy, feminism, and religion in a relatively
short readable form, poet Adrienne Rich's Of Woman Born is hard to... Read more
short readable form, poet Adrienne Rich's Of Woman Born is hard to... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Joyce
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing book
It is powerful, candid, bold, and important. She opened my mind about motherhood and other issues but never strayed -- she is a fierce feminist, unafraid of telling the truth, and... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Natalia von Habsburg
2.0 out of 5 stars
Love Adrienne Rich...but she needs to stick to poetry
This autobiography reads like the rantings of a woman who just needs to buck up and get over it. YES, motherhood is difficult (HELLOOO), and YES you have to submit your own... Read more
Published on June 4, 2010 by LiteratureLady
5.0 out of 5 stars
This may be the best book ever written about motherhood.
This book is a miracle. I have read dozens of books about pregnancy, birth, babies and motherhood, and this blows them all out of the water. Read more
Published on August 3, 2008 by Hermine
2.0 out of 5 stars
Right subject, wrong author
Adrienne Rich's experience as a mother is what propelled her to write this depressing look at motherhood as an institution and at the the patriarchial society that imposes its... Read more
Published on October 23, 2002
1.0 out of 5 stars
A Sad Book And Sad Comment on Modernity
I was forced to read this book in a class recently by the usual suspect, my feminist professor, and was very sad to see that this piece of lesbian hatred of the family was being... Read more
Published on March 18, 2001
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book changed my life!
Right after the birth of my second child I was in a poetry class at the local community college. We were assigned to find a poet and give a presentation of their poetry. Read more
Published on May 7, 1999
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
