Women and Writing [Paperback]

Virginia Woolf (Author), Michele Barrett (Editor, Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 24, 1980

Known for her novels, and for the dubious fame of being a doyenne of the 'Bloomsbury Set', in her time Virginia Woolf was highly respected as a major essayist and critic with a special interest and commitment to contemporary literature, and women's writing in particular. This spectacular collection of essays and other writings does justice to those efforts, offering unique appraisals of Aphra Behn, Mary Wollstonecraft, the Duchess of Newcastle, Dorothy Richardson, Charlotte Bronte, and Katherine Mansfield, amongst many others. Gathered too, and using previously unpublished (sometimes even unsigned) journal extracts, are what will now become timeless commentaries on 'Women and Fiction', 'Professions for Women' and 'The Intellectual Status of Women'. More than half a century after the publication of A Room Of One's Own, distinguished scholar Michele Barrett cohesively brings together work which, throughout the years, has been scattered throughout many texts and many volumes. . . affording these very valuable writings the collective distinction they deserve at last.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

VIRGINIA WOOLF (1882-1941) was one of the major literary figures of the twentieth century. An admired literary critic, she authored many essays, letters, journals, and short stories in addition to her groundbreaking novels.

Product Details

• Paperback: 198 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers (April 24, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156936585
• ISBN-13: 978-0156936583
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,204,752 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

VIRGINIA WOOLF (1882-1941) was one of the major literary figures of the twentieth century. An admired literary critic, she authored many essays, letters, journals, and short stories in addition to her groundbreaking novels.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Expanding one's view of Virginia Woolf, June 10, 2002

By 

"blissengine" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Women and Writing (Paperback)

Barrett brought together several of Woolf's writings and criticisms about women and writing. It's a fascinating collection that expands one's view of Virginia Woolf as a writer and as a thinking, highly intelligent woman. Her reviews of some of her contemporaries or such writers as Jane Austen, George Eliot, and the Brontës are thought-provoking and revealing about Woolf's inner life. Coupled with Barrett's insightful introduction, this book is a welcome addition to anyone's Woolf collection or to those interested in women as writers. It expands a bit on the notions presented in her famous "A Room Of One's Own".

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The woolf at the door, December 7, 2005

By 

Rosemary Thornton "Niece of Addie Hoyt Fargo ... (Norfolk, VA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Women and Writing (Paperback)

Wow, I'm really surprised that there aren't more reviews of this wonderful book.

"A Room of One's Own" was the first book that turned me onto Virginia Woolf (and I highly recommend that book, too).

However, I love "Women and Writing" for a wholly different reason. It's in this book that Woolf's essay on "the angel in the house" is included.

Are you a woman who's dreamt of becoming a writer? Go no further until you read Woolf's comments about the angel in the house. That phrase came from a Victorian-era poem by 19th Century poet Coventry Patmore. It's a sugary-sweet (and quite sickening) poem about the self-effacing woman who gives her whole being to her husband; so much so that there's nothing left of her own soul. Ick.

Woolf writes, "It was she [the angel in the house] who bothered me and wasted my time and so tormented me that at last I killed her...She was intensely sympathetic. She was utterly unselfish. She sacrificed herself daily...The shadow of her wings fell on my page; I heard the rustling of her skirts in the room. I took my pen in my hand...she slipped behind me and whispered [to me], 'My dear, you are a young woman...Never let anybody guess that you have a mind of your own. Above all, be pure.'

"And she made as if to guide my pen...

"I turned upon her and caught her by the throat. I did my best to kill her... Had I not killed her she would have killed me. She would have plucked the heart out of my writing..."

Powerful stuff.

I'm a full time writer who doesn't think too highly of wanna-be writers who spend all their time learning to write and reading about writing and thinking about writing.

However, if you're only going to read a handful of books about the craft, I recommend "A Room of One's Own" and this book, "Women and Writing."

Rose
author, The Houses That Sears Built

5.0 out of 5 stars WOOLF'S FURTHER THOUGHTS ABOUT WOMEN, AND WOMEN WRITERS, September 23, 2011

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Women and Writing (Paperback)

Adeline Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. This book is a collection of her shorter pieces on women as writers, including an extract from her magnificent book, A Room of One's Own (Annotated).

Here are some quotations from the book:

"The history of England is the history of the male line, not of the female." (Pg. 44)
"And it is significant that of the four great woman novelists---Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, and George Eliot---not one had a child, and two were unmarried." (Pg. 45)
"Killing the Angel in the House was part of the occupation of a woman writer." (Pg. 60)
"It has been common knowledge for ages that women exist, bear children, have no beards, and seldom go bald; but save in these respects, and in others where they are said to be identical with men, we know little of them and have little sound evidence upon which to base our conclusions. Moreover, we are seldom dispassionate." (Pg. 65)
"To pour such surplus energy as there may be into new forms without wasting a drop is the difficult problem which can only be solved by the simultaneous evolution and emancipation of man." (Pg. 67)
"George Eliot and Miss Bronte (may have) adopted male pseudonyms... in order to free their own consciousness as they wrote from the tyranny of what was expected from their sex. No more than men, however, could they free themselves from a more fundamental tyranny---the tyranny of sex itself." (Pg. 70)
"Some obscurity still veils the relations of women to each other." (Pg. 75)