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A Room of One's Own

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A Room of One's Own

By: Virginia Woolf, Ali Smith - introduction
Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
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"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction . . ."

First published in 1929, A Room of One's Own is Virginia Woolf's pioneering work on women in literature. An accessible yet fiercely astute essay, it is a crystallisation of the intelligent analysis behind her novels, and confirms her as a writer not only of style, but of undeniable substance.

Ranging from discussing Austen's pandering to a male writing style, to imagining the dreadful fate of Shakespeare's talented, intelligent sister, Woolf makes the topic an enjoyable journey through her imagination, filling in for the undocumented in female history, and exploring the loss to the literary landscape in her own entertaining, convincing prose.
Bonus CD includes selection of Virginia Woolf's short stories: Monday or Tuesday, A Haunted House, Kew Gardens and The New Dress.
Narrator Juliet Stevenson is one of Britain's best-loved actresses. She starred in And When Did You Last See Your Father with Jim Broadbent and Colin Firth, and has read several audiobooks for CSA & Canongate including E. M. Forster's A Room with a View.

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Critic reviews

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Praise for the reader
Juliet Stevenson's narration is perfect

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All stars
Most relevant
A Room of Ones Own is an exhortation to women to write and express themselves. It briefly explores the social patriarchy, economic obstacles and prejudice that marginalised and prevented them. Only when women gained independence and education were they liberated to write. And this theme applies to many oppressed groups.
VW comments that the “history of men’s opposition to womens’ emancipation is more interesting than the emancipation itself” and revealing how the struggle for women’s rights produced further backlash !

So articulately written and superbly read by the consummate Juliet Stevenson

Articulately written and superbly read

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The performance of this piece is brilliant, and can help process some of the longer prose and the deeper meanings of Woolf’s work.

The reader

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Can't believe I hadn't read this before, it is such a great piece. I am glad I have recently listened to Bronte, Eliot and Austen, as she often refers to works by them

Amusing, clever and incadecently well-written

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As this book was created from two brilliant lectures it was sublime as an audiobook, Juliet Stevenson is a superb actor and is Virginia Woolf to me now. I really have no words to describe this work of genius but I defy any man not to feel ashamed or any woman not to want to read Jane Austen and Emily Bronte, A wonderful experience - thank you.

Breathtaking

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An incredible voyage into the mind of Virginia Woolf. Her mind, laid bare for all to see, is a sharp prism that refracts beautifully her own times - with acute commentary on history, literature, psychology and sociology.

The focus of the essays is on the role, status and experiences of women in literature (but also in society more broadly). The observations are rich and varied, but with a main materialistic thread, centred around the hypothesis that intellectual freedom is dependent upon material resources: a steady income and "a room of one's own."

The mode of presentation follows her famed stream of consciousness style. The poetic escapades and flights of fancy are not loosened into phantasmagoria, but rather intervowen into a cohesive central message. The first marvel of this work is how utter an artistic success it is; and the second is how inspiring, biting and revolutionary it is as a feminist pamphlet.

The core idea is commonsensical, yet simultaneously a dangerous proposition: make sure that nobody need toil for basic resources, in order to liberate women and liberate the mind.

The social commentary is swollen, dripping with an aesthetic miasma that envelops the lucky reader submerged in her succulent prose.

A feminist classic

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