A Room of One's Own & The Voyage Out (Wordsworth Classics) - Softcover

Woolf, Virginia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 184022679X ISBN 13: 9781840226799

Publisher: Wordsworth Editions, 2012

Synopsis

A Room of One’s Own (1929) has become a classic feminist essay and perhaps Virginia Woolf’s best known work; The Voyage Out (1915) is highly significant as her first novel. Both focus on the place of women within the power structures of modern society.

The essay lays bare the woman artist’s struggle for a voice, since throughout history she has been denied the social and economic independence assumed by men. Woolf’s prescription is clear: if a woman is to find creative expression equal to a man’s, she must have an independent income, and a room of her own. This is both an acute analysis and a spirited rallying cry; it remains surprisingly resonant and relevant in the 21st century.

The novel explores these issues more personally, through the character of Rachel Vinrace, a young woman whose ‘voyage out’ to South America opens up powerful encounters with her fellow-travellers, men and women. As she begins to understand her place in the world, she finds the happiness of love, but also sees its brute power. Woolf has a sharp eye for the comedy of English manners in a foreign milieu; but the final undertow of the novel is tragic as, in some of her finest writing, she calls up the essential isolation of the human spirit.

About this title

About the Author

(Adeline) Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) was an English writer, whose innovative, experimental novels have had a lasting effect on the development of modern literature. Her books, such as 'Mrs Dalloway', 'The Waves' and 'To the Lighthouse', with their stream-of-consciousness structure, have led her to be recognised as one of the most significant writers of the twentieth century.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wordsworth Editions
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 184022679X
• ISBN 13: 9781840226799
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 480