A Room of One's Own

Book excerpt: This volume combines two books which were among the greatest contributions to feminist literature this century. Together they form a brilliant attack on sexual inequality and a passionate polemic which draws a startling comparison between the tyrannous hypocrisy of the Victorian patriarchal system and the evils of fascism. Virginia Woolf makes the connection between war and the economy and a woman's role (or lack there of) in both. A Room of One's Own, first published in 1929, is a witty, urbane and persuasive argument against the intellectual subjection of women, particularly women writers. The sequel, Three Guineas, is a passionate polemic which draws a startling comparison between the tyrannous hypocrisy of the Victorian patriarchal system and the evils of fascism.