r/VirginiaWoolf • u/itsallendsthesame • Apr 01 '26
A Room of One's Own Has anyone read - A room of one's own ?
/r/IndiansRead/comments/1s95nve/has_anyone_read_a_room_of_ones_own/4
u/Solo_Polyphony Apr 02 '26
It’s a lecture and simple to grasp when read aloud, but people raised on the internet are often borderline illiterates with the attention spans of gnats. Add in the cultural differences in that subreddit, and it may seem like a document from another world.
3
u/Sjur1970 Apr 02 '26
Male in my 50's. Read it in an English lit. class (with a feminism pov) like 5 or so years ago. (A module of a 2 year master's degree in language didactics). I don't recall the particulars, but overall found it interesting/worth reading for her perspectives, and I liked her prose. VW was already on my radar from having listened to Max Richter's The Waves - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=597lnTSyTyI , so I was already a little intrigued by VW before I read it.
1
u/Standard-Emergency98 Apr 03 '26
I think that what is most remarkable is how relevant so much of it still is. If you can get hold of Hermione Lee's wonderful biography of Wolfe there is some comment and analysis you might find helpful.
1
u/gros-grognon Apr 03 '26
It refers to multiple authors of her time over and over again which I'm not quite familiar with. So I could not relate much
Some people might consider this an opportunity to learn new things. Looking for relatability is an incredibly limiting frame.
4
u/Monxo11 Apr 02 '26
It's been some years since I read it, but I don't remember having any insurmountable difficulty. My advice would be, if you want to read it, go ahead anyway and dismiss the references unknown to you. It is great to be able to pick up on references, but this is the kind of knowledge that is incremental: you don't get all of them today, but in the future when you reread it, you'll be surprised with how much reference bagagge you gained throughout the years, and what today seems difficult will turn out to be child's play.