A Room of One's Own
Score Classic
What it's about
In 1928, Virginia Woolf gave two lectures on women and fiction at the women's colleges of Cambridge, and turned them into this extended essay. Using a fictional narrator, she asks why so few women wrote great literature, and answers that a woman needs money and a room of her own to write. Her imagined portrait of Shakespeare's equally gifted sister is one of the most famous passages in the essay.
Why it's worth reading
It's on the Modern Library's, TIME's and the Guardian's lists of the best nonfiction ever written, and it's a founding text of feminist criticism. It's witty, angry and still strikingly relevant.
You'll love it if you liked
Mrs. Dalloway, The Second Sex or The Feminine Mystique
Good to know
It's short, under 100 pages. Woolf's style takes a few pages to settle into, and then it flows.
Quick answers
Is A Room of One's Own worth reading?
Yes. It's on the Modern Library's, TIME's and the Guardian's lists of the best nonfiction ever written, and it's a founding text of feminist criticism. It ranks #120 of the 2,819 books in our ranking, with a Must-Read Score of 86.0 (the best book we found scores 99).
What is A Room of One's Own about?
In 1928, Virginia Woolf gave two lectures on women and fiction at the women's colleges of Cambridge, and turned them into this extended essay. Using a fictional narrator, she asks why so few women wrote great literature, and answers that a woman needs money and a room of her own to write. Her imagined portrait of Shakespeare's equally gifted sister is one of the most famous passages in the essay.
How long does it take to read A Room of One's Own?
About 4 hours (143 pages), or about 8 days at 30 minutes a day.
What should I read after A Room of One's Own?
If you liked it, try Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir or The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan.
By the numbers
- Readers75 out of 100 · counts 42%
- Critics92 out of 100 · counts 34% (its stronger lane)
- Bestseller43 out of 100 · counts 14%
- Buzz0 out of 100 · counts 10%
Critics and Bestseller are two ways to earn a place: a book's stronger one counts more. Buzz rewards recent bestseller weeks and prizes, so older books start at zero. The parts combine into the Must-Read Score, shown on a scale where the best book we found scores 99 and the last book to make the ranking scores 50.
On 4 canon lists, including Modern Library 100 Best Nonfiction.
Where it ranks
On the lists
- Modern Library 100 Best Nonfiction
- TIME All-TIME 100 Nonfiction
- Guardian 100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time
Reads as
Thought-provoking
