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.

Product Information:
• ISBN: 9781840226799
• Author: Virginia Woolf
• Publisher: Wordsworth Editions
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 463
• Dimensions: 20 x 13 x 2.5cm