"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well."
~ Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
By Catherine Austin Fitts
A Room of One's Own is an essay by Virginia Woolf based on two lectures she delivered in 1928 at Newnham College and Girton College, women's constituent colleges at the University of Cambridge.
I read A Room of One's Own when I was an English major in my first year of college, and it has sat on my shelves ever since. During my transition from Washington, I sold thousands of books. The sales were generating cash flow and, consequently, the last few thousand books were stolen from my reseller's storage bin. Another example of the fact that every penny is counted and considered important in our current economy. Somehow, the Virginia Woolf made it through in the small collection that was not sold or stolen. That is what decorates my little country home—the remnants.
It was on a particularly beautiful sunny day several weeks ago. I was walking through to my back library. The house was full of the sounds of Bach. The smell of wonderful coffee filled the rooms. I reflected on how much I was enjoying this period in the early part of the year when I stay in Hickory Valley to focus on the Annual Wrap Up. I live in a remote location—it is a great place to enjoy "a room of one's own." And I do.
As I reflected on the joy of this period, my eye caught the lavender cover of the Virginia Woolf collection on my shelf. It occurred to me that I probably had not fully appreciated A Room of One's Own when I first read it. So I took it down to read again.
Woolf can get a bit long-winded for me. However, there are more than a few lovely passages and many wise insights. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it again.
Looking for something delicious for an afternoon read? Here it is!
Related Reading
“Between the Acts” was probably my favourite. It’s unfinished which lends it even more of that stream of consciousness atmosphere characteristic of most of V. Woolf’s writings. And even though it is a novel it is almost poetry, a painting, viewed in constantly changing light.
While writing a paper we had to do at Uni and for which I had chosen that work as my theme I had this unusual dream of Virginia Woolf, one of those dreams that are so intense and ‘near’ that they feel like real encounters rather than imagination or processing. The dream was about her death and her need to move on.
That ‘encounter’ stayed with me for many years afterwards. Thanks for reminding me of Virginia Woolf today.
Wow. Now I have to go read “Between the Acts” too!
I had to read this for college, too, as well as To the Lighthouse which I thought was more enjoyable. It’s been too many years, though; I can barely remember anything about them except how surreal the writing was.