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Apr 26, 2017kpelish rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Glad I finally got to read this classic, especially contrasted against the rich tapestry that women writers weave today. In many ways, Woolf's impassioned fight for women's right to an income of her own/financial stability and cherished private space to reflect and create has come true; she wrote these lyrical essays back in 1928 (she's very humorous as she describes her encounters with the university beadles). In some ways, it's still an ongoing fight (fair pay, better gender balance at home with partners, equal representation in politics and the workplace, freedom from violence, etc.) but at least these issues are out in the open and easier to resolve (or "shrink", as the following passage illustrates: "Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size....if she begins to tell the truth, the figure in the looking glass shrinks.")