A Room of One's Own + Three Guineas (2 extended essays)

Virginia Woolf, born Adeline Virginia Stephen on January 25, 1882, in London, was an English writer and one of the foremost modernists of the 20th century. Known for her innovative narrative techniques and insightful explorations of the inner lives of her characters, Woolf was a central figure in the Bloomsbury Group, which was a gathering of English writers, intellectuals, philosophers, and artists. Her most famous works include the novels 'Mrs. Dalloway' (1925), 'To the Lighthouse' (1927), and 'Orlando' (1928), as well as the book-length essay 'A Room of One's Own' (1929). In 'A Room of One's Own' along with the sequel essay 'Three Guineas' (1938), Woolf addresses the socioeconomic constraints of women and underscores the importance of both financial independence and intellectual freedom for female writers. Woolf's literary style is characterized by her stream-of-consciousness approach, which sought to capture the complex thoughts and emotions of characters in a way that mimics the human thought process. Her essays, often infused with feminist themes, not only analyze the gender dynamics of her time but also lay down a foundational critique that would become pivotal to feminist literary criticism. Virginia Woolf's contribution to literature was cut short by her tragic death on March 28, 1941, but her work continues to influence generations of writers and thinkers.