A Room of One’s Own (1929) has become a classic feminist essay and perhaps Virginia Woolf's most well-known work. The Voyage Out (1915) is particularly important as her first novel. Both focus on the position of women within the power structures of modern society.

The essay reveals the struggle of the female artist for a voice, as during history, she has been deprived of the social and economic independence considered given for men. Woolf's prescription is clear: if a woman wants to find creative expression equal to that of a man, she must have an independent income and a room of her own. This is both a sharp analysis and a passionate cry, which remains surprisingly timely and relevant in the 21st century.

The novel explores these issues more personally, through the heroine Rachel Vinrace, a young woman whose "voyage out" to South America opens up powerful encounters with her fellow travelers, both men and women. As she begins to understand her place in the world, she finds the happiness of love, but also its raw power. Woolf has a keen eye for the comedy of English manners in a foreign setting, but the novel's underlying current is tragic, as, in some of her best writing, it calls forth the essential isolation of the human spirit.

Pages: 480, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm