I found lots to enjoy and marvel at – Woolf’s insight into the society in which she lived with its obvious weaknesses and limitations – especially for women of her own class, is extraordinary. Still the whole is incredible, Woolf’s brilliance demonstrated here by her sharp commentary and fiercely intelligent wit. Despite my exhaustion and limited reading time I really engaged with this famous essay – well the first two thirds anyway – the final third did drag rather – and I struggled a little at times – due almost certainly to my own tired mind and nothing more. Still I gave it a go – and I did pretty well. Non-fiction and I don’t always get along, and September is a nightmare month for me – I’m so tired and busy – and I haven’t even got to my very very busy weekend yet – it means non-fiction wasn’t the best fit for me this month.

I had already read A Room of one’s Own last year – but only had it on kindle – this lovely edition with its copious notes gave me the perfect excuse to read Three Guineas for phase 5 of #Woolfalong. My edition – the one pictured above, containing A Room of One’s Own – was sent to me by the lovely people at OUP when they heard about #Woolfalong. So you can expect a bit of prevaricating and waffle before I get down to it. In fits and starts, along switchbacks and interrupted routes, and by leaving both propaganda images and unreal loyalties out of its account, Three Guineas offers a powerful critique of gendered social identities and economies as well as a compelling narrative model of feminist thought.There are books I approach reviewing with some caution – or fear – and Three Guineas was one such book – the themes are so huge, the writing (naturally) so good – and the author – is Virginia Woolf.

But the book's (mock) epistolary form, its constant spiraling and its interruptive style also work to challenge the fixed identities and unreal loyalties that feed into and are nourished by warfare and war propaganda. Woolf addresses these issues first by marshaling an enormous number of facts and figures about the history of British women and their exclusion from education, political power, and the economy. This essay argues that much of the power of Three Guineas lies in its narrative form, which is designed to mark, refute, and evade the patriarchal construction of social identities, especially for women, and to resist, the aggressive, authoritarian national cultures tied to these identities and their systems of possession.

Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf