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Published in 1929, the titular essay starts out as a lecture on the relationship between women and writing fiction. It is creative and thought-provoking, and not what one would expect an essay to be (at least I didn’t expect it). Woolf writes as other characters, such as Mary Seton or Mary Carmichael, but this is very much a work of non-fiction that addresses the reasons it was so difficult in the past for women to write fiction, including societal mores of earlier eras when women had limited (or no) access to funds, education, or private time. She lauds the accomplishment of early women fiction writers such as Jane Austen, George Eliot, and the Brontë sisters.

She takes issue with the men of her own and earlier times who wrote about women. She analyzes several of their works and find that they primarily portray women in limited roles in support of men. Some of these works make outlandish statements that refer to the lesser status of women in the traits such as morality and mental abilities. It made me very glad I did not live back then. While there are still issues in present day, it is certainly nothing like what women of the 19th century (and earlier) had to face. For example, it was acceptable for a husband to beat his wife, and women could not own property. Woolf’s style of expression is unique and creative. I found an edition of this work that included the titular essay (5 stars) and five short stories (4 stars), one of which, my favorite of the bunch, even mentions Clarissa Dalloway.