Roughly.... Woman and Novel Writing: Building a tradition At the Home Library Again 1. the work of Lady Winchilsea 2. the letters of Dorothy Osborne 3. the significance of Aphra Behn 4. women and novel writing 5. Austen and Bronte compared 6. On Novel Writing: Integrity and Genius [Ethics and Aesthetics again] 7. Fiction & a Theory of Values: a Voice of One's Own 8. Imitation: the Sentence |
Discussion Questions
1. What are some connections you can draw between this chapter and the previous chapters?
2. What might Woolf mean when she writes, "money dignifies what is frivolous if unpaid for" (P.65)? How might this relate to the title of this book?
3. Woolf's character reflects: "The strange thing is, I thought, turning over the pages of Dorothy's letters, what a gift that untaught and solitary girl had for the framing of a sentence, for the fashioning of the scene." If you are inclined to agree with Woolf's assessment, find a discuss a passage from Dorothy Osborne in the quoted text which might support her appropriate appraisal.
4. What are some reasons provided by Woolf's character for admiring Jane Austen?
5. What is the main criticism from Woolf's character for the work of Lady Winchilsea?
6.
a. Upon reflection, what does Woolf's character find strange in thinking
about George Eliot, Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters?
b. What is the relation between, women, writing, the middle-class and
novels?
7. Woolf wrote:
For masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are
the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking
by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass
is behind the single voice.
Discuss this passage. What might Woolf mean by this? How might this be related to some of the themes we have discussed in the previous chapters?
8. In comparing Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice, what does she criticize Charlotte Bronte for and what does she admire Jane Austen for?
9. What does Woolf's character discover in comparing the life of George Eliot with the life like that of Tolstoi?
10. In Woolf's character loose sketch of an aesthetic theory, what does she mean by the "integrity" of the artist?
11. What is essence of the art of writing? What does this have to do with the writing of women?
12. What is the fundamental difference between men and women according to Woolf? (Also, how might this be related to "Street Haunting"?) What would it mean for women writers to have a tradition of their own?
13. What does Woolf's character think writing is about? How is the accessibility of literature and the formation of the English sentence related to "the freedom of the mind"? Where it would seem, does individuality begin?
14. What is Woolf's character's fundamental criticism of women writers in the past?
15. Woolf's character singles out this following sentence as a man's:
The grandeur of their works was an argument with them, not to stop short,
but to proceed. The could have no higher excitement or satisfaction than in the exercise of their art and endless generations of truth and beauty.
Success prompts to exertion; and habit facilitates success.
Woolf character finds Dr. Johnson and Gibbon behind this. Do you agree? Do a style analysis? Compare this sentence with Austen or Burney or even Eliot. Could there be such a thing as "a woman's sentence" as Woolf's character seems to suggest?
1. What are some connections you can draw between this chapter and the previous chapters?
2. What might Woolf mean when she writes, "money dignifies what is frivolous if unpaid for" (P.65)? How might this relate to the title of this book?
3. Woolf's character reflects: "The strange thing is, I thought, turning over the pages of Dorothy's letters, what a gift that untaught and solitary girl had for the framing of a sentence, for the fashioning of the scene." If you are inclined to agree with Woolf's assessment, find a discuss a passage from Dorothy Osborne in the quoted text which might support her appropriate appraisal.
4. What are some reasons provided by Woolf's character for admiring Jane Austen?
5. What is the main criticism from Woolf's character for the work of Lady Winchilsea?
6.
a. Upon reflection, what does Woolf's character find strange in thinking
about George Eliot, Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters?
b. What is the relation between, women, writing, the middle-class and
novels?
7. Woolf wrote:
For masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are
the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking
by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass
is behind the single voice.
Discuss this passage. What might Woolf mean by this? How might this be related to some of the themes we have discussed in the previous chapters?
8. In comparing Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice, what does she criticize Charlotte Bronte for and what does she admire Jane Austen for?
9. What does Woolf's character discover in comparing the life of George Eliot with the life like that of Tolstoi?
10. In Woolf's character loose sketch of an aesthetic theory, what does she mean by the "integrity" of the artist?
11. What is essence of the art of writing? What does this have to do with the writing of women?
12. What is the fundamental difference between men and women according to Woolf? (Also, how might this be related to "Street Haunting"?) What would it mean for women writers to have a tradition of their own?
13. What does Woolf's character think writing is about? How is the accessibility of literature and the formation of the English sentence related to "the freedom of the mind"? Where it would seem, does individuality begin?
14. What is Woolf's character's fundamental criticism of women writers in the past?
15. Woolf's character singles out this following sentence as a man's:
The grandeur of their works was an argument with them, not to stop short,
but to proceed. The could have no higher excitement or satisfaction than in the exercise of their art and endless generations of truth and beauty.
Success prompts to exertion; and habit facilitates success.
Woolf character finds Dr. Johnson and Gibbon behind this. Do you agree? Do a style analysis? Compare this sentence with Austen or Burney or even Eliot. Could there be such a thing as "a woman's sentence" as Woolf's character seems to suggest?