Virginia Woolf en 90 minutos

Great Writers in 90 Minutes

by Paul Strathern

Building on his enormously successful series of Philosophers in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern now applies his witty and incisive prose to brief biographical studies of the world's great writers. He brings their lives and ideas to life in entertaining and accessible fashion. Far from being a novelty, each book is a highly refined appraisal of the writer and his work, authoritative and clearly presented. Applause for Paul Strathern's Philosophers in 90 Minutes series: "Each of these little books is witty and dramatic and creates a sense of time, place, and character....I cannot think of a better way to introduce oneself and one's friends to Western civilization." Katherine A. Powers, Boston Globe "Well-written, clear and informed, they have a breezy wit about them....I find them hard to stop reading." Richard Bernstein, New York Times "Witty, illuminating, and blessedly concise." Jim Holt, Wall Street Journal

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Audiobook, Literature, Biography Memoir, Writing

128 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Paul Strathern (born 1940) is a English writer and academic. He was born in London, and studied at Trinity College, Dublin, after which he served in the Merchant Navy over a period of two years. He then lived on a Greek island. In 1966 he travelled overland to India and the Himalayas. His novel A Season in Abyssinia won a Somerset Maugham Award in 1972.

Besides five novels, he has also written numerous books on science, philosophy, history, literature, medicine and economics.

Reviews

[Cloudy · Rating 4 out of 5]

خلاصه و مفید.
طی صد صفحه شما رو تا حد خوبی به وولف نزدیک می‌کنه.

در خطوط پایانی نوشته‌ای بود به نقل از سیمون دوبووار که: امیلی برونته مرگ را زیر سوال برد و ویرجینیا وولف زندگی را.

[Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A concise and well written book on Woolf and her works that I listened to while packing for my upcoming trip.

“… we can count on the fingers of one hand the women who have traversed the given in search of its secret dimension: Emily Brontë explored death, Virginia Woolf life, and Katherine Mansfield sometimes—not very often—daily contingence and suffering….. Art, literature, and philosophy are attempts to found the world anew on a human freedom: that of the creator; to foster such an aim, one must first unequivocally posit oneself as a freedom…. one must first emerge within it in sovereign solitude if one wants to try to grasp it anew.”
- Simone de Beauvoir

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very basic survey of the life and works of Virginia Woolf.

[Sonya · Rating 4 out of 5]

اولین بار بود که از این سری از آثار یک زندگی نامه خوندم . به نظرم در صد صفحه مطالب جالب و مفیدی نوشته شده بود
VIva virginia <3

[Abril · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creo que si lo leí en 90 minutos (aunque no del mismo día). Esta bueno para tener un panorama general de Virginia Woolf y su obra, más teniendo en cuenta que me lo mandaron para la facu, muy ameno.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating (even if you're not a Woolf fan).

[Haoyan Do · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t really like Virginia Woolf’s writing. Long time ago, when I was young and fervent, torturing myself through reading something I dislike is part of my duty. So I thought. That’s when I took on Virginia Woolf but I dislike everything, from “Night And Day”, “Jacob’s Room”, “Mrs. Dollaway”, “To The Lighthouse”. Now I have almost no memory of what I read. All those torturous hours. I only remember “Night And Day” is very dull but still understandable, and the rest is just incomprehensible. I vaguely enjoyed “Orlando” and “Room of One’s Own”. Somehow I suspect that if I read them now, I will enjoy more–the passage of time has added to my power of understanding and my resources for making personal connections.

This is why I listened to “Virginia Woolf in 90 Minutes” by Paul Strathern, not because it’s free on audible.com for members. I like the book for the information provided, except that the word “feminist” shows up every five minutes. If Virginia Woolf is a feminist, she is a very mild one. I don’t see her fighting for women’s causes at all. She’s only writing according to her own thoughts and experiences. Most of her so called “feminist” traits are just her own eccentricities. So she has some intimate letters with one of her women friends. The next thing you know, she is called a feminist. In Mr. Strathern’s view, only my grandmother, who had 9 kids and cooked and washed all day long without the time and the energy to develop any personal quirks, is a fully qualified “non-feminist”. The rest of the women folks all have feminist tendencies. This is like those all encompassing labels like “capitalist” and “socialist”, which are very misleading. The fact is every society has capitalist elements and socialist elements. For example, calling Bernie Sanders a socialist. He is not.

[Anders · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Unlike male homosexuality, lesbianism was not illegal--for the simple reason that Queen Victoria, when asked to sign the bill banning homosexuality, had refused to believe that such a thing as lesbianism could even exist. The minister presenting the bill had blanched at the thought of contradicting his redoubtable queen on this difficult topic, let alone explaining the mechanisms of its practice, and as a result lesbianism was not included in the bill outlawing homosexuality."

I picked this up at some library sale; I'm not overly fond of the whole "condensed lessons" idea, but it was like a penny and I didn't know that much about Woolf so I thought I would give it a read (no more than 90 minutes, of course!). Strathern seems competent.

I would say this is marginally better than reading Woolf's wiki page. It's certainly better organized and gives a concise telling of her life events, sociohistorical context, and minimal interpretative analysis of her major works. In that respect it was a pretty useful slim volume.

Who would I recommend it to? Hm, those who don't want to look on wikipedia and find some other reliable interpretation and also want a brief overview. It's nice that he goes over the three categories I mentioned because that's what one would want in approaching Woolf as a whole, I'd think.

I will now be passing this on to someone else who can decide to leave it on their shelf and never read it. Haha.

[Anais · Rating 5 out of 5]

No imagino una mejor narrativa para contar una biografía como está. La secuencia como es contada olvidas por completo que estás leyendo una biografía transformadose en una novela, increíble la secuencia que lleva este libro, de la mejor lírica para relatar una historia biográfica, imposible no quedar encatada de ese detallé.

La historia de Virginia Wolf deja el sentir de todo el peso que ella llevó y aún así tomo las energías que tenía dejándonos obras maestras de la literatura, comunicándonos la libertad, desigualdad e indiferencias que recibimos en esta sociedad.

No es fácil el intentó de no ahogarte en medio de esté mar, ella lucho contra todas las corrientes hasta que no pudo más.
Virginia siempre dejara un marco y una línea, dónde sabemos que ella estubo y sus palabras no fueron en vano, sus escritos quedaron para ser leídos, su historia será contada y su lucha no será olvidada.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to on Audible. Considering the author is covering an entire life in 90 minutes this touches on major points in her lifetime. It ends with a timeline of her life without description. The less than 5 stars is the focus on her sex life. While knowing why a person makes the choices they do this book left me thinking of her only as a sexual creature with no other interests or hobbies or color in her life but her troubles. Why not go into her travels and experiences with friends and so many other things might have affected her writing and life choices.

[Chandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know enough to know if there are errors or omissions, but I found it to be an easy-to-read brief overview of the author. Hoping to work up the courage to read Orlando or Mrs. Dalloway eventually.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this immediately after the one on Joyce and I was struck by the commonalities.

Woolf had a much more privileged upbringing and was financially much more comfortable but from a personality and artistic perspective a lot of similarities.

Also just noticed that Woolf was born exactly 8 days before Joyce.

[Vagabond · Rating 3 out of 5]

You won't find anything groundbreaking here; it's just a nice overview of Woolf's life, works, and the historical context in which she lived and wrote. I enjoyed the audio version (currently included with Audible membership) and recommend it to anyone looking for a concise introduction to Virginia Woolf.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a grind to finish; basically she is a distillation of everything I dislike about early 20th century writers, and her life was what one would expect (lower to middle ranks of the upper class, broadly useless). The changes WW1 brought to Britain were interesting, but better told through others.

[Fer · Rating 4 out of 5]

“se trata de autoras que han sido fuente de inspiración para muchas mujeres, no solo para las que escriben, sino para aquellas que luchan por liberarse y expresarse”
me hubiera encantado leer algún libro de sus cartas o diarios, pero este libro es un buen comienzo para tener el contexto de sus obras literarias
tq virginia, pude verme reflejada en ti

[Yochi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Love the idea of a 90 minute summery. I did the audiobook and found it to be boring. Not sure if it was the writing, the narrarator, or the subject matter, but it was hard to stay focused.

[Neeraja Sankaran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good solid overview of Virginia Woolf's life and treatment of her major works in chronological order of her producing them. For an actual biography I suppose one should visit Hermione Lee.

[Lea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick biography on Virginia Woolf, including her life, her works and history at the time. My book club is reading a book by her and I thought this would be a great way to get started.

[Donna Mork · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick and easy biography about Virginia Woolf, her education and family life into her troubled adulthood and writing career. Always interesting to learn things about famous writers.

[Audioiter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never enough of Virginia Woolf.

[Lourdes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy buen libro, consiso, claro.
Es necesario haber leído con anterioridad libros de VW para sacarle provecho, de lo contrario, es una recopilación de datos sin comprensión completa.

[Charlotte Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great little book packed with enormous information on Virginia Woolf! Loved it!

[Emily Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can tell this was written by a man and one who barely knew much about her, so not sure why he picked her as a subject. I understand it’s a short account, but the writing was not well done.

[counter-hegemonicon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Regardless of her literary talent her personal life was full of too much bourgeois banality, snobbishness, and faux marriages for me to think that I’ll actually enjoy her work

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Her writing style and stories sound very interesting, but I’m most interested in Jacob’s Room. I’m curious how she can make the main character not the main character.

[Poppinka · Rating 3 out of 5]

#poppyreads2018

[Sam Shiraishi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Parte de uma série na qual o autor traz os rudimentos - tanto biográfios, quanto a respeito da obra - de escritores consagrados, 90 minutos me fez ter vontade de reler Mrs. Dalloway, além de me deixar curiosa sobre Orlando e alguns estudos de Virgina Wolf.
Confesso que não compraria, mas ganhei de presente e acabou sendo um achado.

[Jennifer Bacall · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gives a taste of Woolf, but is delivered with a crispness which doesn't allow readers an understanding of the depth of emotional unrest that she struggled with. A book can be slight and still have layers of emotional truth.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this as an audiobook. The reader was slightly boring to listen to. Virginia Woolf lived an interesting life and I wanted to know the details. Now that I know more about her I'm excited to read some of her works in the future.

[Jim Blessing · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was an unusual read for me, both was an interesting one.