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A Society
The plot is about a group of girls who form a society. They vow that none of them will marry or have children until they can determine what men have been doing all the this time and whether it was worth it for women to spend their youth in bearing an raising them
136 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1921
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388 people want to read
About the author
Virginia Woolf
1,839 books28.8k followers(Adeline) Virginia Woolf was an English novelist and essayist regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.
During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929) with its famous dictum, "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929) with its famous dictum, "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 81 reviews
November 1, 2016
AS you keep reading Virginia Woolf, you come to realise that she was extremely well-read, reading books as well as newspapers. It is a well-known fact that the more you read, the better a writer you become. I also came to know that she is not only good at writing serious stories but also humorous ones.
Miss Woolf’s “A Society” deals with a group of female friends sitting in a cafe drinking tea. The author happens to be one of them. Some friends were gazing into a milliner’s shop admiring scarlet feathers and golden slippers while some were building little towers of sugar upon one corner of the tray. Soon they start discussing whether the object of life was producing good people and good books, and more than that whether it was men only who wrote good books. Each friend is asked to go to a place like a library or The House of Commons to put questions to male members of society. From their answers they could easily derive a conclusion.
The Brit author writes "But why does your family grow?" Their wives wished that too, or perhaps it was the British Empire. But more significant than the answers were the refusals to answer. Very few would reply at all to questions about morality and religion, and such answers as were given were not serious.”
In an earlier part of the story she writes: “Clorinda was the first to come to her senses. "It's all our fault," she said. "Every one of us knows how to read. But no one, save Poll, has ever taken the trouble to do it. I, for one, have taken it for granted that it was a woman's duty to spend her youth in bearing children. I venerated my mother for bearing ten; still more my grandmother for bearing fifteen; it was, I confess, my own ambition to bear twenty. We have gone on all these ages supposing that men were equally industrious, and that their works were of equal merit. While we have borne the children, they, we supposed, have borne the books and the pictures. We have populated the world. They have civilized it. But now that we can read, what prevents us from judging the results? Before we bring another child into the world we must swear that we will find out what the world is like."
I was laughing on reading this as I clearly remember many relatives during my schoolboy days in the 1960s having 10 or 12 or even 14 children. Please don’t think this to be an exaggeration. With the passing of another decade, the numbers were coming down to five, six, seven or eight children. In fact, the family-planning slogan of the Indian government during the late ’60s and ’70s was
“Do ya teen bacche (Two or three children
Hote hain ghar mein acche” Are best in a house). But please don’t think that people were scared of the government or had started following rules and regulations, as they were not! For most middle-class people (read husbands and wives) going to bed was the best entertainment they could have. And that too for free. For bachelor boys, Playboy and a local magazine called Debonair was easily available.
By the 1980s, China had clamped down to just one child per family. Those parents who broke the rule were strictly punished and their extra child snatched by the Chinese Government. However, in India or Pakistan, Chinese families could have as many children as they wanted. Nobody could put a plug on their sexual life.
Miss Woolf herself had three full siblings — Thoby, Vanessa and Adrian — and four half-siblings — Laura Makepeace Stephen and George, Gerald and Stella Duckworth. All eight children lived under one roof at 22 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington.
The author writes: “On we went through a vast tangle of statistics. We learnt that England has a population of so many millions, and that such and such a proportion of them is constantly hungry and in prison; that the average size of a working man's family is such, and that so great a percentage of women die from maladies incident to childbirth. Reports were read of visits to factories, shops, slums, and dockyards. Descriptions were given of the Stock Exchange, of a gigantic house of business in the City, and of a Government Office. The British Colonies were now discussed, and some account was given of our rule in India, Africa and Ireland.”
After reading the above-mentioned photograph, I was wondering how true all this holds for Pakistan now. Mind you, Miss Woolf had written “A Society” (one of the stories/essays from “Monday or Tuesday”) way back in 1921 and all she has written held true for England then. Here many women die every year from maladies incident to childbirth. Journalists here keep visiting factories, shops, slums, and ports to cover reports, mostly regarding corruption, production of fake goods, child labour and rise in diseases, especially among children and women.
Virginia Woolf also covers war when men were shouting "War! War! War! Declaration of War!" in the street below the women’s meeting place.
Miss Woolf writes: "Why," we cried, "do men go to war?"
"Sometimes for one reason, sometimes for another," she replied calmly. "In 1760, for example——" The shouts outside drowned her words. "Again in 1797—in 1804—It was the Austrians in 1866—1870 was the Franco-Prussian—In 1900 on the other hand——"
"But it's now 1914!" we cut her short.
"Ah, I don't know what they're going to war for now," she admitted.
Somehow most men love settling all issues with war, and maybe women with peace and kisses only. It is altogether something else where hen-pecked husbands are concerned!
At one place, the stream-of-consciousness author writes while talking about men: “True, they console themselves with stars of all shapes, ribbons of all shades, and incomes of all sizes—but what is to console us? That we shall be able in ten years' time to spend a week-end at Lahore?”
However, there is nothing wrong in spending a weekend at Lahore or even the entire spring or just 31 days in summer as the historical city is full of verdant greenery, broad roads, scrumptious street food, fine restaurants, friendly people, beautiful women, a rich culture and Mughal architecture built by Emperors like Jehangir and Shahjehan. In fact, Jehangir’s tomb is also located in Lahore.
Miss Woolf’s “A Society” deals with a group of female friends sitting in a cafe drinking tea. The author happens to be one of them. Some friends were gazing into a milliner’s shop admiring scarlet feathers and golden slippers while some were building little towers of sugar upon one corner of the tray. Soon they start discussing whether the object of life was producing good people and good books, and more than that whether it was men only who wrote good books. Each friend is asked to go to a place like a library or The House of Commons to put questions to male members of society. From their answers they could easily derive a conclusion.
The Brit author writes "But why does your family grow?" Their wives wished that too, or perhaps it was the British Empire. But more significant than the answers were the refusals to answer. Very few would reply at all to questions about morality and religion, and such answers as were given were not serious.”
In an earlier part of the story she writes: “Clorinda was the first to come to her senses. "It's all our fault," she said. "Every one of us knows how to read. But no one, save Poll, has ever taken the trouble to do it. I, for one, have taken it for granted that it was a woman's duty to spend her youth in bearing children. I venerated my mother for bearing ten; still more my grandmother for bearing fifteen; it was, I confess, my own ambition to bear twenty. We have gone on all these ages supposing that men were equally industrious, and that their works were of equal merit. While we have borne the children, they, we supposed, have borne the books and the pictures. We have populated the world. They have civilized it. But now that we can read, what prevents us from judging the results? Before we bring another child into the world we must swear that we will find out what the world is like."
I was laughing on reading this as I clearly remember many relatives during my schoolboy days in the 1960s having 10 or 12 or even 14 children. Please don’t think this to be an exaggeration. With the passing of another decade, the numbers were coming down to five, six, seven or eight children. In fact, the family-planning slogan of the Indian government during the late ’60s and ’70s was
“Do ya teen bacche (Two or three children
Hote hain ghar mein acche” Are best in a house). But please don’t think that people were scared of the government or had started following rules and regulations, as they were not! For most middle-class people (read husbands and wives) going to bed was the best entertainment they could have. And that too for free. For bachelor boys, Playboy and a local magazine called Debonair was easily available.
By the 1980s, China had clamped down to just one child per family. Those parents who broke the rule were strictly punished and their extra child snatched by the Chinese Government. However, in India or Pakistan, Chinese families could have as many children as they wanted. Nobody could put a plug on their sexual life.
Miss Woolf herself had three full siblings — Thoby, Vanessa and Adrian — and four half-siblings — Laura Makepeace Stephen and George, Gerald and Stella Duckworth. All eight children lived under one roof at 22 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington.
The author writes: “On we went through a vast tangle of statistics. We learnt that England has a population of so many millions, and that such and such a proportion of them is constantly hungry and in prison; that the average size of a working man's family is such, and that so great a percentage of women die from maladies incident to childbirth. Reports were read of visits to factories, shops, slums, and dockyards. Descriptions were given of the Stock Exchange, of a gigantic house of business in the City, and of a Government Office. The British Colonies were now discussed, and some account was given of our rule in India, Africa and Ireland.”
After reading the above-mentioned photograph, I was wondering how true all this holds for Pakistan now. Mind you, Miss Woolf had written “A Society” (one of the stories/essays from “Monday or Tuesday”) way back in 1921 and all she has written held true for England then. Here many women die every year from maladies incident to childbirth. Journalists here keep visiting factories, shops, slums, and ports to cover reports, mostly regarding corruption, production of fake goods, child labour and rise in diseases, especially among children and women.
Virginia Woolf also covers war when men were shouting "War! War! War! Declaration of War!" in the street below the women’s meeting place.
Miss Woolf writes: "Why," we cried, "do men go to war?"
"Sometimes for one reason, sometimes for another," she replied calmly. "In 1760, for example——" The shouts outside drowned her words. "Again in 1797—in 1804—It was the Austrians in 1866—1870 was the Franco-Prussian—In 1900 on the other hand——"
"But it's now 1914!" we cut her short.
"Ah, I don't know what they're going to war for now," she admitted.
Somehow most men love settling all issues with war, and maybe women with peace and kisses only. It is altogether something else where hen-pecked husbands are concerned!
At one place, the stream-of-consciousness author writes while talking about men: “True, they console themselves with stars of all shapes, ribbons of all shades, and incomes of all sizes—but what is to console us? That we shall be able in ten years' time to spend a week-end at Lahore?”
However, there is nothing wrong in spending a weekend at Lahore or even the entire spring or just 31 days in summer as the historical city is full of verdant greenery, broad roads, scrumptious street food, fine restaurants, friendly people, beautiful women, a rich culture and Mughal architecture built by Emperors like Jehangir and Shahjehan. In fact, Jehangir’s tomb is also located in Lahore.
July 17, 2021
"Oh, Cassandra, for Heaven's sake let us devise a method by which men may bear children! It is our only chance. For unless we provide them with some innocent occupation we shall get neither good people nor good books; we shall perish beneath the fruits of their unbridled activity; and not a human being will survive to know that there once was Shakespeare!"
October 4, 2016
"Every one of us knows how to read. But no one, has ever taken the trouble to do it. I, for one, have taken it for granted that it was a woman's duty to spend her youth in bearing children."
When we are young, we go through a phase of wanting to sort everything out and solving the world's problems and making huge differences. We young people, cannot make everything better overnight, but our persistence will sure make a difference.
P.S: the most powerful weapon is knowledge. let's read.
When we are young, we go through a phase of wanting to sort everything out and solving the world's problems and making huge differences. We young people, cannot make everything better overnight, but our persistence will sure make a difference.
P.S: the most powerful weapon is knowledge. let's read.
June 7, 2023
once she knows how to read, there’s only one thing you can teach her to believe in, and that is herself.
well, that would be a change!
well, that would be a change!
February 25, 2022
“Surely you could teach her to believe that a man's intellect is, and always will be, fundamentally superior to a woman's?”
The tongue-in-cheek approach and view on society at this time is brilliantly funny.
The tongue-in-cheek approach and view on society at this time is brilliantly funny.
December 24, 2024
i love when women
October 22, 2025
Conté tres relats. Els dos darrers són més complementaris, però el primer, que dona nom al volum, és IMPRESCINDIBLE. És divertidíssim i supercrític... amb segons quines coses la mandíbula m'anava enterra lol
December 6, 2021
My second Virginia Woolf story? I think? And I'm already obsessed with her?? I loved this short story. It makes you think, it makes you laugh, and it makes you question if it's a good thing that you're a woman who can read.
March 10, 2025
Woolf és impecable, com sempre, en una sèrie de petites històries que, penso, s'entenen molt millor si has llegit la seva biografia. Un indispensable, sens dubte!
October 20, 2025
La primera parte me ha gustado más, como simulando unos diálogos filosóficos pero siendo una versión mejorada con lococoñismo
April 22, 2023
“Mentre nosaltres paríem criatures, ells, suposàvem, parien llibres i pintures. Nosaltres hem poblat el món. Ells l’han civilitzat.”
Aquesta cita és la que apareix a la contraportada i pertany al primer dels tres relats que componen aquest volum i que també li dona nom: “Una societat”, un relat que parla d’un grup de dones que es reuneixen per debatir si tot allò que fan els homes val la pena, i si cal seguir portant nens al món.
També tenim els relats “Memòries d’una novel·lista” i “Kew Gardens”, d’aquest últim, que a més és curtíssim, n’he gaudit molt, ens presenta diversos personatges i animals que passejen i habiten Kew Gardens i fa servir l’estrella de la narració de Woolf, el fluxe de consciència, per passar d’un actor a un altre casi sense adonar-te’n.
Poc més vull explicar d’aquests relats per la seva brevetat, només dir-vos que hi trobareu els ingredients característics que ja trobem en altres obres de Woolf però en format reduït: feminisme, pensament avançat al seu temps, diferència de classes, o el ja comentat fluxe de consciència, en són alguns exemples.
Quan llegeixo Virginia Woolf sempre em quedo amb la sensació que tenia un món interior molt ric i molts pensaments i idees que la van convertir en un personatge històric excepcional. I que no us faci por llegir-la, aquests relats publicats recentment per @calcarre, em semblen una tast perfecte per fer-vos una idea del que trobareu en obres més extenses i conegudes com “La senyora Dalloway”.
Aquesta cita és la que apareix a la contraportada i pertany al primer dels tres relats que componen aquest volum i que també li dona nom: “Una societat”, un relat que parla d’un grup de dones que es reuneixen per debatir si tot allò que fan els homes val la pena, i si cal seguir portant nens al món.
També tenim els relats “Memòries d’una novel·lista” i “Kew Gardens”, d’aquest últim, que a més és curtíssim, n’he gaudit molt, ens presenta diversos personatges i animals que passejen i habiten Kew Gardens i fa servir l’estrella de la narració de Woolf, el fluxe de consciència, per passar d’un actor a un altre casi sense adonar-te’n.
Poc més vull explicar d’aquests relats per la seva brevetat, només dir-vos que hi trobareu els ingredients característics que ja trobem en altres obres de Woolf però en format reduït: feminisme, pensament avançat al seu temps, diferència de classes, o el ja comentat fluxe de consciència, en són alguns exemples.
Quan llegeixo Virginia Woolf sempre em quedo amb la sensació que tenia un món interior molt ric i molts pensaments i idees que la van convertir en un personatge històric excepcional. I que no us faci por llegir-la, aquests relats publicats recentment per @calcarre, em semblen una tast perfecte per fer-vos una idea del que trobareu en obres més extenses i conegudes com “La senyora Dalloway”.
November 12, 2024
"Una vez que aprenda a leer habrá sólo una cosa en la que podrás enseñarle a creer, y es en sí misma."
April 26, 2024
Sens dubte el conte que més m’ha agradat és el que dona títol al recull i per això li poso 4 estrelles, sinó n’hagués posat 3.
No és l’escriptura ni la manera de dir les coses a la que la Virginia ens té acostumades però entenc que aquí l’important és fer arribar el missatge i la crítica. Potser sí que veig més Virginia Woolf a Kew Gardens.
Tenia ganes de llegir-lo i ha estat bé.
4 / 5.
No és l’escriptura ni la manera de dir les coses a la que la Virginia ens té acostumades però entenc que aquí l’important és fer arribar el missatge i la crítica. Potser sí que veig més Virginia Woolf a Kew Gardens.
Tenia ganes de llegir-lo i ha estat bé.
4 / 5.
February 4, 2024
Just pure genius
July 21, 2025
Només valoro Una societat, els altres relats m'han fet molta mandra i ho baixarien al 3 fàcilment (únicament perquè no tenia intenció activa de llegir-los, suposo, i me'ls he llegit mirant les paraules i amb prou feines).
Fantàstic, què divertida i meravellosa!!!! M'ha agradat molt, el rellegiré sempre que en recordi l'existència :)
Fantàstic, què divertida i meravellosa!!!! M'ha agradat molt, el rellegiré sempre que en recordi l'existència :)
February 12, 2023
Qué maravilla de texto. Virginia te amo, ¿cómo podías ser tan inteligente?
June 16, 2023
és el primer llibre de la virginia que m’he llegit i en tenia moltes ganes. tot i així, també era conscient que en ser un llibre de 3 relats curtets i no tan coneguts potser no m’arribarien tant les històries explicades, però no ha estat gens així.
el primer relat “una societat” ha estat el meu preferit, el vocabulari i el que explicava era aparentment simple, però això no ha fet que el relat o la manera d’escriure fos en cap cas ordinària o banal. per mi, la ironia i l’humor són el que fan aquest relat tant especial, que no deixa de ser una crítica i reflexió molt interessant sobre el rol de les dona. a més, m’ha soprès molt perquè hi ha hagut algun moment que m’ha fet riure en veu alta i tot.
a “memòries d’una novel•lista” tampoc no desapareix aquesta picardia tant meravellosa que té la virginia a l’hora d’escriure. m’ha agradat molt, sobretot la primera part on se centra més en com viu la narradora la mort d’aquesta novel•lista en comparació a la resta de gent ordinària.
finalment “kew gardens” no m’ha agradat tant com els altres dos, però crec que simplement ha estat pel fet que era una narració d’un caire més poètic que creava un univers on no he acabat d’entrar a causa de la curta dirada del relat.
bé, en conclusió m’ha semblat una lectura molt amena que combina 3 relats d’històries i temes diversos però que no deixen indiferent a aquell qui els llegeix (almenys els dos primers).
el primer relat “una societat” ha estat el meu preferit, el vocabulari i el que explicava era aparentment simple, però això no ha fet que el relat o la manera d’escriure fos en cap cas ordinària o banal. per mi, la ironia i l’humor són el que fan aquest relat tant especial, que no deixa de ser una crítica i reflexió molt interessant sobre el rol de les dona. a més, m’ha soprès molt perquè hi ha hagut algun moment que m’ha fet riure en veu alta i tot.
a “memòries d’una novel•lista” tampoc no desapareix aquesta picardia tant meravellosa que té la virginia a l’hora d’escriure. m’ha agradat molt, sobretot la primera part on se centra més en com viu la narradora la mort d’aquesta novel•lista en comparació a la resta de gent ordinària.
finalment “kew gardens” no m’ha agradat tant com els altres dos, però crec que simplement ha estat pel fet que era una narració d’un caire més poètic que creava un univers on no he acabat d’entrar a causa de la curta dirada del relat.
bé, en conclusió m’ha semblat una lectura molt amena que combina 3 relats d’històries i temes diversos però que no deixen indiferent a aquell qui els llegeix (almenys els dos primers).
January 1, 2017
"A terrible thing had happened. She could read no more. Books were not what we thought them. "Books," she cried, rising to her feet and speaking with an intensity of desolation which I shall never forget, "are for the most part unutterably bad!""
April 2, 2025
A Society is a story that begs questions. What is the meaning of life? What is good art? What are good people? Is knowledge a blessing or a curse? We should ask questions about the world and formulate opinions, but when one becomes an existentialist who believes the world is doomed, perhaps the questions have gone too far. And what is the point of endlessly questioning and consuming knowledge if we don't do anything with it? Can we even thrive if we only consume and never create? Perhaps the existence of bad art should prompt us not to declare the death of culture but rather to create our own good art.
July 19, 2024
But more significant than the answers where the refusals to answer.
The only reason why we escaped with our lives over and over again Is that men are at most so hungry and so chivalrous. They despise us too much to mind what we say.
Fiction is the mirror of life
The only reason why we escaped with our lives over and over again Is that men are at most so hungry and so chivalrous. They despise us too much to mind what we say.
Fiction is the mirror of life
April 24, 2025
No diu res innecessari i deixa prou clar que les dones s'haurien de reconèixer més en l'àmbit de les arts
June 24, 2025
Para quem como eu tem dificuldade em ler livros de autores clássicos este conto é excelente para começar ✨
October 17, 2025
Qué divertido el relato y qué brillante era ella. “pereceremos bajo el fruto de sus desenfrenadas acciones; ¡y no sobrevivirá finalmente nadie que recuerde a Shakespeare!”
December 31, 2025
"Haven't we bred and fed and kept them in comfort since the beginning of time so that they may be cleverer even if they're nothing else?"
September 7, 2023
3 breus reflexions sobre la desgràcia de ser una dona. Molt original el personatge cargol.
September 24, 2024
Llibre molt curtet. 100% estil Virgia Woolf. 3,5.
September 28, 2022
Bueno pero iba muy rápido la Virgina
#bajaledoscambiosporfi #castaliabestpersonaje
#bajaledoscambiosporfi #castaliabestpersonaje
April 12, 2016
I have never read anything by Virginia Woolf. Her writing style is very distinctive. It twists and turns in a stream of consciousness that appears to be random, but then turns into patterns once you start putting it all together. I guess you could say her writing is like clouds. Everyone sees different things in the shapes of clouds, and everyone gets different interpretations of this writing. Once you figure that out, her work becomes a lot more enjoyable.
So, to this story.
A group of young women endeavor to learn all they can about the world, before they start families of their own. That was the plot, but did they love men? Hate men? I thought the story's theme was men, or feminism, and I was not enjoying it very much.
Then suddenly, midstory, I realized I was looking at things with the wrong lens.
I interpreted this story in a different light, as a nostalgic nod to the confidence of youth, where one believes they can learn everything, do everything, change everything.
It was a lot more fun to read, framed in that light.
My interpretation could be completely off from the writer's intention, but if we get something of value from art, how can that ever be a bad thing?
So, to this story.
A group of young women endeavor to learn all they can about the world, before they start families of their own. That was the plot, but did they love men? Hate men? I thought the story's theme was men, or feminism, and I was not enjoying it very much.
Then suddenly, midstory, I realized I was looking at things with the wrong lens.
I interpreted this story in a different light, as a nostalgic nod to the confidence of youth, where one believes they can learn everything, do everything, change everything.
It was a lot more fun to read, framed in that light.
My interpretation could be completely off from the writer's intention, but if we get something of value from art, how can that ever be a bad thing?
April 2, 2023
" - si els homes escriuren aquesta porqueria, ¿com és que les nostres mares han hagut de desaprofitar la joventut portant-los al món? -
(...)
- és culpa nostra, totes nosaltres sabem llegir, però cap de nosaltres, a part de la Poll, s'ha pres la molèstia de fer-ho. -
(...)
de manera que ens vam constituir en una societat per fer preguntes. (...). ja es veu la nostra ingenuïtat si dic que aquell vespre, abans de separar-nos, vam acordar que els objectius de la vida eren produir bones persones i bons llibres. les nostres preguntes s'havien d'enfocar a descobrir, fins a quin punt, els homes assolien aquests objectius. vam jurar solemnement que no pariríem cap més fill fins que no estiguéssim satisfetes."
(...)
- és culpa nostra, totes nosaltres sabem llegir, però cap de nosaltres, a part de la Poll, s'ha pres la molèstia de fer-ho. -
(...)
de manera que ens vam constituir en una societat per fer preguntes. (...). ja es veu la nostra ingenuïtat si dic que aquell vespre, abans de separar-nos, vam acordar que els objectius de la vida eren produir bones persones i bons llibres. les nostres preguntes s'havien d'enfocar a descobrir, fins a quin punt, els homes assolien aquests objectius. vam jurar solemnement que no pariríem cap més fill fins que no estiguéssim satisfetes."
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