Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-15
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BookloVer.

Virginia Woolf, daughter of Sir Leslie
| Stephen and granddaughter of Thack-
cray probably ewes at least some of her
| literary subtlety to ancestry. As a fem
| mist she is no militant. She uses a
method which Is perhaps more deadly
and is certainly more attractive than
! militancy, the method of satire Her
| book, "A Room of Ones own" osten-
sibly discussion of women as writer's
of fiction. is really Satirical arraign-
ment of the position forced upon wom-
en- by masculine society in the past and
almost until the present time This
| rather long essay is based upon two
| papers about women and fiction read
before the Arts Society of NEWMAN
College and the Odtaa of Girton Col
| lege. If the essay were a sermon, we
should say that it has a text-that "a
| woman must have money and a room
! of her own If she is to write fiction ;"
| Why are women always so much poorer
than men? Why was Jane Austen
obliged to write her novels in the fam
| lily living room? Why has 1t never been
| considered as necessary for a woman tn
have a good education as for a man?
Why do men write so voluminously
about women as a sex, when women
write so little about men in generalp
Why have women written such a COM
|
of the world? Why do so many women
rarely have a half hour that they can
call their own? Why are women even
today to such a great extent considered
merely in their relation to men? Whv
| has there never been a woman Shake
! speare? Why is it so difficult to raise
money for womens educational instisu-
tons when millions are often raised
easily for those Of men? All these
questions Mrs. Woolf asks, but. because
she is a delightful essayist and not a
propagandistI she does not fully an
swer them.
The first chapter of "a Room of ones
Own tells OF the authors visit to the
mythical college for men called OK
bridge" where she was entertained at
! luncheon: then to the equally mythical
but equally easy to identify college for
women called "Fernham," where she
was entertained at dinner. At OK
bridge she strolled along the river
banks, thinking of the paper she had
been asked to give on Women and Fic-
ton" Absent-mindedly walking across
a grass plot, she was intercepted by a
gesticulating figure in cutaway coat,
who turned out to be a beadle His
face expressed horror and indignation.
Instinct rather than reason came to
my help; he was beadle; was a
woman. This was the turf; there was
the path. Only the Fellows and Schol-
arS are allowed here; the gravel is The
place for me-" Musing on Charles
Lamb and Milton, she remembered that
the manuscript of "Lycidas" was in the
famous library only few hundred
yards away, and crossed the quadrangle
to the door of the library. II must
| 60 ,aX1 L.
sued, like a guardian angel barring the
way with a fiutter of black gown instead
of white wings, a deprecating, silvery,
| kindly gentleman, who regretted in a
low voice as he waved me back that Ia
dies are only admitted to the library If
accompanied by Fellow of the Col
lege or furnished with letter of intro
duction. That famous library has
been cursed by woman is matter of
complete indifference TO a famous Ii
brary." She heard organ music issuing
from one of the college chapels, but Il
had no wish to enter had the right,
and this time the verger might have
stopped me, demanding perhaps my
baptismal certificate, or g letter Of in
PRODUCTION from the DEAN"
u X X X
A comparison of the epicurean lunch
con served her at OXbridge with the
unappetizing dinner which she ate later
with the girls of Fernham stirS in her
dream of all that has gone into the
creation of the two colleges. Defylng
the novelist's convention not to mention
the food Of social occasions. but TO
dwell upon the witty conversation, she
tells us that "the lunch on this oc-
casion began with soles, sunk in deep
dish, over which the college cook had
! nf t7n NIyri
cream, save that it was branded here
and there with brown spots like the
spots on the tanks of a doe. After
that came the cartridges, but If this
suggests a couple of bald, brown birds
on a plate you are mistaken. The
cartridges, many and various, came with
all their retinue of sauces and salads
the sharp and the sweet, each in Its
order; their potatoes, thin as coins, but
not so hard; their sprouts, foliated as
rosebudS but more succulent. And no
fsooner had the roast and its retinue been
done with than the silent serving man
the beadle himself perhaps in a milder
manifestation, set before us, wreathed
in napkins, a CONNECTION which rose all
sugar from the waves. To call 1t pud-
ding and so relate 1t to rice and tapioca
would be an insult Meanwhile the
wineglasses had flushed yellow and
flushed crimson, had been emptied, had
been filled. And thus by degrees was
lit, half way down the spine, which is
the seat of the soul, not that hard little
electric light which we call brilliance,
as 1t pops in and out upon our lips
but the more. profound. subtle and
subterranean glow, which is the rich
yellow flame of rational intercourse
That evening she dined with a famous
woman scholar, bent and shabbily clad
in the great dining hall of Fernham
Here was the soup. 1t was plain gravy
soup. There was nothing to stir the
fancy in that. One could have seen
through the transparent liquid any pat
tern that there might have been on the
plate itself. But there was no pattern
The plate was plain. Next came beef
with its attendant green's and pota-
toes-a homely trinity, suggesting the
rumps Of cattle in muddy market, and
sprouts curled and yellowed at the edge
and bargaining and cheapening, and
women with string bags on Monday
morning. There was no reason to COM
plain of human natures daily food, See-
ing that the supply was sufficient and
coal miners doubtless were sitting down
to less. PruneS and cuStard followed.
And If any one complains that prunes,
even when mitigated by custard, are
an uncharitable vegetable (fruit they
are not), stringy as a miser's heart and
exuding fluid such as might run in
misers' veins who have denied them
selves wine and warmth for 80 years
and yet not given to the poor, he
should reflect that there are people
whose charity embraces even the prune.
Biscuits and cheese came next, and here
the water jug was literally passed
round, for 1t is the nature of biscuits
to be dry, and these were biscuits to
the core. That was ALL" The luxurious
meal at Oxbridge symbolized to Mrs.
Wooli tine Intending stream Of gold and