I love Virginia Woolf's writing so much--it is so clever and so rigorous and so sly and so humane. There's several particularly insightful passages that feel like they're altering some things about how my brain works.
ETA: Also, crucial to my experience of Three Guineas (and indeed much of Woolf's nonfiction) is watching someone create arguments from the ground up that I grew up with--say, "the personal is political," which is one of the central arguments of this book. When I first came to that idea in about 2010, it was already lush (perhaps even overgrown) with a tremendous amount of writing, theorizing, academic legitimation. Woolf had none of that--she is making that argument from first principles (although her first principles, of course, are based in a very Victorian upbringing and education, and in her rebellion against that upbringing and education). There are things which, reading now, might strike one as overly drawn-out, or perhaps defensive, but of course she felt it necessary to be cautious in places and circumspect in places and funny about things she felt seriously about in places. And getting to watch her mind work through all of that is in itself such an education, both of how arguments are born and why feminist (sorry Mrs. Woolf for using the word) theory over the generations has taken the shapes it has. ( )

Three Guineas is the other half of the novel-essay conceived by Virginia Woolf that ultimately split apart into a novel (The Years) and an essay-length book (Three Guineas). Here Woolf charmingly responds to the honorary treasurer of an anti-war organization who wants her to donate to and join their cause. Before sending him her guinea, though Woolf explores how she, as an "educated man's daughter" could most effectively help the pacifist cause while also mulling over requests from two other honorary treasurers raising money for women's education and for support in women entering the professions. Backed up by numerous quotations from newspapers, biographies, and diaries/letters, Woolf weaves a compelling, logical, and witty response to her requestors. Written on the brink of World War II, and mere decades after British women had won the right to vote, to get an education, and to enter the professions, the arguments feel like more than just an intellectual exercise -- there is really something at stake here. Often seen as a companion piece to A Room of One's Own, Woolf's take-down of the patriarchy and her understanding of its impact on the lives of women continue to feel fresh and vibrant. She also gives David Foster Wallace a run for his money in the funny footnote department. ( )

I found many truths in this book about the value of treatment of women that are , unfortunately, still true today. However, I felt the book was too detailed and too repetitive to make its case well. It also was directed to Brits so I did not possess foreknowledge of many of many of the references. ( )

Hacer a un lado todas las preocupaciones y estudios terrenales y delegarlos a otra persona constituye una motivación muy atractiva para algunos; pues indudablemente hay quienes quieren retirarse y estudiar, como demuestran la teología con sus refinamientos y la erudición con sus sutilezas; para otros, es cierto, esa motivación es una motivación pobre, mezquina, el motivo de la separación entre la Iglesia y el pueblo, entre la literatura y el pueblo, entre el marido y la mujer, y que ha desempeñado un papel importante en sacar de quicio a la totalidad de la Commonwealth. Pero cualesquiera sean las motivaciones fuertes e inconscientes que subyacen a la exclusión de las mujeres del sacerdocio -y es evidente que aquí no vamos a enumerarlas, mucho menos escarbar hasta sus raíces-, la hija del hombre instruido puede confirmar, a partir de su experiencia, que “es común, e incluso frecuente, que dichas concepciones sobrevivan en el adulto a pesar de la irracionalidad que las caracteriza y traicionen su presencia debajo del nivel del pensamiento consciente a causa la fuerza de los sentimientos que despiertan”.

Virginia Woolf's essays on on a letter to a long unanswered letter asking her to join a society on the prevention of war. Her Woolf is at her snarkiest. She describes the new class of men that arose in England. Those who are not nobility but have made a comfortable living because they are educated. Woolf plays (lived) the role of a "daughter of an educated man." This indicates that she herself is not a recognized person but rather a part or extension of another.

Woolf covers three main topics in her essays -- Prevention of War, Education, and the employment of women. The prevention of war and education for women blend nicely together. Repeated through out the essays is that 300,000,000 is spent on the military. A daughter of an educated woman can, with experience earn 250 pounds a year. Women in allowed employment roles earn significantly less than men for the same positions. Woolf not only describes the current problems but also offers some solutions. An interesting read from 1938 that has still is still felt today with wage inequality and war. Although education is open, the thought of crippling student debt is now a reality. ( )