wharton silence ornament virginia

books:

Ornament and Silence: Essays on Women's Lives From Edith Wharton to Germaine Greer

1 review
Kennedy Fraser

Vintage, 1998

Feminine relevance
I read this book at a time when a friendship I'd held near and dear ended irrationally and insensitively, my kids were growing into independent teens, but also a time when my 18-year marriage was coming into a state of profound comfort and happiness. However, I was also in the midst of finishing a college degree, working on writings I hoped to have published, and coping with the diagnosis of ...

Ornament and Silence : Essays on Women's Lives, from Virginia Woolf to Germaine Greer

2 reviews
Kennedy Fraser

Knopf, 1996

A must have for your home library
I re-read this book from time to time, the focus on different essays depending on where I am in my own life. The chapter on Virginia Woolf is one of the best essays on Woolf for this Woolfian scholar. Fraser describes how Virginia and Vanessa Stephen's father, Sir Leslie Stephen, wandered around their Victorian house weeping after his wife died. "I am a man without a skin," he said. He reportedly ...