A Room of One s Own, based on a lecture given at Girton College Cambridge, is one of the great feminist polemics, ranging in its themes from Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte to the silent fate of Shakespeare s gifted (imaginary) sister and the effects of poverty and sexual constraint on female creativity. Three Guineas was published almost a decade later and breaks new ground in its discussion of men, militarism and wome s attitudes towards war. These two pieces reveal Virginia Woolf s fiery spirit and sophisticated wit and confirm her status as a highly inspirational essayist.