Three Guineas

From one of the twentieth century's major literary figures, Three Guineas is written as a series of letters in which Virginia Woolf ponders the efficacy of donating to various causes to prevent war — and a statement of feminine purpose. Setting out to answer the question “How are we to prevent war?” Virginia Woolf argues that the inequalities between women and men must first be addressed. Framing her arguments in the form of a letter, Woolf wittily ponders to whom — among the many who have requested it — she will donate a guinea. As she works out her reasons for which causes she will support, Woolf articulates a vision of peace and political culture as radical now as it was when first published on the eve of the Second World War. A founding text of cultural theory, Three Guineas can also help us understand the twenty-first-century realities of endless war justified by “unreal loyalties.” “Witty, scornful, deeply serious…If you are a woman, or anti-war, or both, read it.”—The New Yorker