Virago Modern Classic Book Club – The Women’s Room

The March VMC book club pick was The Women’s Room, by Marilyn French. As a landmark text in feminist literature, it was an appropriate choice for the month which houses International Women’s Day and the Virago #BooksforChange social media challenge.

The Women’s Room was first published in 1977, and is a biting social commentary of a world gone silently haywire and still has profound resonance today. The book is a modern allegory that offers piercing insight into the social norms accepted blindly and revered so completely.

Buy The Women’s Room here:

Hive | Waterstones | Amazon UK.

Praise for The Women’s Room:

‘They said this book would change lives – and it certainly changed mine’ Jenni Murray 

‘Reading The Women’s Room was an intense and wonderful experience. It is in my DNA’ Kirsty Wark

‘The Women’s Room erupted in 1977. It took the lid off a seething mass of women’s frustrations, resentments and furies; it was an angry book about the victimisation of women, about the need to change things from top to bottom; it was a declaration of independence’ Observer

‘Alerts you to the dangers of marriage and 2.4 children’ Cosmopolitan (‘Books That Will Change Your Life’)

‘A full-throated battle cry against male oppression’ Evening Standard

‘The Women’s Room is a wonderful novel, full of life and passions that ring true. Its fierceness, its relentless refusal to compromise are as stirring as a marching song’ Washington Post

‘I am Marilyn French’s fervent admirer’ Fay Weldon

Keep your eyes peeled for the announcement of each book on Virago’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram on the 1st of the month, and do let us know what you think of The Women’s Room using #VMCBookClub.