Ranging from the silent fate of Shakespeare's gifted imaginary sister to Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte and the effects of poverty and sexual constraint on female creativity, A Room of One's Own, based on a lecture given by Woolf at Girton College, Cambridge, is one of the great feminist polemics. Published almost a decade later, Three Guineas breaks new ground in its discussion of men, militarism and women's attitudes towards war. These two pieces reveal Virginia Woolf's indomitable spirit, sophisticated wit and genius as an essayist.