The word is made light by Virginia Woolf

Almost a century ago, in a cloistered and gendered academic environment, one of the most important speeches of the 20th century was delivered. The students of Newnham and Girton colleges at the University of Cambridge in England had asked for a speech on the topic “Women and Fiction”.

They had specified the subject because their colleges were female-only and they had invited one of the great writers of the time — indeed of any time — to address it. As they settled down to hear the speaker...