Virginia Woolf in Alfriston 2027 (Study 2) - Orlando

This will be our fifth year offering opportunities to read Virginia Woolf in East Sussex, a county which in many ways became the writer’s spiritual home. Basing ourselves in the village of Alfriston, we can consider her work surrounded by some of the countryside she loved best. In 2027 we will run two long weekend studies: the first (8-11 April) will focus on her 1927 masterpiece To the Lighthouse in its centenary year; while in the second (15-18 April) we will explore her 1928 novel Orlando.

As one of the key members of the celebrated Bloomsbury Group, Woolf is often seen as a London writer, but she and her husband Leonard had an abiding love for the South Downs. Together they purchased Monk’s House near Rodmell in 1919 and used it as their writers’ retreat. Virginia created some of her major works there and the Sussex landscape was integral to her writing as she tried to capture what she saw as its unsurpassable beauty.

There are a number of other Bloomsbury outposts in the area: in 1916 Virginia’s sister, Vanessa Bell, moved to Charleston Farmhouse with the painter Duncan Grant, while John Maynard Keynes and his wife Lydia Lopokova also settled locally. In the nearby Weald of Kent stands Sissinghurst Castle, which Vita Sackville-West bought with her husband Harold Nicolson before creating together what would become one of England’s best-loved gardens.

Inspired by Vita Sackville-West, her close friend and lover, Virginia Woolf’s mock-biography, Orlando, has been called ‘the longest love letter in the English language.’ The central character survives centuries and emulates Tiresias (the blind prophet of Thebes who was transformed into a woman for seven years and then back into a man). By changing genders, Orlando is given the unique ability to compare what it is to be male and what it is to be female.

You can view the trailer for Sally Potter’s extraordinary 1992 film of Orlando starring Tilda Swinton below.

“At any rate, it was not until she felt the coil of skirts about her legs and the Captain offered, with the greatest politeness, to have an awning spread for her on deck, that she realised with a start the penalties and privileges of her position.”

Virginia Woolf, Orlando

Critics disagree about how to categorise Orlando, is it an ironic biography or an imagined autobiography? The proposal of Virginia Woolf as a comic genius is not how we usually consider this writer of such nuance and profundity, whose work combines narrative beauty, unique aesthetic and remarkable understanding of the depths of the human mind. In this book she seeks to probe the limits of gender, writing long before gender was understood to be a social construct.

Woolf was, as always, ahead of her time.and, as always, reading the work and participating in the discussions it provokes – around gender, same-sex love, societal constraints, the search for joy across historical epochs and the genre of biography itself – will illuminate the chaotic world we live in, where gender continues to be problematised and re-considered.

“Memory is the seamstress, and a capricious one at that. Memory runs her needle in and out, up and down, hither and thither. We know not what comes next, or what follows after. Thus, the most ordinary movement in the world, such as sitting down at a table and pulling the inkstand towards one, may agitate a thousand odd, disconnected fragments, now bright, now dim, hanging and bobbing and dipping and flaunting, like the underlinen of a family of fourteen on a line in a gale of wind.”

Virginia Woolf, Orlando

JOINING DETAILS:

• To ask questions please email us at litsalon@gmail.com using ‘Orlando in Alfriston 2027’ as the subject line. To reserve a place please use the form below to pay an initial deposit of £50. Full payment will be due using bank transfer by 31 January 2027.
• Four-day in-person study facilitated by Toby Brothers and Karina Jakubowicz
• Thursday 15 – Sunday 18 April 2027, Alfriston, East Sussex
• This is an opportunity to enjoy the locale, including visiting Charleston House, Charleston in Lewes and Monk’s House, as well as joining with other readers in discussing Woolf’s achievement in Orlando and its relationship to Woolf’s other works. We will also research outings in the area based on exhibits that will be available at the time of our visit, opportunities will be added to the schedule as we confirm the best options.
• As in previous years, we are in conversation with our fellow enthusiasts at Much Ado Books in Alfriston, who have created a great community that celebrates reading and the art of books in wonderful ways. Together we will offer an event celebrating Woolf and Orlando during our stay there.
• £550 for twelve hours (or more) of study in six meetings spread over four days, plus accommodation costs which must be booked and paid for direct (please see details below).
• Please note that participants are responsible for booking their own travel, accommodation and any insurance required (travel insurance is recommended if you are visiting the UK from overseas, just in case).
• We will stay at Wingrove House, a 19th century colonial-style country house hotel set in the beautiful and historic village of Alfriston, East Sussex in the South Downs National Park. We will be within easy reach of sites associated with Bloomsbury, making it the ideal choice for Woolf-related Salons. We expect the cost per night, including breakfast, to start at £192.00 per room, rising to a maximum of £262.50 (charges vary across a range of accommodation). These rates are discounted for London Literary Salon participants, but the hotel is very popular and the accommodation is not reserved in advance, so please book your room as soon as possible after registering for the study and mention the London Literary Salon when booking.
• Recommended edition: Orlando by Virginia Woolf, Vintage Classics, ISBN: 9781784870850