THE YEARS BY VIRGINIA WOOLF

“Millions of things came back to her. Atoms danced apart and massed themselves. But how did they compose what people called a life? She clenched her hands and felt the hard little coins she was holding. Perhaps there’s ‘I’ at the middle of it, she thought; a knot; a centre; and again she saw herself sitting at her table drawing on the blotting paper, digging little holes from which spokes radiated. Out and out they went; thing followed thing, scene obliterated scene.”

Virginia Woolf, The Years

Each study in St Ives is magical. The light, the smell and sound of the sea gilds the intensive study with a unique sense of stepping into another world. This study of The Years, the last novel published by Virginia Woolf while she was still alive, expands our time in Cornwall to five days as requested by past participants. We will meet Wednesday evening for our first exploration with six more meetings spread over the following days to allow time for enjoyment of the natural and cultural gems offered in this beautiful place. This will be the Salon’s first study of The Years and will have the exploratory energy that a first Salon study offers.

The Years is described as a family saga – and is often considered more accessible than other works by Woolf. With the experience of many studies of To the Lighthouse, Between the Acts, The Waves and Mrs Dalloway, I have come to relish the subtle profundity beneath the language experimentation and interior explorations that Woolf offers. The Years engages history – the personal history of a family, the mantel of history of a people, the sense of a denigrated future in the shadow of historical myths and mistakes – and considers how various characters negotiate this troubled inheritance. Woolf moves deftly between the individual and the larger cultural landscapes – illuminating how one person can exist in their vulnerable selfhood amidst the waves of the world around them.

To understand this book, you will want to read with a wide-awake mind and then re-read once you have played on the surface of plot and character. Notice how the descriptions along the edges – the fragments, the other stories invoked, the changing weather passages – all comment on and expand the central narrative. We will also consider essays from her work, The Pargiters – the theoretical framework that Woolf wrote alongside The Years but then excluded from the text. This has become available in Mitchell Leaska’s edition: “The Pargiters is interesting in its own right for the insight it offers into Woolf’s politics, which she expresses more bluntly in the novel-essay than she ever had before.” (R. Higney, Modernism Lab)

SALON DETAILS: 

• Five-day Meeting in St Ives – approximately 14 hours of study
• Meeting in St Ives, Cornwall; facilitated by Salon Director Toby Brothers
• Cost £325, includes notes and critical resources (travel and accommodation not included)
• RECOMMENDED EDITION: The Years by Virginia Woolf (Vintage Classics Woolf Series) Paperback – 6 Oct 2016 ISBN-10: 1784872237.
• If possible, please also purchase The Pargiters – this book is difficult to find and tends to be pricey – if you cannot find an affordable edition, please contact us – I have a few editions for purchase or loan.