The first major poem in English literature, Beowulf was composed between the eighth and eleventh centuries in a language which few English speakers understand today. Set in the warrior societies of dark age Denmark and Sweden, it tells of the hero Beowulf and his three victorious fights with the monstrous creature Grendel, with Grendel’s ferocious, vengeful mother, and with a venomous, fire-breathing, treasure-hoarding dragon. It is also, in the words of celebrated author and editor Maria Dahvana Headley, a recent translator of the poem, “a dazzling, furious, funny, vicious, desperate, hungry, beautiful, mutinous, maudlin, supernatural, rapturous shout”.

We will be reading Beowulf in Headley’s acclaimed, radical, ‘feminist’ version – “brash and belligerent, lunatic and invigorating” as The New Yorker describes it. It’s “a Beowulf for our moment”, focusing on themes of toxic masculinity, power dynamics and warrior-bonding while, in the words of Professor Carolyne Larrington, allowing “space for the poem’s women to stretch and breathe”.

Headley declares that the lines in her translation are “structured for speaking, and for speaking in contemporary rhythms” and she maintains the alliterative and rhythmic drive of the original. This is a translation which demands to be read aloud and to be heard attentively, and this study will provide an opportunity so to honour both poem and translation.

Every translation is a new interpretation of the original, Headley’s more brashly and explicitly than most. As we read, we will also keep one eye on more traditional translations (and from time to time scrutinise the original Old English) to try to discern other themes and ideas haunting the world of Beowulf.

JOINING DETAILS:

Four-meeting study led by Tim Swinglehurst live on Zoom

Thursday 2, 9, 16 & 23 July 2026, 6.00-8.00 pm (UK time)

We will read the translation by Maria Dahvana Headley, published by Scribe UK, ISBN: ‎ 978-1911617822

£140.00 for four meetings.

Organizer

Tim Swinglehurst

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2 July 2026 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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*Portrait of John Keats by William Hilton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*

John Keats wrote all six of the odes that anchor his legacy in 1819 — five of them in a two-month period, during April and May, and the sixth that September. In October of the same year he turned 24. Seventeen months later, at the age of 25, Keats died in Rome of tuberculosis, leaving behind one of the most concentrated periods of lyric achievement in English literary history.

In addition to covering all of Keats’ odes, in this six-week study we will also examine their extraordinary influence on the lyric tradition by examining other works that wrestle with Keats’ canonical meditations on art, beauty, truth and transience.

Week 1: Ode to Psyche — We begin the study by discussing the first ode in Keats’ sequence — his first mature work — contrasted with two poems by Wallace Stevens, one of Keats’ best known modern admirers and critics. Like Keats, the earlier Stevens poem builds a mental shrine to an internalized goddess of imagination; the later poem is the last one Stevens ever wrote, while he knew he was dying (published posthumously).

Wallace Stevens: To the One of Fictive Music (1923) & Of Mere Being (1955)

Week 2: Ode to a Nightingale — written in early May 1819, reportedly composed in a single morning under a plum tree in the garden of Wentworth Place (now Keats House, Hampstead).

Emily Dickinson: I Heard a Fly buzz — when I died (1862)

Rita Dove: Reverie in Open Air (2003)

Week 3: Ode on a Grecian Urn — written May 1819, closely contemporary with the Nightingale ode. The two are often read as companion pieces exploring related problems of art, permanence, and mortality from different angles.

Wallace Stevens: The Poems of Our Climate (1942)

Eavan Boland: The Dolls Museum in Dublin (1992)

Week 4: Ode on Melancholy — written May 1819.

William Butler Yeats: Sailing to Byzantium (1927)

Sylvia Plath: Tulips (1961)

Week 5: Ode on Indolence — also May 1819, though it was the last of the Spring odes to be published (posthumously in 1848).

Wallace Stevens: The Snow Man (1921)

Anne Carson: The Keats Headaches (2019) a handout will be supplied

Week 6: To Autumn — written on 19 September 1819, in Winchester, after Keats took an evening walk along the water meadows of the River Itchen.

Mary Oliver: The Summer Day (1990)

John Berryman: Dream Song 14 (1964)

JOINING DETAILS:

Six meeting study, live on Zoom, led by Dr Nancy Goldstein

Thursdays, 6.30-8.30 pm (UK time), 4 June – 9 July

£240 for six meetings

REDUCED COSTS: We are committed to making our studies as affordable as possible. We can’t promise to help but please email us if you would like to be considered for a reduced-fee place (your details will be treated as confidential).

Organizer

Nancy Goldstein

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Time

2 July 2026 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm(GMT+01:00)

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'Loosening the ligaments': A LitSalon community of writers - Block 3SIX FACILITATED ONLINE MEETINGS TO SUPPORT CREATIVE WRITING PRACTICE, JULY-SEPTEMBER 20262026tue07jul5:00 pm7:00 pm5:00 pm - 7:00 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized ByAlison CableType of studyCreative Writing

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“But what is more to the point is my belief that the habit of writing thus for my own eye only is good practice. It loosens the ligaments. Never mind the misses and the stumbles. Going at such a pace as I do I must make the most direct and instant shots at my object, and thus have to lay hands on words, choose them and shoot them with no more pause than is needed to put my pen in the ink.”

Virginia Woolf, A Writer’s Diary

An invitation to writers of all levels (beginners are as welcome as the more experienced) — to loosen the ligaments, put perfection aside, and write for the quiet joy of discovery; to share a space where words unfold boldly, imperfectly, and in response to curiosity.

Rooted in the ethos of the London Literary Salon — where close reading and conversation open pathways to deeper understanding — this writing series, facilitated by Alison Cable, extends the same spirit of inquiry into creative practice. An invitation to explore writing as a way of thinking, feeling, and knowing.

Each block of three months offers a gentle rhythm of practice: a facilitated Anchor Session followed later in the month by a companion Open Writing Session, where you can return to your work, deepen the ideas sparked in the workshop, and write alongside others in quiet company.

How it works

Anchor Session (first Tuesday of each month, 5.00-7.00 pm, UK time):
A guided workshop exploring a theme, text, or prompt through discussion, short exercises and optional sharing. These sessions provide inspiration and direction for your writing practice.

Open Writing Session (third Tuesday of each month, 5:00–6:30 pm, UK time):
A lightly held, communal writing space in which you can develop your ideas, try new forms, or simply write in the company of others. Optional check-in and sharing at the end.

Block Pass: £105 for three months (includes three Anchor Sessions and three companion Open Writing Sessions). This block encourages continuity and engagement, with sessions scheduled monthly to help you build a routine.

Single Sessions: please enquire.

Block 1: January – March 2026

Anchor: 6 January | 3 February | 3 March

Open: 20 January | 17 February | 17 March

Block 2: April – June 2026

Anchor: 7 April | 5 May | 2 June

Open: 28 April | 19 May | 23 June

Block 3: July – September 2026

Anchor: 7 July | 4 August | 1 September

Open: 21 July | 18 August | 15 September

Block 4: October – December 2026

Open: 20 October | 17 November | 22 December

Anchor: 6 October | 3 November | 1 December

Organizer

Alison Cable

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Time

7 July 2026 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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The Odyssey, HomerTWELVE-MEETING STUDY, LIVE ON ZOOM, 19 MAY - 4 AUGUST 20262026tue07jul5:00 pm7:00 pm5:00 pm - 7:00 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized BySusanna Taggart & Caroline HammondType of studyClassicalFrequencyWeekly

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“Tell me the tale of a man, Muse, who had so many roundabout ways
To wander, driven off course, after sacking Troy’s hallowed keep;
Many the peoples whose cities he saw and whose ways of thinking he learned,
Many the toils he suffered at sea, anguish in his heart
As he struggled to safeguard his life and the homecoming of his companions.”

The opening lines of Daniel Mendelsohn’s translation of Homer’s Odyssey

“This may be the best translation of The Odyssey yet.”
Edith Hall, The Telegraph

Following their twelve-week study of The Iliad, facilitators Susanna Taggart and Caroline Hammond will tackle The Odyssey in the same format, covering two books per session, allowing time to look at the text from many angles: its historical context, the debates surrounding its authorship, its literary and psychological subtexts and its enduring influence on modern culture in the English-speaking world and beyond. We will combine a close reading of the text and a wider focus, including poems and art inspired by the epic, consideration of the psychology of war and return, and images of museum exhibits.

Published in 2025, the celebrated author, critic and classicist Daniel Mendelsohn’s acclaimed translation has brought The Odyssey to new life. Readers have praised this line-for-line translation for capturing the epic’s formal qualities – meter, enjambment, alliteration and assonance to produce a work full of the beauty and music of the original as well as its archaic grandeur.

“The plot of The Odyssey is not long in the telling. A man has been away from home for many years. Poseidon is always on the watch for him; he is all alone. As for the situation at home, his goods are being laid waste by the Suitors, who plot against his son. After a storm-tossed journey, he returns home, where he reveals himself, destroys his enemies, and is saved.”

Aristotle, Poetics, translated by Daniel Mendelsohn

Writers from Dante to James Joyce to Margaret Atwood have been inspired by the story of Odysseus and his quest to return home after ten years of war. In Homer’s telling, the world of Odysseus is both vast and intimate with the smallest details – from flowers growing outside Kalypso’s cave to the performance of everyday household tasks – rendered in vivid detail. It is a story that asks questions about what it means to be human, particularly when Odysseus has been stripped of the context that has previously defined him: he is a warrior whose war is long over, a leader who has lost all of his men, a father who has missed his son growing up and a husband lost to his wife. Join us to explore the complexity and difficulty of this central character and why the poem remains at the heart of our shared literary culture today.

JOINING DETAILS:

Twelve two-hour meetings live on Zoom, led by Caroline Hammond and Susanna Taggart

Tuesdays, 5.00 -7.00 pm (BST), 19 May – 4 August 2026

Optional one-hour session for final reflections on Tuesday 11 August

Recommended edition: The Odyssey: A New Translation by Daniel Mendelsohn, ISBN: 9780241733585. Please note, the paperback edition will be released on 23 April 2026.

£420 for twelve meetings with two facilitators, to include opening notes and resources.

Organizer

Susanna Taggart & Caroline Hammond

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Time

7 July 2026 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Jane Eyre - Charlotte BrontëEIGHT-MEETING STUDY, LIVE ON ZOOM, LED BY KARINA JAKUBOWICZ, 19 MAY-7 JULY 20262026tue07jul6:00 pm8:00 pm6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized ByKarina JakubowiczType of studyLiteratureFrequencyWeekly

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“I see at intervals the glance of a curious sort of bird through the close-set bars of a cage: a vivid, restless, resolute captive is there; were it but free, it would soar cloud-high.”

Jane Eyre is a profoundly important novel. It is a stalwart of feminist literature, a challenge to social hierarchy and arguably instigated the ‘inward turn’ in narrative fiction, where psychological factors became just as significant as events in the active world. From the beginning of the narrative, Jane is an interior being, brimming with anger and an acute sense of injustice. As she navigates her neglectful family, abusive school and unnerving first job as a governess, she is challenged to remain true to her convictions and follow through with what she believes.

In our discussions we’ll cover our personal responses to Jane’s plight. What does Brontë mean by presenting these challenges to the reader, and what do we make of them? Furthermore, we might think of how characters such as Adele, Bertha Mason and Mrs Fairfax elaborate on these challenges. Issues we may dwell on include: social injustice, the lives of children, postcolonial perspectives, feminist perspectives, psychology, and notions of space and landscape.

JOINING DETAILS:

Eight-meeting study, live on Zoom, led by Karina Jakubowicz

Tuesdays, 19, 26 May & 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 June & 7 July 2026, 6.00-8.00 pm (UK)

Recommended edition: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Penguin Classics, ISBN: 9780141441146

£320.00 for eight two-hour meetings

Organizer

Karina Jakubowicz

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Time

7 July 2026 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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W.G. Sebald - AusterlitzEIGHT-MEETINGS, LIVE ON ZOOM, LED BY LEWIS WARD, 8 JULY - 26 AUGUST 20262026wed08jul7:00 pm9:00 pm7:00 pm - 9:00 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized ByLewis WardType of studyLiteratureFrequencyWeekly

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‘I think of how little we can hold in mind, how everything is constantly lapsing into oblivion with every extinguished life, how the world is, as it were, draining itself, in that the history of countless places and objects which themselves have no power of memory is never heard, never described or passed on.’

Austerlitz

‘His art is a form of justice’

Rachel Cusk

The last book by the great German writer W. G. Sebald, Austerlitz (2001), tells the story of one individual’s twentieth century trauma through the repression and return of his memory and belated investigations into his origins.

‘Jacques Austerlitz’ is a Kindertransport survivor who spent most of his adult life avoiding any knowledge of the Third Reich, including his own involvement and his family’s fate. When memory returns, the effect is shattering and seismic. At once a study of a traumatised consciousness at the limit, and a new way of apprehending (and beginning to understand) the degenerate history of the twentieth century.

This may seem like more than enough to be going on with, but as a literary work Austerlitz is so much more. With no chapters, few paragraphs, and dotted throughout with ambiguous photographs, this doesn’t look much like an ordinary novel. And indeed it partakes of many other genres, including memoir, travelogue, philosophy, history . . . Long passages are devoted to architectural history, birds, the nature of time, early aviation and religion in Wales, topics which may or may not relate to the central themes of the book.

And as in all Sebald’s prose narratives, there is the mysterious narrator, someone who both is and is not the author, who listens with respect and empathy to Austerlitz’s story, meeting him by chance over several decades, and who adds his own documentations and investigations to the story. The result is a book that is beautifully written, revelatory and ultimately almost unbearably moving.

Over the eight weeks of this study we will begin to answer the following questions, among others:

What does this novel tell us about the nature of memory itself?

What are the ethical and moral quandaries faced by both writer and reader of this book?

How do Sebald’s unique style and technique – at once archaic and postmodern, German and English – enhance our appreciation and understanding of the narrative?

What connects the author-narrator to his traumatized subject?

What role do the enigmatic, caption-less photographs and images play in the text?

What is the background to the writing of this book, and its inspiration (much has been discovered since the author’s death)?

JOINING DETAILS:

Eight-meeting study, live on Zoom, led by Lewis Ward

Wednesday 8 July – 26 August, 7.00-9.00 pm

£280.00 for eight two-hour meetings

Recommended edition: Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald, Penguin, ISBN: 9780241951804

Organizer

Lewis Ward

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Time

8 July 2026 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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“Awake, arise or be for ever fall’n”: Encounter Milton’s Epic Vision in Paradise LostEIGHT-MEETING STUDY, LIVE ONLINE, 14 JULY - 1 SEPTEMBER 2026, 5.00-7.30 PM (UK)2026tue14jul5:00 pm7:30 pm5:00 pm - 7:30 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized ByJulie SutherlandType of studyPoetryFrequencyWeekly

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*Satan Calling Up His Legions, William Blake, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*

Step into the vast cosmos of John Milton’s Paradise Lost in this immersive eight-week study. More than a poem, Milton’s epic is a world unto itself, one with vaulted heavens, smouldering hells and a fragile Eden. It presents a realm where every choice tips the balance of creation. This study invites curious minds to lose themselves in the epic’s grandeur and wrestle with the questions it refuses to let go: what does it mean to rebel? To obey? To be free? To fall?

Over eight two-and-a-half-hour sessions, we will traverse all twelve books of Paradise Lost, tracing Milton’s visions of angels in revolt, serpentine deceits, and humankind on the brink of catastrophe. Each week, close reading of key passages will spark lively conversation about the poem’s grand themes: freedom and fate, temptation and grace, the allure of evil, and the possibility of redemption. Along the way, we shall uncover the thunderous music and daring invention that defines Milton’s verse.

This study is as much about experience as analysis. Reading this great work aloud will enable us to feel the powerful rhythm, sharpen our thinking in the heat of dialogue, and discover together how a 17th-century poet still speaks to us with urgent clarity. Participants will not just read Paradise Lost. They will inhabit it, wrestle with it, and carry its fire forward.

Whether you come for epic storytelling, moral philosophy, or the sheer intoxication of language, this study promises a journey that is as challenging as it is exhilarating. Experience or rediscover Milton’s masterpiece and join us as we explore what it means to “awake, arise or be for ever fall’n.”

JOINING DETAILS:

Eight-week study, live on Zoom, led by Dr Julie Sutherland

Eight two-and-a-half-hour meetings, Tuesdays, 5.00-7.30 pm (UK time)

14 July – 1 September 2026

£320 for eight meetings and background notes and resources

We will use the Penguin Classics edition: Paradise Lost by John Milton, edited by John Leonard (ISBN-10: ‎ 9780140424393)

Organizer

Julie Sutherland

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Time

14 July 2026 5:00 pm - 7:30 pm(GMT+01:00)

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F. Scott Fitzgerald - Winter Dreams & The Great GatsbySINGLE SESSION LITSALON SHORT, LED BY NANCY GOLDSTEIN LIVE ON ZOOM, 15 JULY, 5.00-7.00 PM (UK TIME)2026wed15jul5:00 pm7:00 pm5:00 pm - 7:00 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOMType of studyLiteratureFrequencyOne-off Event

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*Illustration of Judy Jones in Winter Dreams, Arthur William Brown, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*

“I’m posting this LitSalon Short as a ‘taster’ for anyone considering joining Toby Brothers and me for our co-facilitated four meeting study of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, starting on 29 July, 5.00–7.00 pm UK. Participants in this single meeting will also get a feel for my facilitation style.”

Nancy Goldstein

In this ‘LitSalon Short’ we’ll discuss Winter Dreams (1922), one of Fitzgerald’s most admired short stories — and, as he himself acknowledged, a first sketch for the novel that would become The Great Gatsby. Dexter Green, a caddie at a Minnesota golf club, falls for Judy Jones, a rich, careless, luminously beautiful girl who will occupy his imagination for the next decade. What follows is a story about desire so precisely observed it is almost clinical: the way a certain kind of longing attaches not to a person but to everything that person appears to represent.

Or rather, everything she once represented. Winter Dreams turns on a moment of loss so quiet you could miss it — and then can’t stop thinking about. Fitzgerald understood, a full three years before Gatsby, that the green light at the end of the dock is not really about the girl.

As for The Great Gatsby. When it was first published in April 1925 it was a commercial and critical failure. Its resurrection came from an unlikely source: during the Second World War, the Council on Books in Wartime distributed over 150,000 Armed Services Editions (no frills, easy to carry paperbacks) to soldiers, and Gatsby found its audience in the trenches. Jay Gatsby is one of literature’s great early architects of the curated public image: a man who reinvented himself from scratch, surrounded that invention with spectacle, and bet everything on a single, doomed idea of who he needed to be. In our current era of personal branding and the relentless pressure to project a life rather than to live one, this predicament is instantly recognisable. Fitzgerald knew, a century before the term existed, that ‘hustle culture’ is a trap.

Our four-meeting study of The Great Gatsby begins on Wednesday 29 July 2026.

JOINING DETAILS:

Single session LitSalon Short on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Winter Dreams, led by Dr Nancy Goldstein. The story can be downloaded free-of-charge here.

Wednesday 15 July, 5.00–7.00 pm (UK time), live on Zoom

‘LitSalon Shorts’ are single-session studies (usually slightly shorter than a typical Salon study meeting) in which a facilitator shares with the wider Salon community their enthusiasm for an aspect of literature or culture.

Shorts are offered free of charge, but numbers are limited so please use the booking form below to reserve a place. Although there is no fee for this Short, Nancy asks you to consider making a donation — perhaps the price of your last G&T or flat white? — to José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen, which feeds hungry people in war and emergency zones all over the world, from Gaza and Ukraine to Pakistan and areas struggling with natural disasters.

Time

15 July 2026 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Shakespeare's Measure for MeasureEIGHT MEETING STUDY, LIVE ON ZOOM, LED BY JULIE SUTHERLAND, 15 JULY - 2 SEPTEMBER 20262026wed15jul5:00 pm7:00 pm5:00 pm - 7:00 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized ByJulie SutherlandType of studyDramaFrequencyWeekly

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*Measure for Measure in Tales from Shakespeare, Elizabeth Shippen Green Elliott, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*

Please note that although this study is fully booked, we are currently keeping a waiting list and may be able to offer a second study if there is sufficient demand. Please email us if you would like to be included on the waiting list.

Join Julie Sutherland to explore the moral complexity, political intrigue and dark humour of William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure in this eight-week full-text study. Often called a ‘problem play’, it resists easy categorisation: not a traditional comedy or tragedy, it confronts audiences with the messy realities of justice, sexual morality, corruption and the abuse of power.

In Measure for Measure, Duke Vincentio temporarily relinquishes power to the strict and seemingly righteous Angelo, who enforces Vienna’s laws with alarming severity. As the city grapples with corruption and sexual coercion, the characters—most notably the virtuous Isabella—navigate dilemmas of conscience, mercy and authority. Shakespeare exposes the tension between law and morality, highlighting the dangers of judging others when those in power are themselves deeply flawed.

Throughout the play, Shakespeare blends moments of comedy with unsettling moral questions, creating a world that is both vividly real and painfully ironic. Biblical themes of judgment and mercy echo throughout, challenging audiences to consider the balance between justice and forgiveness, while the looming, imperfect marriages at the play’s conclusion underscore the uncertainty of human happiness.

Over the course of eight meetings, we will read the entire play aloud, examining its rich language and provocative themes to gain a deep understanding of Shakespeare’s artistry. At the same time we will revel in the ways Measure for Measure reflects both the Elizabethan world and issues that remain startlingly modern.

JOINING DETAILS:

Eight-meeting study live on Zoom led by Julie Sutherland

Wednesdays, 5.00-7.00 pm BST, 15 July – 2 September 2026

Recommended edition: Measure for Measure, The New Oxford Shakespeare, ISBN 13: 978-0192865861

£280 for eight two-hour meetings

Organizer

Julie Sutherland

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Time

15 July 2026 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Please note that although this study is fully booked we are currently keeping a waiting list and may be able to offer a second study if there is sufficient demand. Please email litsalon@gmail.com if you would like to join the waiting list.

All places are booked

As I Lay Dying - William FaulknerTHREE-DAY SALON INTENSIVE, 17-19 JULY - THE FIRST IN OUR STUDY SERIES 'FAULKNER & HIS CHILDREN'2026fri17jul5:00 pm7:30 pm5:00 pm - 7:30 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized ByToby Brothers & John AllemandType of studyLiteratureFrequencySalon Intensive

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“He had a word, too. Love, he called it. But I had been used to words for a long time. I knew that that word was like the others: just a shape to fill a lack; that when the right time came, you wouldn’t need a word for that anymore than for pride or fear.”

Published in 1930, As I Lay Dying uses thirteen narrators to explore the many voices found in a Southern family and community. Addie Bundren, the wife and mother to a poor white farm family, is on her deathbed. As her last wish, she requests that her husband bury her among her family in the town of Jefferson. And so, upon her death, her family – for the most part begrudgingly – follows through with her wish. We hear from everyone involved in the journey, including Addie from the grave—a testament to Faulkner’s creation of an environment so believable that such outrageousness is allowed. The humour is dark. You might not expect to laugh at the image of a dead women’s corpse falling from a casket into a river, but you will.

Faulkner uses multiple narratives, each with his or her own interests and biases, to create a puzzle that readers could piece together from the ‘true’ circumstances of the story. The conclusion presents a key to understanding the background to the central event in a way that traditional linear narratives simply cannot accomplish. With that said, in As I Lay Dying all of the narrators are believable, even Addie who is dead when we hear from her.

The most brilliant aspect of this novel is how Faulkner carefully weaves fragments and pieces from the many narrative voices to create a rich tapestry of often conflicting and competing perspectives.

For more information about our study series Faulkner & His Children, please read our blog post here.

JOINING DETAILS:

This, our first Faulkner & His Children study, will be a Salon Intensive taking place over three consecutive days, led by John Allemand and Toby Brothers.

Three meetings on Zoom: Friday 17, Saturday 18 July & Sunday 19 July 2026, 5.00-7.30 pm (UK time).

Recommended edition: As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, Norton Critical Edition (Second Edition, August 2022), ISBN:9780393614534.

£210 for three-day study.

Organizer

Toby Brothers & John Allemand

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Time

17 July 2026 5:00 pm - 7:30 pm(GMT+01:00)

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18July 5:00 pm - 7:30 pm19July 5:00 pm - 7:30 pm

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The Odyssey Live!LIVE EVENT AT THEATRO TECHNIS, LONDON W1, READINGS BY TOBY BROTHERS & JANE WYMARK FOLLOWED BY AUDIENCE Q&A2026sun19jul3:00 pm5:00 pm3:00 pm - 5:00 pm(GMT+01:00) Type of studyClassicalFrequencyOne-off Event

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott FitzgeraldFOUR WEEK STUDY, LED BY TOBY BROTHERS & NANCY GOLDSTEIN LIVE ON ZOOM, 29 JULY - 19 AUGUST 20262026wed29jul5:00 pm7:00 pm5:00 pm - 7:00 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized ByToby Brothers & Nancy GoldsteinType of studyLiteratureFrequencyWeekly

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“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness . . . and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

When The Great Gatsby was first published in April 1925, it was a commercial and critical failure. Fitzgerald’s contemporaries — T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Edith Wharton, Gertrude Stein — wrote to him in admiration, but the wider public was unmoved. The novel had sold only 25,000 copies by the time of Fitzgerald’s death fifteen years later, aged 44, his heart giving out after years of heavy drinking.

The novel’s resurrection came from an unlikely source. During the Second World War, the Council on Books in Wartime distributed over 150,000 Armed Services Editions to soldiers — and Gatsby found its audience in the trenches. Then, in 1945, the critic Lionel Trilling declared Jay Gatsby a symbol of the American Dream itself, an act of critical elevation that lifted the novel into the North American literary canon, where it has remained ever since, its status as a ‘classic’ further cemented by adoption into high school and college curricula in the 1950s and 60s.

What a difference 100 years can make. The Great Gatsby has now sold 30 million copies worldwide, spawned six feature films, and — in the last two years alone — inspired two major Broadway and West End musical productions. ‘The Jazz Age’, a term Fitzgerald himself coined, has passed permanently into the global imagination.

And yet this novel set in the aftermath of the First World War — that brief, feverish interval of new money, loose morals, and borrowed time — feels less like history and more like a mirror. Jay Gatsby is one of literature’s great early architects of the curated public image: a man who reinvented himself from scratch, surrounded that invention with spectacle, and bet everything on a single, doomed idea of who he needed to be. In our current era of personal branding, social media performance, and the relentless pressure to project a life rather than to live one, this predicament is instantly recognisable.

So too is the world Gatsby inhabits: the careless elites of East Egg, the strivers of West Egg, the vast exhausted majority watching from the ash heaps in between. Fitzgerald’s anatomy of class anxiety, performative wealth and the violence that hides behind good manners resonates with particular force at a moment of historic wealth transfer, rising populism and deepening questions about who the American Dream was ever really for.

Fitzgerald knew, a century before the term existed, that ‘hustle culture’ is a trap. Real corruption isn’t just wanting more, it’s the moment you decide that wanting justifies everything else.

Let us read.

JOINING DETAILS:

Four-meeting study, live on Zoom, led by Toby Brothers & Nancy Goldstein

Wednesdays, 5.00–7.00 pm (UK time), 29 July – 19 August 2026

Recommended edition: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Penguin Modern Classics, ISBN-13 : ‎ 978-0141182636

£160.00 for four two-hour meetings

REDUCED COSTS: we are committed to making our studies as affordable as possible. We have a fund in place to support anyone who would like to register for a study but finds the cost difficult to afford. We can’t promise to help, but please email us at litsalon@gmail.com in confidence if you would like to request a reduction in the cost of a study.

Organizer

Toby Brothers & Nancy Goldstein

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Time

29 July 2026 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Thomas Mann's Death in Venice - word & image (Friday)FIVE MEETINGS, LIVE ON ZOOM, LED BY JOHN ALLEMAND, FRIDAYS, 6.00-8.30 PM, 31 JULY - 28 AUGUST 20262026fri31jul6:00 pm8:30 pm6:00 pm - 8:30 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized ByJohn AllemandType of studyLiterature, The Art of FilmFrequencyWeekly

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“The observations and encounters of a devotee of solitude and silence are at once less distinct and more penetrating than those of the sociable man; his thoughts are weightier, stranger, and never without a tinge of sadness. Images and perceptions which might otherwise be easily dispelled by a glance, a laugh, an exchange of comments, concern him unduly, they sink into mute depths, take on significance, become experiences, adventures, emotions. Solitude begets originality, bold and disconcerting beauty, poetry. But solitude can also beget perversity, disparity, the absurd and the forbidden.”

Thomas Mann, Death in Venice

Among the masterpieces of early twentieth-century European literature, Thomas Mann’s 1912 novella Death in Venice stands as one of the most subtle and unsettling meditations on beauty, art and moral disintegration.

At first glance the story appears straightforward: ageing writer Gustav von Aschenbach travels to Venice seeking rest and renewal, only to become increasingly obsessed with the beauty of a young Polish boy, Tadzio. Yet, beneath this deceptively simple narrative lies an extraordinarily complex structure of mythological allusion, stylistic irony and philosophical reflection. Mann uses this sophisticated architecture to explore interwoven questions about the relationship between beauty and corruption, the conflict between artistic discipline and erotic fascination, and the danger inherent in the aesthetic idealization of youth.

This three-part study will approach Death in Venice through careful reading, examining the intricate ways Mann constructs meaning through language, narrative perspective and symbolic patterning. The narrator’s voice remains elegant, composed and almost ceremonially dignified, even as the increasingly troubling reality of Aschenbach’s behaviours becomes apparent and his psychological state deteriorates. This contrast generates a quiet but devastating irony which is essential to any reading of the text.

Central to Mann’s method is what later critics, borrowing a phrase associated with modernist literary practice, have called the ‘mythic method’. Rather than recounting myth directly, Mann embeds classical mythological structures within the psychological narrative, transforming his tale into a mythic drama of descent.

Classical motifs (Mann’s ‘new classicism’—ironic, reflective, self-conscious) function as mythic signals guiding the reader beneath the surface of the narrative as the central character becomes a figure moving within an invisible mythological framework, his personal crisis repeating patterns drawn from antiquity. As the language of classicism slowly gives way to a dreamlike atmosphere of decay, Tadzio becomes less a character than a symbolic embodiment of ideal beauty itself.

Following our three-session literary study, we will turn to Luchino Visconti’s acclaimed 1971 film adaptation and examine the dynamic relationship between literature and film. Celebrated as one of the most visually striking adaptations of a modernist text, Visconti transforms Mann’s dense verbal narrative into a rich visual meditation on art, desire and mortality. In two additional sessions we will consider how Visconti reinterprets Mann’s work through cinema: how emphasis is shifted from literary interiority to visual atmosphere, how music—particularly the use of Mahler—reshapes the emotional structure of the story, and how the film’s imagery elaborates Mann’s themes of beauty, decadence and decline.

What happens when a story built on interior reflection and ironic narration is translated into images, gestures and sound? Which elements of Mann’s mythic structure survive the transition to cinema, and which are transformed or displaced? Where the novella relies on language and narrative irony, the film must communicate through composition, colour and rhythm.

Together, the elements of this study will allow us to observe a remarkable dialogue between two artistic forms.

JOINING DETAILS:

Five two-and-a-half hour meetings, live on Zoom, led by John Allemand

Fridays, 6.00-8.30 pm (UK time), 31 July, 7, 14, 21 & 28 August 2026

Recommended edition: Thomas Mann, Death in Venice, translated by Michael Henry Heim, introduction by Michael Cunningham, Harper Collins Ecco, ISBN: ‎ 978-0060576172

Luchino Visconti, Death in Venice (1971), is available on most streaming services (including Amazon Prime, Apple TV, You Tube TV, Hulu) and we also recommend Criterion Collection’s digitally remastered print of 2019. We will show selected film clips during the study sessions, but participants are asked to watch the film closely in advance.

£225.00 for twelve-and-a-half hour study over five meetings, to include background notes and resources.

Organizer

John Allemand

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Time

31 July 2026 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm(GMT+01:00)

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August 2026

Euripides: Trojan Women & The BacchaeFOUR MEETING STUDY, LIVE ON ZOOM, SUNDAYS 4.30-6.30 PM (UK TIME), 2 - 23 AUGUST2026sun02aug4:30 pm6:30 pm4:30 pm - 6:30 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized BySean ForesterType of studyClassical, DramaFrequencyWeekly

Event Details

*Detail from Greek vase, User:Ilaria.manfrini, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons*

At this difficult time in the world, it can be salutary to confront the darker aspects of human nature through literature and experience the catharsis of Greek tragedy. In this spirit we are offering a study on two of Euripides’ greatest plays: Trojan Women and The Bacchae. Trojan Women shows the horrors of war, while The Bacchae confronts us with the Dionysian madness highlighted by Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy.

It is fascinating to see how tragic drama developed from Aeschylus and Sophocles through the pivotal figure of Euripides, who set the stage for later masters of the genre such as Shakespeare, Ibsen and Chekhov. The LitSalon is exploring this through a series of studies. Please join us for this encounter with Euripides.

JOINING DETAILS:

Four meeting study, led by Sean Forester live on Zoom

Sundays, 4.30 – 6.30 pm (UK time), 2 – 23 August

Recommended edition: you may use any translation you prefer providing it has line numbers clearly marked. One good option is: The Greek Plays: Sixteen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides (Modern Library Classics), Mary Lefkowitz (Editor), James Romm (Editor).

£160 for four two-hour meetings

Organizer

Sean Forester

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Time

2 August 2026 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm(GMT+01:00)

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9August 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm16August 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm23August 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm

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Thomas Mann's Death in Venice - word & imageFIVE MEETINGS, LIVE ON ZOOM, LED BY JOHN ALLEMAND, MONDAYS, 6.00-8.30 PM, 3-31 AUGUST 20262026mon03aug6:00 pm8:30 pm6:00 pm - 8:30 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized ByJohn AllemandType of studyLiterature, The Art of FilmFrequencyWeekly

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“The observations and encounters of a devotee of solitude and silence are at once less distinct and more penetrating than those of the sociable man; his thoughts are weightier, stranger, and never without a tinge of sadness. Images and perceptions which might otherwise be easily dispelled by a glance, a laugh, an exchange of comments, concern him unduly, they sink into mute depths, take on significance, become experiences, adventures, emotions. Solitude begets originality, bold and disconcerting beauty, poetry. But solitude can also beget perversity, disparity, the absurd and the forbidden.”

Thomas Mann, Death in Venice

Together, the elements of this study will allow us to observe a remarkable dialogue between two artistic forms.

JOINING DETAILS:

Five two-and-a-half hour meetings, live on Zoom, led by John Allemand

Mondays, 6.00-8.30 pm (UK time), 3, 10, 17, 24 & 31 August 2026

Recommended edition: Thomas Mann, Death in Venice, translated by Michael Henry Heim, introduction by Michael Cunningham, Harper Collins Ecco, ISBN: ‎ 978-0060576172

Luchino Visconti, Death in Venice (1971), is available on most streaming services (including Amazon Prime, Apple TV, You Tube TV, Hulu) and we also recommend Criterion Collection’s digitally remastered print of 2019. We will show selected film clips during the study sessions, but participants are asked to watch the film closely in advance.

£225.00 for twelve-and-a-half hour study over five meetings, to include background notes and resources.

Organizer

John Allemand

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Time

3 August 2026 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm(GMT+01:00)

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10August 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm17August 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm24August 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm31August 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm

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Signs and Symbols - Vladimir NabokovSINGLE SESSION LITSALON SHORT, LED BY NANCY GOLDSTEIN LIVE ON ZOOM, 6 AUGUST, 6.00-8.00 PM (UK TIME)2026thu06aug6:00 pm8:00 pm6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00) Type of studyLiterature, LitSalon ShortFrequencyOne-off Event

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*Vladimir Nabokov (1973), Walter Mori (Mondadori Publishers), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*

“I’m posting this LitSalon Short as a ‘taster’ for anyone considering joining me for the full study of Vladimir Nabokov’s notorious 1955 masterpiece Lolita, starting on 17 September. Participants in this single meeting will also get a feel for my facilitation style.”

Nancy Goldstein

In this LitSalon Short we’ll be discussing Signs and Symbols (1948), one of Nabokov’s shortest and most highly regarded stories. It’s a simple tale about ageing Belarusian immigrant parents visiting a mentally ill son who has been confined in a sanatorium for years with “referential mania” — the conviction that the natural world is speaking to him, and about him, in a coded language.

Or is it? What is Nabokov up to here, luring the reader into a narrative peppered with precisely the kinds of signs and symbols that encourage the son’s mania?

As for Lolita. I’m convinced that now more than ever it is time to read Nabokov’s masterpiece. The man who famously described himself as “an American writer, born in Russia” understands his adopted country as only an immigrant can.

Born into Russian nobility, Nabokov fled for his life twice: first escaping the 1917 Revolution for Berlin and Paris, and then, in 1940, fleeing Nazi-era Paris for New York City alongside his Jewish wife, Véra. A respected lepidopterist, Nabokov spent years working at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology.

The immigrant, the scientist, and the novelist brought all he knew about camouflage, metamorphosis, mimicry, migration and classification to his writing.

Lolita combines Nabokov’s keen observations of the new, post-WWII superpower that is late 1940s America with his scalpel-like dexterity with the English language.

One of the world’s most banned books? Yes.

A savage send-up of a country awash in Norman Rockwell imagery and pop psychology? A land where clueless elites become intellectually complicit in a world that infantilises adults while sexualising children? Yes.

Narrated through the notoriously unreliable perspective of one Humbert Humbert, aka Paedophile-in-Chief? Yes.

Hilarious and infuriating by turns, but always mesmerising? Yes.

Our eight meeting study of Lolita begins on Thursday 17 September 2026

JOINING DETAILS:

Single session LitSalon Short on Vladimir Nabokov’s Signs and Symbols led by Dr Nancy Goldstein (all registrants will receive from Nancy a copy of the story as Nabokov intended it to be read).

Thursday 6 August 6.00-8.00 pm (UK time), live on Zoom

‘LitSalon Shorts’ are single-session studies (usually slightly shorter than a typical Salon study meeting) in which a facilitator shares with the wider Salon community their enthusiasm for an aspect of literature or culture.

‘Shorts’ are offered free-of-charge, but numbers are limited so please use the booking form below to reserve a place. Although there is no fee for this Short, Nancy asks you to consider making a donation – perhaps the price of your last G&T or flat white? – to José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen, which feeds hungry people in war and emergency zones all over the world, from Gaza and Ukraine to Pakistan and areas struggling with natural disasters.

Time

6 August 2026 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Greek Myth in Art I: Homer in Painting & Film FOUR MEETING STUDY, LIVE ON ZOOM, LED BY SEAN FORESTER, 11 AUGUST - 1 SEPTEMBER 20262026tue11aug6:00 pm8:00 pm6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized BySean ForesterType of studyArt & literature, ClassicalFrequencyWeekly

Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean RhysFIVE MEETINGS, LIVE ON ZOOM, TUESDAYS, 11 AUGUST - 8 SEPTEMBER 2026, 6.00-8.00 PM (UK)2026tue11aug6:00 pm8:00 pm6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized ByKarina JakubowiczType of studyLiteratureFrequencyWeekly

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*Free West Indian Creoles in Elegant Dress by Agostino Brunias c. 1780, Yale Center for British Art, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*

“There is no looking glass here and I don’t know what I am like now. I remember watching myself brush my hair and how my eyes looked back at me. The girl I saw was myself yet not quite myself. Long ago when I was a child and very lonely I tried to kiss her. But the glass was between us—hard, cold and misted over with my breath. Now they have taken everything away. What am I doing in this place and who am I?“

These words, spoken by Antoinette Cosway in Wide Sargasso Sea, depict a woman who has been split into two parts. One (‘a girl’ or ‘child’) she knows, the other is an unknown self who is trapped by the memory of the other. That she should feel this way is quite understandable in light of her circumstances. Although she was born in the West Indies, she now lives at Thornfield Hall in England, and despite her real name being Antionette, her husband has christened her ‘Bertha Mason’ and labelled her mad.

Wide Sargasso Sea extends and deepens the literary classic Jane Eyre by providing a backstory for the mysterious character of Bertha Mason. While Charlotte Bronte left Bertha’s feelings an unknown entity, Rhys places them right at the heart of a narrative that explores racism and colonialism alongside the themes of feminism and personal autonomy.

Participants do not have to have read Jane Eyre to understand Wide Sargasso Sea, but a decent knowledge of the former would be useful. People may wish to use this as an extension to one of the Jane Eyre studies or as a stand-alone study of a mid-20th century classic. Much as it’s tempting to use the novel to read ‘back’ to the 19^th century of Bronte’s text, we can also discuss what this text reveals about the culture of the 1960s. We might also consider this in relation to the fall of Empire and the cultural aftermath of that political project.

JOINING DETAILS:

Five-meeting study, live on Zoom, led by Karina Jakubowicz

Tuesday 11, 18, 25 August & 1, 8 September 2026, 6.00-8.00 pm (UK)

Recommended edition: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, Penguin Modern Classics, ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0141182858

£200 for five two-hour meetings

Organizer

Karina Jakubowicz

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Time

11 August 2026 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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18August 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm25August 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm1September 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm8September 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

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Jacob's Room - Virginia WoolfFIVE-MEETING STUDY, LIVE ON ZOOM, LED BY KARINA JAKUBOWICZ, 12 AUGUST - 9 SEPTEMBER 20262026wed12aug6:00 pm8:00 pm6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized ByKarina JakubowiczType of studyLiteratureFrequencyWeekly

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*Boy on a Beach by Heinrich Hellhoff, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*

“Nobody sees any one as he is, let alone an elderly lady sitting opposite a strange young man in a railway carriage. They see a whole – they see all sorts of things – they see themselves . . .”

Jacob’s Room is widely regarded as Woolf’s first modernist novel, though it’s sometimes overlooked by even the most ardent of her readers. This is a travesty when we consider that the work is such a deft discussion of grief, life writing, and the role of modern fiction. It prefigures the literary playfulness of Orlando while retaining the depth she exhibits inTo the Lighthouse and The Waves.

Jacob’s Room concerns the life of Jacob Flanders, a talented but unheroic young man who hunts butterflies as a boy, goes on to study at Cambridge, and then finally settles in London. His biography is roughly based on that of Woolf’s brother, Thoby Stephen, but in many ways his life could be anyone’s. As the quotation above implies, we see ourselves in a person like Jacob even though (or perhaps because) we only catch glimpses of him.

Questions raised by this novel include:

How does Woolf intervene in the classic hero’s narrative, and what does her reinvention of this trope say about masculinity and success?

How does Woolf undermine traditional literary form? Keeping in mind that this is her first modernist novel, we might ask how she subverts conventional structures and eludes our expectations.

JOINING DETAILS:

Five meeting study, live on Zoom, led by Karina Jakubowicz

Wednesdays, 12, 19, 26 August & 2, 9 September 2026, 6.00-8.00 pm (UK)

Recommended edition: Jacob’s Room, Vintage Classics, ISBN: 978-1784877958

£200 for five two-hour meetings

Organizer

Karina Jakubowicz

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Time

12 August 2026 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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19August 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm26August 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm2September 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm9September 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

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Alice's Adventures in WonderlandFOUR MEETING STUDY, LIVE ON ZOOM, LED BY TIM SWINGLEHURST, 13 AUGUST - 3 SEPTEMBER, 6.00-8.00 PM (UK)2026thu13aug6:00 pm8:00 pm6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized ByTim SwinglehurstType of studyChildren's Literature, LiteratureFrequencyWeekly

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*Original illustration by John Tenniel, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*

Since its first appearance in print in 1865, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has enchanted generations of children with the tale of a little girl who follows a white rabbit down a rabbit hole, to discover a bizarre and fantastical world occupied by equally outlandish and unsettling characters such as the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the formidable Queen of Hearts.

Alice is not just for children, adults have read and reread the book, each time uncovering for themselves new layers of meaning: social, political, cultural, metaphysical and, perhaps most frequently, psychoanalytical. For some Alice is a story about growing up, negotiating the complex rules and disturbing unpredictability which seem to govern the adult world (“How the creatures order one about, and make one repeat lessons!” thought Alice); for others it’s a story about revealing identity, the struggle in life to define oneself (“I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think that I must have changed several times since then”). Some see it as a challenge to find solutions to language games and the logic of nonsense, problems set by Lewis Carroll, aka Charles Dodgson, the Oxford don in mathematics (“Sentence first – verdict afterwards” says the Queen at the trial which concludes the book); while others believe the many surreal, even hallucinatory aspects of the story suggest the disorientating effect of drug use (“What a curious feeling!” said Alice. “I must be shutting up like a telescope!”).

With such a wide range of interpretation, participants will be invited to bring their own interests and areas of expertise to the study, where we can create together a kaleidoscope of meaning. “Why sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” says the White Queen in Wonderland’s sequel Through the Looking Glass. We will try to combine six (or even more) seemingly contradictory interpretations and seek to provide some sort of meaning, even if that remains elusive and ultimately unstable. Be reassured: no rabbit hole will be too small for us to leave unexplored.

Many readers have clear pictures of the Alice story in their minds, perhaps because of the illustrations which usually accompany the story (“What is the use of a book, without pictures or conversation,” muses Alice before her Adventures begin). John Tenniel’s original illustrations remain definitive, but many other artists – including Arthur Rackham, Mervyn Peake, Salvador Dali, Tove Jansson and Chris Riddell – have also illustrated the text. We will try to take time to look closely at some of Tenniel’s illustrations, and participants will be invited to share their own favourite pictures and other creative works inspired by Alice’s Adventures, in film or music or video game, in fashion or in food.

Please note, in this study there will be opportunities for participants to assume some of Carroll’s larger-than-life characters when those who wish to do so may read selected passages from the book aloud.

JOINING DETAILS:

Four meeting study, live on Zoom, led by Tim Swinglehurst

Thursdays, 6.00-8.00 pm (UK time), 13, 20, 27 August & 3 September 2026

£140.00 for four meetings, including background notes and resources

Recommended edition: Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, 4th Norton Critical Edition, edited by Donald J. Gray, 2024. ISBN: 9781324059608. This edition also includes Alice Through the Looking-Glass, Tenniel’s illustrations and critical essays.

Tim is also offering a LitSalon Short on Alice in Wonderland on 25 June.

Organizer

Tim Swinglehurst

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Time

13 August 2026 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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"Muses' Darling" or "Barking Dog"? - the fatal genius of Christopher MarloweSINGLE MEETING 'LITSALON SHORT', LED BY TIM SWINGLEHURST LIVE ON ZOOM2026tue18aug6:00 pm7:15 pm6:00 pm - 7:15 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOMType of studyDrama, LitSalon ShortFrequencyOne-off Event

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*Portrait of Christopher Marlowe, Corpus Christi College, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*

“The dangerous times and fatal genius of Shakespeare’s greatest rival” is the subtitle of Professor Stephen Greenblatt’s 2025 life of Christopher Marlowe, Dark Renaissance. In her review of Greenblatt’s book, Professor Emma Smith declares that “Marlowe’s life is chock-full of under-evidenced incidents that are charged with a thrilling imaginative energy. He emerges from fragmentary records already fully formed: a spy, a double agent, an atheist, a sodomite.” We will begin this LitSalon Short with a short survey of the highlights of Marlowe’s brief, exhilarating and controversial life (1564-1593), before considering how art reflects life in Marlowe’s dramatic and poetical works.

On stage, Marlowe’s characters – Tamburlaine, Barabas, Faustus – demonstrate boundless self-confidence as they over-reach human, moral and physical boundaries, attempting to subordinate the natural order and the cosmos itself to their individual will. The language they use is filled with electrifying energy, breath-taking sonorities and dazzling verbal imagery.

Drawing on the depth of his rich classical education (the aesthetics and metamorphoses of Ovid, extended and elaborate similes à la Homer, the passion and brutality of Senecan tragedy, and the power of the persuasive oratory of Cicero and Demosthenes), Marlowe’s literary works also abound in the fruit of the humanist learning of his time, not least Ortelius’ influential atlas, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1570), consulted to provide geographic precision and exotic, ravishing naming of places.

In the theatre, Marlowe pioneered what Ben Jonson called “Marlowe’s Mighty Line”: unrhymed iambic pentameter (blank verse). In launching an assault on his predecessors and their “jiggling veins of rhyming mother wits”, he provided the standard dramatic literary form that was to be adopted and developed by Shakespeare and other later playwrights.

During this LitSalon Short we will focus on the two parts of Marlowe’s first great masterpiece, Tamburlaine the Great, using these plays to illustrate his linguistic pyrotechnics and literary genius.

Tim will go on to lead a five-week study of Part 1 of Tamburlaine on Wednesdays 6.00-8.00pm (UK time) beginning on Wednesday 16 September.

JOINING DETAILS:

Single session ‘LitSalon Short’ led by Tim Swinglehurst

Tuesday 18 August, 6.00 – 7.15 pm (UK time)

Free of charge but please use the booking form below to reserve your place.

Time

18 August 2026 6:00 pm - 7:15 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Moby Dick Afloat in 2026!2026sat29aug(aug 29)3:00 pmfri04sep(sep 4)9:00 am(August 29) 3:00 pm - (September 4) 9:00 am(GMT+01:00) Mallaig, Scotland Event Organized ByToby BrothersType of studyLiterature, TravelFrequencyOne-off Event

Event Details

Following the success of our first study at sea in July 2025 – see more about this amazing trip on our Gallery – we are pleased to announce that we plan to launch Moby Dick Afloat again in the summer of 2026 (29 August – 4 September).

“Toby is inspiring. We never feel unconfident and we feel safe to think aloud. As a field trip, this is genius.”

Horatio Clare writing in the Financial TImes (2 August 2025) about Moby Dick Afloat 2025

Places are strictly limited by space on board, so please click here to email us if you are interested in knowing more about the possibility of joining next year’s voyage.

This is a not-to-be-missed opportunity to complete reading one of the greatest books ever written in the English language – an extraordinary story of obsession and maritime adventure – over the course of a six-day voyage aboard a traditional sailing ship. Five online meetings (on Tuesdays in late July and early August) will introduce Moby Dick, followed by six study sessions at sea on the Eda Frandsen, a lovingly restored and maintained gaff cutter, originally built in Denmark in 1938. Our unique study will stimulate readers’ imaginations and complement their appreciation of Herman Melville’s text with practical experience of seafaring life under sail.

“I am half way in the work . . . It will be a strange sort of book, tho’, I fear; blubber is blubber you know; tho’ you might get oil out of it, the poetry runs as hard as sap from a frozen maple tree;—and to cool the thing up, one must needs throw in a little fancy, which from the nature of the thing, must be ungainly as the gambols of the whales themselves. Yet I mean to give the truth of the thing, spite of this.”

Herman Melville

First published in 1851, Moby Dick ranks on almost any list as one of the greatest works in the English language. Its three famous opening words ‘Call me Ishmael . . .’ together with the image of the one-legged Captain Ahab in mad pursuit of the great white whale, have become cultural icons. This grand—and occasionally grandiose—adventure tale unites the many voices of Herman Melville in a mongrel mix of epic poetry, Shakespearean tragedy, encyclopaedic cataloguing, biblical oratory, and not a small dose of comedy. Melville presents an insightful study of obsession, madness and charismatic leadership that anticipates many of our contemporary conversations about democracy, cosmopolitanism, capitalism and the environment.

In 2019, celebration of the 200th year since Herman Melville’s birth initiated a particularly auspicious moment to study this great work, generating rich responses and reconsiderations of a truly amazing book. Philip Hoare (mentioned below as one of the curators of the Moby Dick Big Read project) writes on the contemporary importance of this work in the article linked here: Subversive, queer and terrifyingly relevant: Six reasons why Moby Dick is the novel for our times.

“The book features gay marriage, hits out at slavery and imperialism and predicts the climate crisis – 200 years after the birth of its author, Herman Melville, it has never been more important.”

Philip Hoare

Together, artist Angela Cockayne and writer Philip Hoare convened and curated a unique whale symposium and exhibition at Peninsula Arts, the dedicated contemporary art space at Plymouth University. This grew into an extraordinary compilation of art and voices (Tilda Swinton, Stephen Fry and more) – the Moby Dick Big Read – to illuminate each chapter, inspiring and inspired by this vast book.

Photo: *Moby Dick Afloat 2025*, © Sarah Saunders

SALON DETAILS:

The study will involve five two-hour online preparatory meetings on Zoom (on Tuesdays in July and August), followed by a six-day study trip with six nights on board the sailing ship Eda Frandsen.

Facilitated by Toby Brothers, Salon Director

Recommended edition: Moby Dick (Norton Critical Edition, Third Edition 2018), by Herman Melville, edited by Herschel Parker; W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN-13: 978-0393285000

The cost for five online meetings, opening notes and the six-night voyage with study sessions led by Toby will be £1,950 per person payable in advance.

Participants will be responsible for arranging their own travel to and from our departure and end point, the port of Mallaig on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands, as well as personal insurance to cover their trip.

Please note that the voyage will involve sharing confined living and sleeping space while onboard. We do not require you to have nautical skills, but some time spent on sailing boats or camping would be useful so you know what to expect.

Even in summer it is possible that there may be rough seas and weather, so please consider carefully your general level of health and fitness and whether you are likely to be adversely affected by these conditions.

Places are strictly limited and we are not using our normal booking form for this study. Please email toby@litsalon.co.uk if you are interested in the possibility of joining next year’s voyage.

Organizer

Toby Brothers

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Salon Director

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Time

29 August 2026 3:00 pm - 4 September 2026 9:00 am(GMT+01:00)

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Mallaig, Scotland

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September 2026

The Visionary Art of William BlakeFIVE-MEETING STUDY, LIVE ON ZOOM, 7 September - 5 October 2026, 6.00-8.00 PM (UK TIME)2026mon07sep6:00 pm8:00 pm6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized BySean ForesterType of studyArt & literature, Literature, Poetry, Visual artsFrequencyWeekly

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*William Blake, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*

William Blake expressed his radical vision through illuminated books that combine poetry and art. We’ll study selections from some of his powerful early poems: Songs of Innocence and Experience, The Auguries of Innocence and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. While Blake’s poetry stands on its own and requires no background knowledge, encountering him is especially interesting after reading Dante or Milton. So, this study would be a fine next chapter for those who have previously studied Paradise Lost or The Divine Comedy with the LitSalon. You can view some of Blake’s art and poetry here.

JOINING DETAILS:

Five meeting study led by Sean Forester

Mondays, 6.00 – 8.00 pm (UK time), 7, 14, 21, 28 September and 5 October

Please purchase facsimile editions of Songs of Innocence and Experience and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell with Blake’s illuminated manuscripts in full colour. The texts are also available free online at the Blake Archive.

£200 for five two-hour meetings

Organizer

Sean Forester

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Time

7 September 2026 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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14September 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm21September 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm28September 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm5October 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

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Tamburlaine the Great, Part 1FIVE MEETING STUDY, LIVE ON ZOOM, LED BY TIM SWINGLEHURST, WEDNESDAY 16 SEPTEMBER - 14 OCTOBER, 6.00-8.00 PM (UK TIME)2026wed16sep6:00 pm8:00 pm6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized ByTim SwinglehurstType of studyDramaFrequencyWeekly

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“Tamburlaine the Great.

Who, from a Scythian Shepherd

by his rare and wonderful Conquests

became a most puissant and mightye Monarque,

And (for his tyranny, and terrour in Warre) was termed

The Scourge of God.”

So reads the 1590 title page of the printed version of recent smash hits on the Elizabethan stage, the two parts of Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine. Nothing was to be the same again. As Professor Stephen Greenblatt has written in his recent monograph on Marlowe (Dark Renaissance, 2025), “Virtually everything in the Elizabethan theatre is pre- and post-Tamburlaine. Most literary innovation is incremental; it is rare for a work of art to change everything so quickly and decisively. But Tamburlaine is one of those rare instances.”

The plays plot the career of Tamburlaine, who from his origins as a humble shepherd conquers the mighty empires of Persia and Turkey and makes inroads into Europe, a trajectory encompassing the most horrific acts of cruelty and barbarity, yet all done to the accompaniment of the most extraordinary language.

Tamburlaine established unrhymed iambic pentameter (what we now call blank verse) as the dominant form for English drama, a form adopted and developed by Marlowe’s contemporary Shakespeare. Here was a fresh verbal music to ravish the ears of Elizabethan audiences, with its “high astounding terms” and pyrotechnical rhetorical flourishes, but also a form capable of expressing tender intimacy and labyrinthine inward reflection. The language of Tamburlaine is exotic and intoxicating, incorporating spellbinding repetitions of words and names – Zenocrate, Usumcasane, Persepolis – it is a thrill to read aloud, and there will be plenty of opportunities to do this during the study.

Marlowe’s Tamburlaine is a character who provokes varied reactions and questions. Is he a conquering hero or a bloodthirsty tyrant? Are we meant to respond to him with horrified revulsion or vicarious pleasure, ravished by his language and superhuman energy and daring? Here is a man of unlimited aspiration, unconstrained power and an inhuman consistency of purpose, a progenitor of Shakespeare’s Richard III, Milton’s Satan and Melville’s Ahab, an analogue for many real-life political leaders, even in our own times.

In this study we will read through Part 1 of Tamburlaine. If there is interest, we will follow with the sequel, in which “Tamburlaine the scourge of God must die”.

JOINING DETAILS:

Five meeting study, live on Zoom, led by Tim Swinglehurst

Wednesdays, 6.00-8.00 pm (UK time), 16, 23, 30 September & 7, 14 October 2026

Recommended edition: Tamburlaine, Parts One and Two by Christopher Marlowe, edited by Anthony B. Dawson, Methuen Drama (UK), 2003. ISBN: 978-0-7136-6814-8.

£175.00 for five meetings, including background notes and resources.

Organizer

Tim Swinglehurst

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Time

16 September 2026 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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23September 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm30September 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm7October 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm14October 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

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Shakespeare's Sonnets - A Slow Read #13SINGLE SESSION STUDY, 17 SEPTEMBER 2026, 5-7.00 PM (UK TIME)2026thu17sep5:00 pm7:00 pm5:00 pm - 7:00 pm(GMT+01:00) VIRTUAL - ON ZOOM Event Organized ByJulie SutherlandType of studyPoetryFrequencyOne-off Event

Event Details

This is the thirteenth in a series of single session studies on Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Participants are welcome to join as few or many sessions as they please.

“For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;

Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.”

from Sonnet 94

Shakespeare’s sonnets have inspired, fascinated and disturbed readers for centuries. Full of mystery and imagination, they dazzle us even as they drive us mad: Who is the fair youth to whom so many of these sonnets are addressed? Who is the dark lady, the complex beloved of so many others? Who is the rival poet and what power does he possess? Are these lyric expressions of tortured love – among other themes – the key to understanding the mysterious life of Shakespeare, or are they not autobiographical at all?

Through close analysis and hands-on interpretive work, we will examine Shakespeare’s kaleidoscopic exploration of his speaker’s romantic and tortured feelings and experiences.

JOINING DETAILS:

Single two-hour meeting led by Dr Julie Sutherland on Zoom

Thursday 17 September 2026, 5.00 – 7.00 pm (BST)

Session #13 – Sonnets 91, 94 & 97

£30.00 for two-hour study

We are offering these self-contained, individual studies of Shakespeare’s sonnets in a workshop style setting. Over time we will cover a broad selection of the 154 sonnets that comprise Shakespeare’s celebrated sequence. Participants are invited to join as few or many sessions as they please.

Before the session, Julie Sutherland will send links to online versions or attach specific copies for discussion. It is highly recommended that you print these off before joining this hands-on session. If you have a printed edition, please also have it ready so we can consider variations between texts. Have a notebook and pencil on hand as well!

REDUCED COSTS: we are committed to making our studies as affordable as possible. We have a fund in place to support anyone who would like to register for a study but finds the cost difficult to afford. We can’t promise to help, but please email us at litsalon@gmail.com in confidence if you would like to request a reduction in the cost of a study.

Organizer

Julie Sutherland

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Time

17 September 2026 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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VIRTUAL - ON ZOOM

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Now more than ever it seems right to read Vladimir Nabokov’s masterpiece, Lolita (1955). The man who famously described himself as “an American writer, born in Russia” understands his adopted country as only an immigrant can.

The immigrant, the scientist and the novelist brought all he knew about camouflage, metamorphosis, mimicry, migration and classification to his writing.

Lolita combines Nabokov’s keen observations of the new, post-World War II superpower that was late 1940s America with his scalpel-like dexterity with the English language.

One of the world’s most banned books? Yes.

Narrated through the notoriously unreliable perspective of one Humbert Humbert, aka Paedophile-in-Chief? Yes.

Hilarious and infuriating by turns, but always mesmerising? Yes.

JOINING DETAILS:

Eight-meeting study led by Dr Nancy Goldstein

17 September – 5 November 2026

Thursdays, 6.30-8.30 pm (UK time)

£320 for eight two-hour meetings

Recommended edition The Annotated Lolita (Penguin Modern Classics, 2000): ISBN: 978-0141185040

Organizer

Nancy Goldstein

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Time

17 September 2026 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm(GMT+01:00)

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LIVE ON ZOOM

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24September 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm1October 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm8October 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm15October 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm22October 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm29October 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm5November 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

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The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann (early)THIRTEEN WEEK STUDY, LED BY TOBY BROTHERS & SARAH SNOXALL LIVE ON ZOOM, 12.00-2.00 PM (UK TIME)2026tue22sep12:00 pm2:00 pm12:00 pm - 2:00 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOMType of studyLiteratureFrequencyWeekly

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Thomas Mann’s 1924 novel The Magic Mountain is often grouped with two other giant literary classics, James Joyce’s Ulysses and Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past. Together these works are seen as the formative novels of the Modernist era.

A first dip into the text of The Magic Mountain reveals an accessible, lilting narrative in which readers soon find themselves considering time, society, passion and memory from the particular perspective of an invalid needing medical care in an environment far removed from regular life. But we are not concerned solely with the beauty of the prose, but about the power and seduction of the realm of the mind.

Unlike some books we study in the Salon, the challenge of reading The Magic Mountain lies not just in decoding and teasing out the themes, patterns and narrative play (although we do have a VERY playful narrator), but in grasping mountainous ideas: philosophies, paradigms and approaches to constructing our lives in purposeful ways. Do we aim for the purity of transcendent music? Do we indulge in the decadence of the senses when we recognise the limits of time? Do we try to catalogue suffering and thus reveal the beautiful rationality of humankind and our ability to overcome the pain of living? All this is considered from the rarefied perspective of this mountain retreat, a Swiss Sanatorium on the verge of the First World War.

Often funny, occasionally erotic, moments of the fantastical clash with the absurd, feasts, suicides, seances and war . . . it is a packed book that is also deeply political. Written between the First and Second World Wars, The Magic Mountain engages with questions of nationalism and nostalgia, with the shadow of future events shifting the weight of the ironic stance that Mann assumes.

A little knowledge of some of the German and Austrian thinkers whose fingerprints can be found in the pages – Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Freud, Heidegger – can be helpful but is not necessary for a thoroughly satisfying read. During the course of this study we will invite Keith Fosbrook to share a little of his expertise in this area with the group.

JOINING DETAILS:

Thirteen week study, live on Zoom, led by Toby Brothers and Sarah Snoxall with additional contribution from Keith Fosbrook.

Tuesdays, 12.00-2.00 pm (UK time), 22 September – 15 December 2026 (except for the second meeting in the series which will be from 12.00-2.00 pm on Wednesday 30 September).

We are also offering a later study (on Tuesdays only) from 22 September – 15 December 2026, 5.30-7.30 pm.

Recommended edition: The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, translated by John E. Woods, Vintage, ISBN-13 : ‎ 978-0679772873.

£490 for thirteen-week study.

REDUCED COSTS: we are committed to making our studies as affordable as possible. We have a fund in place to support anyone who would like to register for a study but finds the cost difficult to afford. We can’t promise to help, but please email us at litsalon@gmail.com in confidence if you would like to request a reduction in the cost of a study.

Time

22 September 2026 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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LIVE ON ZOOM

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30September 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm6October 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm13October 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm20October 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm27October 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm3November 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm10November 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm17November 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm24November 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm1December 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm8December 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm15December 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm

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The Magic Mountain - Thomas MannTHIRTEEN WEEK STUDY, LED BY TOBY BROTHERS & SARAH SNOXALL LIVE ON ZOOM, 22 SEPTEMBER - 15 DECEMBER 20262026tue22sep5:30 pm7:30 pm5:30 pm - 7:30 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOMType of studyLiteratureFrequencyWeekly

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JOINING DETAILS:

Thirteen week study, live on Zoom, led by Toby Brothers and Sarah Snoxall with additional contribution from Keith Fosbrook.

Tuesdays, 5.30-7.30 pm (UK time), 22 September – 15 December 2026.

Recommended edition: The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, translated by John E. Woods, Vintage, ISBN-13 : ‎ 978-0679772873.

£490 for thirteen-week study.

REDUCED COSTS: we are committed to making our studies as affordable as possible. We have a fund in place to support anyone who would like to register for a study but finds the cost difficult to afford. We can’t promise to help, but please email us at litsalon@gmail.com in confidence if you would like to request a reduction in the cost of a study.

Time

22 September 2026 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm(GMT+01:00)

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LIVE ON ZOOM

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29September 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm6October 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm13October 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm20October 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm27October 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm3November 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm10November 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm17November 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm24November 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm1December 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm8December 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm15December 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm

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*Portrait of Edith Wharton by Edward Harrison May, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*

“I’m posting this LitSalon Short as a ‘taster’ for anyone considering joining me for the six-meeting study of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, starting 21 October 2026, 6.30–8.30 pm (UK time). Participants will also get a feel for my facilitation style.”

Nancy Goldstein

In this LitSalon Short we’ll be discussing Roman Fever (1934), one of Wharton’s most perfectly constructed stories — and, at eight pages, one of the most efficient. Two wealthy American widows, old friends and old rivals, sit on a Roman terrace watching their daughters. Over the course of an afternoon conversation, a buried secret surfaces. The ending is one of the great last lines in the American short story.

Wharton understood, as only an insider could, that in a world where women’s power is almost entirely social, silence is not passivity. It is strategy.

As for The Age of Innocence. Published in 1920 — the same year American women won the right to vote — it is set in a world Wharton knew from the inside: Old New York society, a closed world of inherited money and rigid ritual revolving around the unspoken rule that nothing shall ever, under any circumstances, be said plainly. What cannot be acknowledged cannot threaten. What cannot be named cannot exist. She knew that the real cost of a society built on appearances isn’t borne by the people who break the rules. It’s borne by the people who keep them.

Our six-meeting study of The Age of Innocence begins on Wednesday 21 October 2026.

JOINING DETAILS:

Single session LitSalon Short on Edith Wharton’s Roman Fever, led by Dr Nancy Goldstein. The story is available free online via the linked text above.

Wednesday 23 September, 5.00–6.30 pm (UK time), live on Zoom

‘LitSalon Shorts’ are single-session studies (usually slightly shorter than a typical Salon study meeting) in which a facilitator shares with the wider Salon community their enthusiasm for an aspect of literature or culture.

Shorts are offered free of charge, but numbers are limited so please use the booking form below to reserve a place. Although there is no fee for this Short, Nancy asks you to consider making a donation — perhaps the price of your last G&T or flat white? — to José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen, which feeds hungry people in war and emergency zones all over the world, from Gaza and Ukraine to Pakistan and areas struggling with natural disasters.

Organizer

Nancy Goldstein

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23 September 2026 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse – four day study in St Ives 20262026sat26sep(sep 26)5:00 pmtue29(sep 29)12:00 pm5:00 pm - 12:00 pm (29)(GMT+01:00) St Ives, Cornwall Event Organized ByToby Brothers & Sarah SnoxallType of studyLiterature, TravelFrequencyOne-off Event

Event Details

We have a well-established Salon tradition of spending some time each autumn on the Cornish coast reading Virginia Woolf’s work and enjoying one of the places she loved and in which she spent significant parts of her childhood. This year we are again offering two Woolf studies in St Ives: To the Lighthouse from 26 to 29 September and The Waves from 2 to 5 October 2026.

In this, our seventh travel study devoted to reading To the Lighthouse in the magical environment that inspired it, the experience will be made even more special by the book’s impending centenary. First published on 5 May 1927, this extraordinary work rewards reading and re-reading, revealing new facets of Woolf’s world with every encounter. Toby Brothers, founder of the London Literary Salon and co-facilitator of the study, reveals that even after more than twenty readings she still learns from the book, finding new resonances and greater understanding to share with study participants new and old.

Woolf’s reputation as one of the key members of the celebrated Bloomsbury Group, means that many see her primarily as a London writer, yet the Cornish coastal town of St Ives – where she spent many childhood summers – serves as a prism through which we can explore her perspectives on landscape, domesticity and identity, and their relevance to her time and our own.

“This is something I have dreamed of doing since I first read Woolf’s magical book To the Lighthouse – it has haunted me always. The opportunity to study this work with a keen group of minds in the place that is so crucial to the writing is simply delicious.“

Toby Brothers

During our visit you will have opportunities to visit the iconic Tate St Ives gallery overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, built between 1988 and 1993 on the site of an old gasworks, and the Barbara Hepworth Museum & Sculpture Garden. If weather allows, there will be an optional boat trip to Godrevy Lighthouse and we also hope to look at Talland House, Woolf’s childhood summer home (now privately owned). Until Virginia’s mother, Julia Stephen, died in 1895, the elegant house overlooking St Ives Bay would be the Stephens’ family home for several months of each year. Although the complete family never returned to St Ives after their mother’s death, her children travelled back in 1905 following the death of their father in the previous year.

“If life has a base that it stands upon, if it is a bowl that one fills and fills and fills – then my bowl without doubt stands upon this memory. It is of lying in bed, half-asleep, half awake, in bed in the nursery at St Ives. It is of hearing the waves breaking, one, two, one, two, and sending a splash of water over the beach; and then breaking, one, two, one two, behind a yellow blind . . . If I were a painter I should paint these impressions in pale yellow, silver, and green. There was the pale yellow blind; the green sea; and the silver of the passion flowers.

“Here is the past and all its inhabitants miraculously sealed as in a magic tank.

“The past only comes back when the present runs so smoothly that it is like the sliding surface of a deep river. Then one sees through the surface to the depths. The past sometimes presses so close that you can feel nothing else.”

Virginia Woolf, “Sketch of the Past”, begun in June 1939

“What is the meaning of life? That was all – a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.”

Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

Feedback from participants in previous St Ives studies:

“The studio where the discussion took place is a beautiful, extraordinary place, the participants were imbued with the light and landscape, creating a friendly and committed atmosphere. The two facilitators were wonderful . . .”

“The collaboration between participants and facilitators was rich indeed, and I wonder how it was accomplished that everyone in the group was so insightful and intelligent and I might even say soul-searching . . . I also think it was just a superb group of people.”

Read Salonista Leah Jewett’s account of a Salon Study in St Ives here.

SALON DETAILS:

The cost of the study is £600. Please use the form below to secure your place with an initial registration deposit of £60.00. Once you have registered we will then send you details for payment of the balance owing (£540.00) to complete your booking by bank transfer.

Facilitated by Toby Brothers and Sarah Snoxall

Our meetings will take place in the fabulous Porthmeor Studios

26 to 29 September 2026 (this will enable approximately 14 hours of study)

Recommended edition: To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf, with introduction by Hermione Lee, Penguin Classics, ISBN: 9780241371954

The cost of £600 covers facilitation, notes and critical resources (N.B. travel, food and accommodation are NOT included and participants are responsible for arranging their own travel, accommodation and insurance).

We recommend booking your accommodation at the earliest opportunity. Places where previous participants have enjoyed staying include No 4 St Ives, 3 Porthminster Terrace, Blue Sky, The Olive Branch, Rivendell and the Harbour View Hotel, there may also be options with Airbnb. PLEASE check web details and compare review sites before you book to make sure your needs will be met.

More on the study:

As one of the primary modernist works, To the Lighthouse demonstrates Woolf at play with language; testing the ability of language to truly reflect human experience by recording the life of the mind not just action. One of the characteristics of modernist writing is a shifting centre of narrative perspective, reflecting a questioning of ultimate and moral authority at a time experiencing the dissolution of Imperialism and absolute values.

Writing from the edge of the violent shift from the Victorian to the Modernist era, Woolf’s ambivalence is demonstrated in her work. She struggles against the boundaries and structures of the Victorian age while holding a great longing and nostalgia for the noble traditions of the time. Her model, Mrs. Ramsey, (queen-like) holds her daughters to the awe of the noble men that surround her and allows them to “sport with infidel ideas…of a life different…in Paris perhaps; …for there was in all their minds a mute questioning of deference and chivalry…though to them all there was something in this of the essence of beauty, which called out the manliness in their girlish hearts…” (To the Lighthouse, pages 10-11).

This quote also demonstrates the Modernist reworking of absolute truth…it is not a question of either this (a male-dominated world) or that (a world of female emancipation): the apparently rigid gender roles borrow from each other — “manliness in their girlish hearts”, “Indeed, she had the whole of the other sex under her protection…” — there is another imperialism here, an intimate imperialism of female over male. The truth in this work is not rigid (although Mr. R would like it to be) but can be permeated, blended — seen from another view.

Re-reading Hermione Lee’s biography of Virginia Woolf (a review of which is quoted below) has me turning over the search one makes for lost childhood, often for a place that might hold a time but, of course, never does. For Woolf, that search included a grappling with the impact and idealisation of the parent figures — especially the lost mother, whose influence and contradictions continue to wrap around the child inside. Virginia Woolf and a few of her siblings returned to the house in St Ives (that we are lucky enough to visit) years after her mother’s death and the sale of the house. They were like ghosts, sneaking around the gardens, peering in the windows: as though searching for their lost selves and a past that can never be recaptured. That visit — and the need to lay to rest her grief-enwrapped memories of her mother — was the catalyst for To the Lighthouse.

For those who want to go further, here is an excerpt from a review of Hermione Lee’s Virginia Woolf:

“Ms. Lee documents the evolving perception of her subject from ”the delicate lady authoress of a few experimental novels and sketches, some essays and a ‘writer’s’ diary, to one of the most professional, perfectionist, energetic, courageous and committed writers in the language.” She does this without recourse to the politicised agendas of the academy or special pleading (all of Woolf’s flaws are on display here); this account sets itself above the fray, the better to home in on the glittery and elusive creature at its centre — the prize catch in what one critic has described as the Bloomsbury pond. From its very first page, Ms. Lee’s book is informed by current thinking on how to approach the writing of someone’s life: “There is no such thing as an objective biography, particularly not in this case. Positions have been taken, myths have been made.” But it is also infused with a very personal passion for her subject, which enables the author to cut crisply through the labyrinth of theories that have sprung up…”

– Daphne Merkin, This Loose, Drifting Material of Life

Although To the Lighthouse is not autobiographical, many critics and readers have found close parallels between Woolf’s early life and the world presented in the book. As we go into the read, it may help you to have a sense of Virginia Woolf and her precarious position as a visionary on the edge of a violently changing world. I will have more biographical notes for you when we start.

Organizer

Toby Brothers & Sarah Snoxall

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Time

26 September 2026 5:00 pm - 29 September 2026 12:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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St Ives, Cornwall

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Booking deposit £60 to be paid on registration, the balance of £540 will be payable by end of July 2026.

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October 2026

Virginia Woolf’s The Waves – four day study in St Ives 2026FOUR DAY TRAVEL STUDY, 1-4 OCTOBER 20262026thu01oct5:00 pmsun04(oct 4)12:00 pm5:00 pm - 12:00 pm (4)(GMT+01:00) St Ives, Cornwall Event Organized ByToby Brothers & Sarah SnoxallType of studyLiterature, TravelFrequencyOne-off Event

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We have a well-established Salon tradition of spending some time each autumn on the Cornish coast reading Virginia Woolf’s work and enjoying one of the places she loved and in which she spent significant parts of her childhood. This year we are again offering two Woolf studies in St Ives: To the Lighthouse from 26 to 29 September (when we will also celebrate the approaching centenary of the first publication of the book in May 1927) and The Waves from 1 to 4 October 2026.

“Thus when I come to shape here at this table between my hands the story of my life and set it before you as a complete thing, I have to recall things gone far, gone deep, sunk into this life or that and become part of it; dreams, too, things surrounding me, and the inmates, those old half-articulate ghosts who keep up their hauntings by day and night; who turn over in their sleep, who utter their confused cries, who put out their phantom fingers and clutch at me as I try to escape—shadows of people one might have been; unborn selves.”

Virginia Woolf, The Waves

Reading Virginia Woolf requires a release of the faculty we have so carefully trained to be grounded in time and fact. Her fluid and probing prose allows such a deep and troubling glimpse into the human heart that one comes away wiser and broader than before. This is not my first floating into The Waves, what I have already experienced makes me want to swim far out into her embracing world of character and reflection.

We invite you to join us in St Ives to explore this lovely place and share the work with a group of other keen minds.

I love this review of The Waves from Goodreads:

‘My umpteenth reading of The Waves and it still floors me. There’s not a wasted word here: Woolf’s attention to rhythm—she was listening to Beethoven’s String Quartet in B-flat Minor, Opus 130 while writing this novel, and Beethoven’s nuances are found in her prose at all turns—and the ways in which she questions subjectivity, interpersonal relations, the ways in which we are connected and yet disparate from those around us are on display here more so than in any of her other fictional works.

‘The last section is sadly not as famous as the last section in Joyce’s Ulysses, but it may well be even more gut-wrenchingly brutal in its philosophical underpinnings and the ways in which Woolf engages with poetics to sustain the flow of her inquiries into what it means to be human. On each reading there is something more to be found here, something more to be learned, something to relish and treasure, some keen diamond-edged truth that slices just as much as it illuminates.’

Feedback from participants in previous St Ives studies:

Read Salonista Leah Jewett’s account of a Salon Study in St Ives here.

JOINING DETAILS:

The cost of the study is £600. Please use the form below to secure your place with an initial registration deposit of £60.00. Once you have registered we will then send you details for payment of the balance owing (£540.00) to complete your booking by bank transfer.

Facilitated by Toby Brothers and Sarah Snoxall

Our meetings will take place in the fabulous Porthmeor Studios

1 to 4 October 2026 (this will enable approximately 14 hours of study)

Recommended editions: The Waves by Virginia Woolf, Vintage Classics, ISBN-13: ‎
978-1784870843 or Penguin Classics, ISBN-13: 978-0241372081

The cost of £600 covers facilitation, notes and critical resources (N.B. travel, food and accommodation are NOT included and participants are responsible for arranging their own travel, accommodation and insurance).

We recommend booking your accommodation at the earliest opportunity. Places where previous participants have enjoyed staying include No 4 St Ives, 3 Porthminster Terrace, Blue Sky, The Olive Branch, Rivendell and the Harbour View Hotel, there may also be options with Airbnb. PLEASE check web details and compare review sites before you book to make sure your needs will be met.

Organizer

Toby Brothers & Sarah Snoxall

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Time

1 October 2026 5:00 pm - 4 October 2026 12:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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St Ives, Cornwall

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Booking deposit £60 to be paid on registration, the balance of £540 will be payable by end of July 2026.

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Dante's PurgatorioELEVEN MEETING STUDY, LED BY SEAN FORESTER LIVE ON ZOOM, 1 OCTOBER - 17 DECEMBER, 5.30-7.30 PM (UK TIME)2026thu01oct5:30 pm7:30 pm5:30 pm - 7:30 pm(GMT+01:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized BySean ForesterType of studyPoetryFrequencyWeekly

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*Gustave Doré, Dante’s Purgatorio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*

Dante’s epic journey through the afterlife continues in the Purgatorio. Here the poet explores self-transformation: How do we let go of pride, hatred, lust, jealousy and greed? How can we move from cruelty and to kindness, from sin to salvation?

Dante writes in the first person as a very human voyager, reacting with strong and varied emotions to the characters before him, just as the reader might. As we pass through an array of landscapes, each appropriate to the sins and purgations there, Dante undergoes a kind of transformation himself. And he challenges us to do the same.

You don’t need to have read Dante’s Inferno to join this study. Dante, like Joyce, is an ideal author for in-depth study at the LitSalon. The Divine Comedy has multiple meanings that provide rich material for discussion, weaving together myth, theology, history and the contemporary life of Dante’s time. We will explore Dante’s relationship with Virgil and Beatrice, and with several other vivid personalities he meets along his way.

According to T.S. Eliot, “The whole study and practice of Dante seems to me to teach that the poet should be the servant of his language, rather than the master of it.” Join us in reading one of the classics of world literature. You will be welcome to use whichever translation of Dante you prefer, but Sean will be using the translation by D.M. Black, whose notes and commentary are especially focused on the Purgatorio’s implications for psychological self-transformation.

JOINING DETAILS:

Eleven meeting study (on Zoom) led by Sean Forester

Thursdays, 5.30-7.30 pm (UK time)

1, 8, 15, 22, 29 October; 5, 12, 19 November; 3, 10, 17 December 2026 (N.B. no meeting on 26 November, Thanksgiving)

£440 for eleven two-hour meetings, to include opening notes and resources

Recommended edition: Dante’s Purgatorio, translated by Jean Hollander & Robert Hollander, ISBN: 978-0385497008

Organizer

Sean Forester

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Time

1 October 2026 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm(GMT+01:00)

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LIVE ON ZOOM

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THE GUERMANTES WAY (early)The third volume of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, 13 WEEK STUDY, LIVE ON ZOOM (early)2026wed07oct3:00 pm5:00 pm3:00 pm - 5:00 pm(GMT+01:00) VIRTUAL Event Organized ByToby BrothersType of studyLiteratureFrequencyWeekly

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“Every reader finds himself. The writer’s work is merely a kind of optical instrument that makes it possible for the reader to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have seen in himself.”

Marcel Proust

Facilitator Toby Brothers writes:

Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time is one of the mountains of Modernism. This is my eighth tour through the Search and each visit reveals new nuggets and gasping moments. This third volume considers closely the draw of the social dance and the realm of social power: you might not think the anxious aristocracy of the Belle Epoque will teach you something about the world you live in – you will be surprised. The groups who have made it through the first two volumes in the last six months are lively and welcoming and we have room for two or three more to join us. If you have not read the first two volumes previously, please contact us to discuss.

Here is how one Salonista describes the pleasure and work of reading Proust: “This is a velvet jewel of a book that demands the attention of a lover full of enchantment and obsession, we need not get impatient as all good lovers perfect their art in taking their time.”

While another observes: “I feel really privileged to be gaining a better understanding of Proust’s amazing work and be able to enjoy the intricacies of his language and thoughts . . . the meetings allow plenty of time and space for exploration and our study is reinforced by emails and relevant essays in between meetings. I am very grateful to have this opportunity to join the study.”

Reading Proust teaches the reader to observe how the world is experienced, to be aware that although humans are tempted to give greater weight to the perceptual universe, it is the entwining of memory, idealised experience (dreams) and relationships with what our senses perceive that moulds our consciousness.

JOINING DETAILS:

It may be possible for new members to join this group of readers. If you are interested please email litsalon@gmail.com using the subject heading: ‘Joining Proust Group’.

Facilitated by Toby Brothers

Wednesdays, 3.00-5.00 pm (UK time)

Thirteen meeting study: 7 October – 9 December 2026, resuming from 13 January – 3 February 2027, N.B. these dates cover 14 weeks allowing one ‘spare’ week for use in case of illness.

Recommended edition: Vintage Classics (Moncrieff/Kilmartin/Enright) ISBN-13: 978-0099362418

£455 for thirteen meetings, includes background materials, literary criticism, opening notes and discussion notes.

Organizer

Toby Brothers

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7 October 2026 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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VIRTUAL

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THE GUERMANTES WAY (Later)The third volume of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, 13 WEEK STUDY, LIVE ON ZOOM (Later)2026wed07oct5:30 pm7:30 pm5:30 pm - 7:30 pm(GMT+01:00) VIRTUAL Event Organized ByToby BrothersType of studyLiteratureFrequencyWeekly

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“Every reader finds himself. The writer’s work is merely a kind of optical instrument that makes it possible for the reader to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have seen in himself.”

Marcel Proust

Facilitator Toby Brothers writes:

JOINING DETAILS:

It may be possible for new members to join this group of readers. If you are interested please email litsalon@gmail.com using the subject heading: ‘Joining Proust Group’.

Facilitated by Toby Brothers

Wednesdays, 5.30-7.30 pm (UK time)

Thirteen meeting study: 7 October – 9 December 2026, resuming from 13 January – 3 February 2027, N.B. these dates cover 14 weeks allowing one ‘spare’ week for use in case of illness.

Recommended edition: Vintage Classics (Moncrieff/Kilmartin/Enright) ISBN-13: 978-0099362418

£455 for thirteen meetings, includes background materials, literary criticism, opening notes and discussion notes.

Organizer

Toby Brothers

Salon Director...

Salon Director

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Time

7 October 2026 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm(GMT+01:00)

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VIRTUAL

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*Portrait of Oscar Wilde, Napoleon Sarony, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*

“I’m posting this LitSalon Short as a ‘taster’ for anyone considering joining the full study of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, starting on Thursday, 12 November, 6.30–8.30 pm (UK time). Participants will also get a feel for my facilitation style.”

Nancy Goldstein

In this LitSalon Short we’ll be discussing Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime (1891), one of Wilde’s most deliciously cynical short stories. A society fortune-teller reads Lord Arthur’s palm at a London dinner party and discovers something so alarming that Lord Arthur resolves to act on it immediately — before he can be held responsible for the consequences. What follows is a comedy of manners so dark it is practically a thriller, and a satire of upper-class Victorian morality that barely needs to exaggerate its source material.

Or does it? Wilde’s central joke — that a man of honour must commit a crime in order to fulfil his social obligations — is both absurd and completely logical. The story asks, deadpan, what it means to do the right thing, and arrives at an answer that should perhaps trouble us more than it does.

This Short is also a way in to our upcoming study of The Picture of Dorian Gray — a novel Wilde’s fin de siècle critics denounced as unclean and dangerous, even though Stoddart had already gone through the original manuscript, pencil in hand, crossing out some 500 words to make it acceptable. One hundred and thirty-six years on, Wilde’s central question feels less like Victorian Gothic and more like Monday morning: what are we willing to sacrifice — integrity, authenticity, other people — to keep the image intact? Wilde knew, long before Instagram did, that the real corruption isn’t the sins you commit; it’s the lengths you’ll go to make sure nobody sees them.

JOINING DETAILS:

Single session LitSalon Short on Oscar Wilde’s Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime (which can be downloaded from links in this post) led by Dr Nancy Goldstein

Thursday 8 October, 5.00–6.30 pm (UK), live on Zoom

‘LitSalon Shorts’ are single-session studies (usually slightly shorter than a typical Salon study meeting) in which a facilitator shares with the wider Salon community their enthusiasm for an aspect of literature or culture.

Shorts are offered free of charge, but numbers are limited so please use the booking form below to reserve a place. Although there is no fee for this Short, Nancy asks you to consider making a donation — perhaps the price of your last G&T or flat white? — to José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen, which feeds hungry people in war and emergency zones all over the world, from Gaza and Ukraine to Pakistan and areas struggling with natural disasters.

Organizer

Nancy Goldstein

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Time

8 October 2026 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm(GMT+01:00)

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LIVE ON ZOOM

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Published in 1920 — the same year American women won the right to vote — The Age of Innocence is set in a world Edith Wharton knew from the inside: Old New York society, a closed world of inherited money and rigid ritual revolving around the unspoken rule that nothing shall ever, under any circumstances, be said plainly. What cannot be acknowledged cannot threaten. What cannot be named cannot exist.

Into this airless world arrives Countess Ellen Olenska, who has had the bad taste to flee an abusive marriage and the worse taste to expect her family’s support. She is sophisticated, unconventional, and faintly European. In short, dangerous. Newland Archer is engaged to the exquisitely correct May Welland. He should not be thinking about Ellen Olenska at all. What follows is a love story in which almost nothing happens and everything is at stake.

The Age of Innocence won the Pulitzer Prize in 1921, making Wharton the first woman to receive it. The jury had voted for Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street, only to be overruled by Columbia University’s conservative trustees, who found Lewis’s satire insufficiently “wholesome” — and awarded the prize to a novel whose entire project is the dissection of the world that word protects. Wharton, on learning the prize was meant for Lewis, wrote to him: “When I discovered that I was being rewarded — by one of our leading Universities — for uplifting American morals, I confess I did despair.”

In a cultural moment defined by the performance of virtue and the management of image — by the gap between the life curated for public consumption and the life actually lived — Wharton’s diagnosis of how societies enforce conformity, and what it costs the people who comply, has never felt more precise. She knew that the real cost of a society built on appearances isn’t borne by the people who break the rules. It’s borne by the people who keep them.

Let us read.

JOINING DETAILS:

Six-meeting study, live on Zoom, led by Dr Nancy Goldstein

21 October – 25 November 2026

Wednesdays, 6.30–8.30 pm (UK time)

£240 for six two-hour meetings

Recommended edition: The Age of Innocence, Penguin Classics, 1996. ISBN: 9780140189704

REDUCED COSTS: we are committed to making our studies as affordable as possible. We have a fund in place to support anyone who would like to register for a study but finds the cost difficult to afford. We can’t promise to help, but please email us at litsalon@gmail.com in confidence if you would like to request a reduction in the cost of a study.

Organizer

Nancy Goldstein

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Time

21 October 2026 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm(GMT+01:00)

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LIVE ON ZOOM

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Why read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight? - a LitSalon ShortSINGLE MEETING LITSALON SHORT, LIVE ON ZOOM, 28 OCTOBER 2026, 6.00-7.15 PM (UK TIME)2026wed28oct6:00 pm7:15 pm6:00 pm - 7:15 pm(GMT+00:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized ByTim SwinglehurstType of studyLiterature, LitSalon Short, PoetryFrequencyOne-off Event

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*The wife of the Green Knight secretly visits Sir Gawain in his bedchamber, British Library, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons*

“But where will you be? Where’s your abode?
You’re a man of mystery, as God is my maker.”

from Simon Armitage’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Believed to date from around 1400 and regarded as one of finest surviving examples of Middle English poetry, we know little about who wrote Sir Gawain and the Green Knight other than that they were from the North of England.

Set at Christmas in Camelot, the court of King Arthur, it is a mythic tale of magic and mystery in the age of chivalry that has attracted countless translators to explore its rich literary artistry and subtle psychological depth.

In this LitSalon Short we will consider the enduring appeal of this otherworldly wintry adventure and the translation by the Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, which will be the subject of a four-meeting study led by Tim Swinglehurst in the weeks before Christmas.

JOINING DETAILS:

Single meeting LitSalon Short led by Tim Swinglehurst live on Zoom

Wednesday 28 October, 6.00-7.15 pm (UK time)

LitSalon Shorts are offered free-of-charge, but please use the form below to reserve your place

Recommended edition: Simon Armitage, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Faber & Faber, 2007, ISBN 978-0-571-22328-2.

Organizer

Tim Swinglehurst

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Time

28 October 2026 6:00 pm - 7:15 pm(GMT+00:00)

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LIVE ON ZOOM

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November 2026

Poet tasting #1: TennysonTWO-MEETING STUDY, LED BY TIM SWINGLEHURST LIVE ON ZOOM, TUESDAY 3 & 10 NOVEMBER, 6.00-8.00 PM (UK TIME)2026tue03nov6:00 pm8:00 pm6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+00:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized ByTim Swinglehurst

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*Alfred Lord Tennyson by Samuel Laurence, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*

”Dark house, by which once more I stand

                           Here in the long unlovely street,

                           Doors, where my heart was used to beat

                  So quickly, waiting for a hand…”

We hope that this Salon on Tennyson will be the first of many, where Tim Swinglehurst invites salonistas to a tasting of a specific poet writing sometime between the English Renaissance and the outbreak of the First World War. His aim is that after two weeks you will be left wanting more!

In 1946 W.H. Auden articulated the polarised reception – Victorian idolisation versus Modernist rejection – of his venerable poetical predecessor, Alfred Lord Tennyson, writing “He had the finest ear, perhaps, of any English poet; he was also undoubtedly the stupidest; there was little about melancholia he didn’t know; there was little else that he did”. Tennyson’s mastery of form and exceptional ear for rhythm and lyrical phrasing (“the finest ear of any English poet since Milton” said T.S. Eliot) were praised; his preference for hypnotic, sensual musicality at the expense of intellectual rigour and moral seriousness condemned (according to F.R. Leavis he was guilty of an unhealthy, “dream world” escapism, while Eliot – again – described “a further stage in the disintegration of the intellect, the further separation of sound, image and thought”).

More generously, Professor Christopher Ricks has written, “That, among so much else, he knew – and could effect – consolation as no one else has in our tongue, knowing consolation in its substantiality as well as its limits; that he understood madness, bereavement, fear, shivering, erotic loveliness, undying friendship, loss, exquisite courtesy, as it has been given to very few to understand them.” Extraordinary that anyone should have such comprehensive understanding of melancholia as Auden claims for Tennyson, mind-boggling that his understanding may encompass so much more.

During this two-week Salon we will read short poems and selected passages from longer poems to taste Tennyson for ourselves and see how we respond to his verse. We will, among other poems, read from The Lotos-Eaters and Ulysses, listening to Tennyson in dialogue with Homer’s Odyssey; explore a fraction of Tennyson’s grief and the mind-altering challenges of geology and cosmology to his faith expressed in In Memoriam; and journey into the deeply disturbed and deteriorating psyche of the narrator of the monodrama Maud. We will, most importantly, take time to read some of Tennyson’s verse aloud together, experiencing with our ears and voices the Tennyson ‘sound’.

“Now folds the lily all her sweetness up,

And slips into the bosom of the lake.

So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip

Into my bosom and be lost in me.”

JOINING DETAILS:

Two-meeting study led by Tim Swinglehurst live on Zoom

Tuesday 3 & 10 November, 6.00-8.00 pm (UK time)

£80 for two meetings

REDUCED COSTS: we are committed to making our studies as affordable as possible. We have a fund in place to support anyone who would like to register for a study but finds the cost difficult to afford. We can’t promise to help, but please email us at litsalon@gmail.com in confidence if you would like to request a reduction in the cost of a study.

Organizer

Tim Swinglehurst

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Time

3 November 2026 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+00:00)

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LIVE ON ZOOM

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Thomas_Patch_-_A_Young_Man_Seated_at_a_Desk_Writing_a_Letter_-_B1977.14.309(6)_-_Yale_Center_for_British_Art

Drawing by Thomas Patch, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

“I’m posting this LitSalon Short as a ‘taster’ for anyone considering joining me for the ten-meeting study of Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, starting 14 January 2027, 6.30–8.30 pm (UK time). Participants will also get a feel for my facilitation style.”

Nancy Goldstein

In this LitSalon Short we’ll be discussing Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener (1853), one of the strangest and most haunting stories in American literature. Published in the same year as Bleak House, it echoes many of the themes in Charles Dickens’ novel.

A law office. A copyist who responds to every request with “I would prefer not to.” A system that cannot process a human being who simply stops complying.

Or can it? Melville’s central joke — that a man who does nothing is more destabilising than a man who does harm — is both absurd and completely logical. The story asks, with a perfectly straight face, what happens when a human being falls through the cracks of every institutional net designed to catch him.

As for Bleak House. Dickens’ masterpiece has at its centre Jarndyce and Jarndyce, a suit in Chancery that has consumed fortunes, ruined lives, and become its own self-perpetuating institution — a monument to procedural delay so vast and so perfectly constructed that it requires no villain to sustain it. The thematic overlap with Bartleby is exact: the way bureaucratic logic defeats human agency without anyone being visibly responsible. Dickens knew that the cruellest thing a corrupt system can do is not to break its own rules. It’s to follow them perfectly.

Our ten-meeting study of Bleak House begins on Thursday 14 January 2027.

JOINING DETAILS:

Single session LitSalon Short on Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener, led by Dr Nancy Goldstein. The story is available free online via the linked text above.

Thursday 12 November, 5.00–6.30 pm (UK time), live on Zoom

‘LitSalon Shorts’ are single-session studies (usually slightly shorter than a typical Salon study meeting) in which a facilitator shares with the wider Salon community their enthusiasm for an aspect of literature or culture.

Shorts are offered free of charge, but numbers are limited so please use the booking form below to reserve a place. Although there is no fee for this Short, Nancy asks you to consider making a donation — perhaps the price of your last G&T or flat white? — to José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen, which feeds hungry people in war and emergency zones all over the world, from Gaza and Ukraine to Pakistan and areas struggling with natural disasters.

Organizer

Nancy Goldstein

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Time

12 November 2026 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm(GMT+00:00)

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“. . . Unclean . . . spawned from the leprous literature of the French decadents — a poisonous book . . . ”

Anonymous review, London Daily Chronicle, 30 June 1890

“Dull and nasty . . . stupid and vulgar . . . immoral. It may be suggested that Wilde derives pleasure from treating a subject merely because it is disgusting.”

Samuel Henry Jeyes, The St. James Gazette, 24 June 1890

“The poor public, hearing from an authority so high as your own, that this is a wicked book that should be coerced and suppressed by a Tory Government, will, no doubt, rush to it and read it. But, alas, they will find that it is a story with a moral. And the moral is this: All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment. ”

Oscar Wilde, from his response to the St. James Gazette review, 25 June 1890

Joseph Marshall Stoddart, Oscar Wilde’s editor in the Philadelphia offices of Lippincott’s Magazine, was neither a bumpkin nor a prude: in 1882 he arranged for Wilde to visit Walt Whitman in Camden, New Jersey, during his American visit. But, alarmed by material he feared readers would find “offensive”, and unbeknownst to its author until after publication, Stoddart went through Wilde’s original manuscript, pencil in hand, crossing out some 500 words to render it “acceptable to the most fastidious taste.”

In short, the novel that Wilde’s irate fin de siècle reviewers deemed filth was already a bowdlerised version of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

The contemporary reader, fresh from watching the latest episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race, may struggle to understand the fury that The Picture of Dorian Gray unleashed in the 1890s. Or the stench it carried for decades after, having starred as Exhibit A in Wilde’s 1895 trials for “gross indecency”.

One hundred and thirty-six years on, The Picture of Dorian Gray speaks to our moment with uncanny precision.

Dorian Gray’s portrait — polished, static, forever young while its subject rots — anticipates the curated profile picture, the Zoom filter, the gap between the life performed online and the life actually lived. In an era of Botox and doom scrolling, instant gratification and weekly scandal, Wilde’s central question feels less like Victorian Gothic and more like Monday morning: what are we willing to sacrifice — integrity, authenticity, other people — to keep the image intact?

Wilde knew, long before Instagram did, that the real corruption isn’t the sins you commit; it’s the lengths you’ll go to make sure nobody sees them.

This study will use, as its basic text, The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray, published by the Harvard University Press (2012).

JOINING DETAILS:

Four-meeting study, live on Zoom, led by Dr Nancy Goldstein

Thursdays, 6.30-8.30 (UK time), 12 November – 3 December

HIGHLY recommended edition: The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray: A Reader’s Edition ISBN: 9780674066311

£160.00 for four two-hour meetings

Organizer

Nancy Goldstein

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Time

12 November 2026 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm(GMT+00:00)

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LIVE ON ZOOM

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Sir Gawain and the Green KnightFOUR MEETINGS, LIVE ON ZOOM, 25 NOVEMBER - 16 DECEMBER 2026, 6.00-8.00 PM (UK TIME)2026wed25nov6:00 pm8:00 pm6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+00:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized ByTim SwinglehurstType of studyLiterature, PoetryFrequencyWeekly

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*Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*

“This kyng lay at Camylot upon Cristmasse,
With rich revel aright and rechlesse mirthes.”

It was Christmas at Camelot and the long fifteen-day celebrations of feasting, dancing and playing games were in full swing at the court of King Arthur when suddenly, at new year, a mysterious knight (“overal enker grene” – entirely vivid green) appears. The stranger issues a challenge to the king’s knights: he will withstand any blow from any knight, provided that in a year and a day’s time the Green Knight may return the blow. When Sir Gawain takes up this challenge and strikes off the Green Knight’s head, he unleashes a series of events which threaten not only his knighthood and the raison d’être of Arthur’s court but disturb his understanding of himself and the world he inhabits.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a perfect read for the winter season, as Gawain sets off at in November to seek out the Green Knight and receive the return-blow. He travels through snow-bound landscapes, where cold streams come clattering down from cliff-tops and hang high above his head in hard icicles, and un-blithe birds upon bare twigs piteously pipe at the pain of the cold, a cold which the poet counterpoints with the warmth of hospitality and festivity celebrated in the castle where Gawain finds rest over Christmas before his final confrontation with the Green Knight.

On the surface, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight appears to be a simple story of magic and adventure, but it is recognised as a great masterpiece of medieval literature, exhibiting keen and subtle psychological depth, and displaying rich and intricate literary artistry. Join us to journey with Gawain as he navigates the cold of winter, the otherness of the Green Knight and his other-worlds, and the complexities of medieval courtly love and fidelity.

The medieval English dialect of the poem is not straightforward. For this study we will be using the acclaimed translation into modern English by poet laureate Simon Armitage, with occasional forays into the original Middle English. The recommended edition is Simon Armitage, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Faber & Faber, 2007. ISBN 978-0-571-22328-2.

JOINING DETAILS:

Four meeting study led by Tim Swinglehurst live on Zoom

Wednesday 25 November, 2, 9 &16 December, 6.00-8.00 pm (UK time)

£160 for four meetings, to include background materials and resources

Recommended edition: Simon Armitage, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Faber & Faber, 2007, ISBN 978-0-571-22328-2.

Organizer

Tim Swinglehurst

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25 November 2026 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+00:00)

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January 2027

ULYSSES BY JAMES JOYCE (2027 early)21 MEETINGS, LED BY TOBY BROTHERS LIVE ON ZOOM, 12 JANUARY - 15 JUNE 2027, 12.00 - 2.00PM (UK TIME)2027tue12jan12:00 pm2:00 pm12:00 pm - 2:00 pm(GMT+00:00) VIRTUAL - ON ZOOM Event Organized ByToby BrothersType of studyLiteratureFrequencyWeekly

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In the more than 100 years since it was first published on 2 February 1922 – James Joyce’s 40th birthday – Ulysses has sometimes been described as ‘unreadable’ and is frequently listed as ‘the book I’m ashamed (or regretful) not to have read’. And yet it came in at number 3 in the Guardian’s recent list of The 100 Best Novels of All Time and at number 10 in the follow-up Readers’ top 100 novels of all time. It is now 20 years since Salon founder Toby Brothers first led a group reading this extraordinary and challenging work, and in 2027 we are again offering the opportunity to join her in guiding a group of committed and curious readers through the pages. Join us if you can, and bear in mind the words of the great American novelist William Faulkner:

“You should approach Joyce’s Ulysses as the illiterate Baptist preacher approaches the Old Testament: with faith.”

*Portrait of James Joyce by Jacques-Emile Blanche, 1934, National Gallery of Ireland, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.*

“. . . Joyce’s contribution to a new way of writing particularly as it affects narrative theory, the role of the reader, and how stories are told from inside the consciousness of the individual. So both the external world we associate with history and the internal world that rightly belongs to the private world of consciousness are redrawn by Joyce in a manner that is both original and at times dependent on sources outside the novel.”

David Pierce in Joyce’s Portrait: A New Reading

Widely acknowledged today as one of the greatest novels of all time, UIysses was immediately controversial on publication, described by one Irish critic as “The most infamously obscene book in ancient or modern literature”. Our study is suitable both for people who have not yet entered the pages of Ulysses and those who have already read it at least once. Our work with this book will widen your perspective and deepen your experience of the power of language.

There are many good reasons for studying this huge and sometimes intimidating text, but you will only know for yourself by diving in. Toby believes the best way to study it is with a group of hungry, curious fellow readers who all contribute to evoking meaning through their questions and insights, she explains:

“The good news: reading Ulysses is fun. And I don’t mean in a frustrating, overly-analytical see-how-much-you-know-way. The language is amazing – even when I don’t understand it. Perhaps, especially when I don’t understand it, because meaning sneaks in through more than my critical faculty. Meaning slides in through sound, through the lushness of the language, through the filmy and substantial images, and suddenly I find myself transported from a walk on a beach to a contemplation of the origins of man. Thank you James Joyce.”

Any time spent studying Joyce leaves one a better reader – a broader thinker – even if all the references, repetitions, epiphanies and allusions are not immediately understood.

Here are comments from two Ulysses participants:

“I am thoroughly enjoying this journey. I feel wide open, exposed and receptive to new ways of thinking. What could be better than that? I enjoy the links with the classics and their current counterparts such as the agony of Sisyphus and the trials of thoughtful, surely sad, Martin Cunningham. And then Bloom with his many pockets reminded me in an amusing way of the Artful Dodger.

“Joining the Ulysses salon was one of the best things I have ever done. This was a book I had wanted to read for years but never got past the first section. I had no idea what the salon would be like and was very apprehensive about joining up. But Toby so skilfully guided us through it, her knowledge of the text seemingly inexhaustible, that with her warmth and generosity and sensitivity she got everyone involved and the satisfaction of participating in the salon and in getting an understanding of this marvellous work was immense.“

JOINING DETAILS:

We are offering this study from 12.00 – 2.00 pm (UK time) with an alternative option later in the day (5.30 – 7.30 pm)

The study will comprise 21 meetings led by Toby Brothers starting on Tuesday 12 January and finishing on Tuesday 15 June 2027, with four possible Sunday afternoon meetings (4.30-6.30pm on 31 January, 28 February, 14 March and 30 May) and NO meetings on 4 and 11 May.

The total cost for the 21 meeting study, with all notes and resources materials, is £575

Please purchase these editions in preparation for our study:
- Ulysses, by James Joyce, Annotated Students’ Edition, Penguin Modern Classics 2011, ISBN: 9780141197418. There are many editions of Ulysses — I find this edition is most coherent and the notes and introduction by Declan Kieberd very helpful; as we will constantly be referencing particular passages, having the same edition will be extremely useful.
- The New Bloomsday Book: A Guide Through Ulysses, by Harry Blamires, ISBN-10: 0415138582

REDUCED COSTS: we are committed to making our studies as affordable as possible. We have a fund in place to support anyone who would like to register for a study but finds the cost difficult to afford. We can’t promise to help, but please email us at litsalon@gmail.com in confidence if you would like to request a reduction in the cost of a study.

Organizer

Toby Brothers

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12 January 2027 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm(GMT+00:00)

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VIRTUAL - ON ZOOM

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19January 202712:00 pm - 2:00 pm26January 202712:00 pm - 2:00 pm2February 202712:00 pm - 2:00 pm9February 202712:00 pm - 2:00 pm16February 202712:00 pm - 2:00 pm23February 202712:00 pm - 2:00 pm2March 202712:00 pm - 2:00 pm9March 202712:00 pm - 2:00 pm16March 202712:00 pm - 2:00 pm23March 202712:00 pm - 2:00 pm30March 202712:00 pm - 2:00 pm6April 202712:00 pm - 2:00 pm13April 202712:00 pm - 2:00 pm20April 202712:00 pm - 2:00 pm27April 202712:00 pm - 2:00 pm18May 202712:00 pm - 2:00 pm25May 202712:00 pm - 2:00 pm1June 202712:00 pm - 2:00 pm8June 202712:00 pm - 2:00 pm15June 202712:00 pm - 2:00 pm

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The Portrait of a Lady - Henry JamesEIGHT-MEETING STUDY, LIVE ON ZOOM, 12 JANUARY - 2 MARCH 2027, 5.00-7.00 PM (UK TIME)2027tue12jan5:00 pm7:00 pm5:00 pm - 7:00 pm(GMT+00:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized ByKeith Fosbrook & Sarah SnoxallType of studyLiteratureFrequencyWeekly

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According to writer and academic Michael Gorra, author of Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece, this is the novel in which Henry James first allowed his imagination full stretch. It was certainly his first big success and remains the most popular of all his longer works.

The Portrait of a Lady tells the story of Isabel Archer, a young American woman arriving in Europe with money, independence and a determination to “see life”. She is intelligent, self-confident, perceptive and curious, even though some find her presumptuous and naive! In James’ own words, he is writing about ‘a certain young woman confronting her destiny’.

For most young women in the 1880s that destiny centred on marriage. At the start of the book, it looks as if Isabel is about to accept this by marrying a forceful, prosperous young man in New England, but when this is postponed by an aunt whisking her off to Europe it seems to open up a world of possibilities curiously attractive to Isabel, in much the same way as visiting Europe proved irresistible for Henry James himself.

Henry James seems to identify deeply with the character of Isabel. In his prelude to the book, he quotes George Eliot’s words about young women, ‘In these frail vessels is borne onward through the ages the treasure of human affection’. His admiration for Eliot and his own inclinations clearly combine to lead him to centre his story on a female character, and to raise fundamental questions about what possibilities there are for women to act independently. He probes the influential Emersonian vision of untrammelled self-reliance, inviting us to consider the extent to which a woman can create her own life when convention offers no more than a frame into which she can step, to become an agreeable but mute and unchanging portrait.

In the context of literary history, this novel is often seen as a link between George Eliot and Virginia Woolf, a kind of bridge between Victorian fiction and modernism. This applies to both content and form, as the novel focuses on the drama of the interior life and, according to Michael Gorra, offers ‘the most searching account of the moment-by-moment flow of consciousness that any novelist had yet attempted’.

For all the possibilities of intellectual engagement with the book, we should never forget the power it has to make us believe in, care for and be deeply moved by the troubled life of the central character. Isabel hopes for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but Henry James’ novels always warn us of the difficulty of achieving these goals in the face of the powerful influence on human affairs of money and deceit. There are elements of the fairy tale in this novel, but don’t expect it to have a happy ending.

JOINING DETAILS:

8 meeting study, live on Zoom, led by Keith Fosbrook and Sarah Snoxall

Tuesdays, 12 January – 2 March 2027, 5.00-7.00 pm (UK time)

Recommended edition: The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, edited by Michael Gorra, Norton Critical Edition, ISBN: 978-0393938531

£320 for eight two-hour meetings

REDUCED COSTS: we are committed to making our studies as affordable as possible. We have a fund in place to support anyone who would like to register for a study but finds the cost difficult to afford. We can’t promise to help, but please email us at litsalon@gmail.com in confidence if you would like to request a reduction in the cost of a study.

Organizer

Keith Fosbrook & Sarah Snoxall

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12 January 2027 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm(GMT+00:00)

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LIVE ON ZOOM

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ULYSSES BY JAMES JOYCE (2027 late)21 MEETINGS, LED BY TOBY BROTHERS LIVE ON ZOOM, 12 JANUARY - 15 JUNE 2027, 5.30 - 7.30PM (UK TIME)2027tue12jan5:30 pm7:30 pm5:30 pm - 7:30 pm(GMT+00:00) VIRTUAL - ON ZOOM Event Organized ByToby BrothersType of studyLiteratureFrequencyWeekly

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“You should approach Joyce’s Ulysses as the illiterate Baptist preacher approaches the Old Testament: with faith.”

“. . . Joyce’s contribution to a new way of writing particularly as it affects narrative theory, the role of the reader, and how stories are told from inside the consciousness of the individual. So both the external world we associate with history and the internal world that rightly belongs to the private world of consciousness are redrawn by Joyce in a manner that is both original and at times dependent on sources outside the novel.”

David Pierce in Joyce’s Portrait: A New Reading

“The good news: reading Ulysses is fun. And I don’t mean in a frustrating, overly-analytical see-how-much-you-know-way. The language is amazing – even when I don’t understand it. Perhaps, especially when I don’t understand it, because meaning sneaks in through more than my critical faculty. Meaning slides in through sound, through the lushness of the language, through the filmy and substantial images, and suddenly I find myself transported from a walk on a beach to a contemplation of the origins of man. Thank you James Joyce.”

Any time spent studying Joyce leaves one a better reader – a broader thinker – even if all the references, repetitions, epiphanies and allusions are not immediately understood.

Here are comments from two Ulysses participants:

“I am thoroughly enjoying this journey. I feel wide open, exposed and receptive to new ways of thinking. What could be better than that? I enjoy the links with the classics and their current counterparts such as the agony of Sisyphus and the trials of thoughtful, surely sad, Martin Cunningham. And then Bloom with his many pockets reminded me in an amusing way of the Artful Dodger.

“Joining the Ulysses salon was one of the best things I have ever done. This was a book I had wanted to read for years but never got past the first section. I had no idea what the salon would be like and was very apprehensive about joining up. But Toby so skilfully guided us through it, her knowledge of the text seemingly inexhaustible, that with her warmth and generosity and sensitivity she got everyone involved and the satisfaction of participating in the salon and in getting an understanding of this marvellous work was immense.“

JOINING DETAILS:

We are offering this study from 5.30 – 7.30 pm (UK time) with an alternative option earlier in the day (12.00-2.00 pm UK)

The study will comprise 21 meetings led by Toby Brothers starting on Tuesday 12 January and finishing on Tuesday 15 June 2027, with four possible Sunday afternoon meetings (4.30-6.30pm on 31 January, 28 February, 14 March and 30 May) and NO meetings on 4 and 11 May.

The total cost for the 21 meeting study, with all notes and resources materials, is £575

Please purchase these editions in preparation for our study:
- Ulysses, by James Joyce, Annotated Students’ Edition, Penguin Modern Classics 2011, ISBN: 9780141197418. There are many editions of Ulysses — I find this edition is most coherent and the notes and introduction by Declan Kieberd very helpful; as we will constantly be referencing particular passages, having the same edition will be extremely useful.
- The New Bloomsday Book: A Guide Through Ulysses, by Harry Blamires, ISBN-10: 0415138582

REDUCED COSTS: we are committed to making our studies as affordable as possible. We have a fund in place to support anyone who would like to register for a study but finds the cost difficult to afford. We can’t promise to help, but please email us at litsalon@gmail.com in confidence if you would like to request a reduction in the cost of a study.

Organizer

Toby Brothers

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Salon Director

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12 January 2027 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm(GMT+00:00)

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19January 20275:30 pm - 7:30 pm26January 20275:30 pm - 7:30 pm2February 20275:30 pm - 7:30 pm9February 20275:30 pm - 7:30 pm16February 20275:30 pm - 7:30 pm23February 20275:30 pm - 7:30 pm2March 20275:30 pm - 7:30 pm9March 20275:30 pm - 7:30 pm16March 20275:30 pm - 7:30 pm23March 20275:30 pm - 7:30 pm30March 20275:30 pm - 7:30 pm6April 20275:30 pm - 7:30 pm13April 20275:30 pm - 7:30 pm20April 20275:30 pm - 7:30 pm27April 20275:30 pm - 7:30 pm18May 20275:30 pm - 7:30 pm25May 20275:30 pm - 7:30 pm1June 20275:30 pm - 7:30 pm8June 20275:30 pm - 7:30 pm15June 20275:30 pm - 7:30 pm

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Bleak House - Charles DickensTEN MEETINGS, LED BY NANCY GOLDSTEIN LIVE ON ZOOM, 14 JANUARY - 18 MARCH 2027, 6.30-8.30PM (UK TIME)2027thu14jan6:30 pm8:30 pm6:30 pm - 8:30 pm(GMT+00:00) LIVE ON ZOOM Event Organized ByNancy GoldsteinType of studyLiteratureFrequencyWeekly

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With Bleak House, Charles Dickens sharpened his satire to its finest point and never looked back. First published in monthly parts between 1852 and 1853, it is Gothic in atmosphere, labyrinthine in structure, and merciless in its central argument: that institutions designed to dispense justice can, given sufficient time and indifference, become engines of pure destruction.

At the heart of the novel sits Jarndyce and Jarndyce, a suit in Chancery — the English court of equity — that has been grinding through the system for so long that no living person can remember what it was originally about. It concerns an inheritance. Or several inheritances. Or possibly none at all. By the time we encounter it, the case has consumed fortunes, ruined lives, and become its own self-perpetuating institution: a monument to procedural delay so vast and so perfectly constructed that it requires no villain to sustain it. The system does that work entirely on its own.

Around this vortex, Dickens assembles one of the largest casts in English fiction. There is Esther Summerson, our narrator for half the novel — orphaned, self-effacing, unreliable in ways she cannot see, and, it is hard not to notice, rather more interested in Ada Clare than in any of the men who pursue her. There is Lady Dedlock, magnificent and glacial, with a secret that will undo her. There is Tulkinghorn, the family solicitor, a man who collects other people’s secrets the way other men collect art. There is Inspector Bucket, one of the first detectives in English literature, pursuing a truth that will satisfy no one. And there is Jo, the crossing-sweeper: a child who cannot read, does not know where he was born, and is moved on by every authority he encounters until there is nowhere left to move him.

The fog that opens the novel is Chancery made weather. Dickens’ critics considered the novel’s famous use of spontaneous combustion preposterous. He considered it a defensible metaphor. Both were right.

At a moment when courts are being asked to hold the line against executive power — and when the question of whether they can is genuinely open — Dickens’ portrait of a legal system that defeats justice through its own internal logic has never felt more urgent. Bleak House understands, with absolute clarity, how a system staffed by reasonable individuals and governed by elaborate rules can produce outcomes that are neither reasonable nor just. It understands how delay functions as a weapon. It understands how the people with the least recourse are the most reliably destroyed.

Dickens knew that the cruellest thing a corrupt system can do is not to break its own rules. It’s to follow them perfectly.

Let us read.

JOINING DETAILS:

Ten-meeting study, live on Zoom, led by Dr Nancy Goldstein

14 January – 18 March 2027

Thursdays, 6.30–8.30 pm (UK time)

£400 for ten two-hour meetings

Recommended edition: Bleak House, Oxford World’s Classics, edited with an introduction and notes by Stephen Gill, ISBN: 9780199536313.

REDUCED COSTS: we are committed to making our studies as affordable as possible. We have a fund in place to support anyone who would like to register for a study but finds the cost difficult to afford. We can’t promise to help, but please email us at litsalon@gmail.com in confidence if you would like to request a reduction in the cost of a study.

Organizer

Nancy Goldstein

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14 January 2027 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm(GMT+00:00)

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