It has often been said that Plato’s Symposium is the greatest prose work to survive from the Ancient Greek world. It portrays a group of intellectual men at a dinner party talking about sexual desire and the mysteries of love. Almost all of the men clearly have experience of same-sex relationships and are candid about what this means to them. As a result, the text has sometimes been thought of as a dangerous work, because, to use E M Forster’s ironic phrase, it is frank about the ‘unspeakable vice of the Greeks’. Nowadays, it is easier for us to appreciate the subtlety of Plato’s analysis of gender roles.

A major aspect of Plato’s perspective relates to his view of love as a kind of mystical force which is connected to our sense of beauty and plays an important role in moral education.  This vision was very attractive to the Renaissance humanists, and has influenced Christian apologists over the thousands of years in which the book has been read.

For readers who are not particularly interested in philosophy, the text has appeal because Plato, unlike most philosophers, was a gifted writer. He offers us a variety of characters,  all doing their best to account for the role of love in our lives. The modern world can boast many self-appointed experts here – including artists, philosophers, doctors, the therapeutic community, gurus, agony aunts and charismatic influencers to name but a few – and Plato presents us with a very similar kind of range, skilfully satirising them all. He finally presents a startling conclusion, when the person who is portrayed as having the deepest understanding turns out to be a woman . . .

There’s a great deal  to ponder here, much of it very Greek (whatever that means), but much also that speaks to us with stunning directness across the millennia, and which may even lead you to question what philosophy is.

One final point: the text is riddled with irony, which is not always easy to spot if you are reading silently to yourself. There is much to be gained from reading The Symposium together as a group.

JOINING DETAILS:

• Four-week study led by Keith Fosbrook
• Thursdays, 5.00-7.00 pm, 21 & 28 November, 5 & 12 December
• Please note that it is important we all use the same translation: The Symposium by Plato, Penguin Classics, translated by Christopher Gill, Penguin Classics, ISBN: 9780140449273
• £120 for four meetings, to include introductory notes and resources

First published on 2 February 1922 – James Joyce’s 40th birthday – UIysses was immediately controversial, described by one Irish critic as ‘the most infamously obscene book in ancient or modern literature’. This huge and for some readers intimidating text has topped lists of the greatest books of all time since its first publication. It has also developed a reputation as one of literature’s most lauded but least read books, often cited by writers and celebrities in answer to the question ‘what book are you most ashamed (or sorry) not to have read?’

More than a century on, is Ulysses still worth reading? Will it repay the effort required to get through such a massive tome? In this one-off lecture (with plenty of opportunity for questions from and discussion with the audience), London Literary Salon founder Toby Brothers – who in January will lead what is probably (she has lost count) her 25th group of readers through this extraordinary novel – will explain why she believes the answer remains emphatically ‘Yes (yes, yes)!’

And here is a comment from one current participant in our Ulysses ‘Slow Read’ study:

“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.

The classes I have taken with the Literary Salon have been extraordinary.”

JOINING DETAILS:

• One-off lecture and discussion on Zoom led by Toby Brothers
• 6.30-7.30 pm, Tuesday 26 November 2024
• £15.00 (redeemable against the cost of either of our Ulysses studies starting in January 2025 if you decide to join one of two options: early or later)

Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.

When Mole decides to venture out of his burrow and explore the riverbank he discovers a new world of friendship and adventure.  As we share his discoveries we’re reminded of the beauty of the natural world, the importance of witnessing the changing seasons and the power of friendship.  And of course, there’s Mr Toad. 

This year, in the run up to Christmas, facilitators Jane Wymark and Caroline Hammond will be exploring The Wind In The Willows to raise money for the Woodland Trust. Join us over three sessions with lots of chances to read aloud as we enjoy this enduring classic.

In order to make the study accessible for all we’re not setting a fixed price, but we ask you to be as generous as possible with your donation (as a guideline our courses usually cost £25-£30.00 for each two-hour session and this study comprises three sessions). Please note that neither Jane, Caroline nor the Salon will take any payment and all proceeds will be donated to the Woodland Trust.

JOINING DETAILS:

• A Christmas Special Study in aid of The Woodland Trust, facilitated by Jane Wymark and Caroline Hammond.
• Monday evenings, 6.00 – 8.00 pm (UK/GMT) 2, 9 and 16 December 2024.
• The proceeds from this study will be donated to The Woodland Trust so we ask participants to please be as generous as possible in deciding what to pay. Please use the booking form below.
• Please use any edition of the book you have available.

The Graduate was a massive critical and commercial success on release in 1967, becoming the highest grossing film of that year in North America, winning the Best Director Oscar for Mike Nichols and receiving six other Academy Award nominations. Based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Charles Webb, it is a coming of age story with a twist that is full of both comic and tragic possibilities.

A young Dustin Hoffman plays newly graduated Benjamin Braddock – naive, awkward, uncertain what to do next and deeply embarrassed by his proud and conventional family – as he navigates the challenges of adult life that unexpectedly include seduction by the bored and worldly Mrs Robinson, wife of his father’s business partner. Complications ensue when Benjamin falls for the one woman that Mrs Robinson will do anything to keep him away from, her daughter Elaine. The ensuing conflicts lead to a memorable conclusion when Benjamin finally takes action and goes all out to capture Elaine’s heart on the very day she marries another man . . .

We want to consider this film as it was at the time – described by renowned critic Roger Ebert as “the funniest American comedy of the year” – and returning to it (or viewing for the first time) more than half a century later. Has it aged well?

Just some of the questions we will discuss in our review of the film as a whole and the selected clips we will watch together:

• What can we learn about the social mores of middle-class North America in the 1960s? How much have things changed? Does the scandal of an extramarital affair resonate with us differently in the 2020s?
• How do we perceive Mrs Robinson – cheating wife, sexual predator, unfulfilled domestic prisoner – and how differently would we respond if the seducer were an older male and the graduate female? Incidentally, Anne Bancroft was just 35 to Dustin Hoffman’s 30 when the film was made!
• How do the life challenges facing a twenty-one-year-old in 2024’s digital world compare to those of 1968 (when the Vietnam War was ongoing and young men in the US were still liable to be drafted into the armed services)?

JOINING DETAILS:

• A three-hour LitSalon Study on the Art of Film.
• Sunday 8 December 2024, 3.00-6.00pm (UK/BST) on Zoom.
• Discussion led by Julie Sutherland and John Allemand.
• £65 for three hour study, including background notes and resources (N.B. participants in this study will be limited to a maximum of 14).
• The Graduate is widely available on DVD/video and to download from Amazon and other platforms.

Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,


          Time held me green and dying
     

Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

Dylan Thomas visited Fern Hill Farm in Carmarthenshire, farmed by his aunt and uncle, many times in childhood. With an orchard and 15 acres of farmland, he was to write about his time there throughout his life. 

In Fern Hill Thomas journeys back into childhood, capturing the experiences and sensations that are often dulled in later life.  First published in Horizon in 1945, Fern Hill is one of his most widely admired and anthologised poems. The soft rhymes and freedom of language are ideally suited to the subject and have made it a favourite to read aloud.

Over the course of two hours, we will work towards a deeper understanding of the poem through repeated readings, analysis and discussion.

JOINING DETAILS:

• Single meeting study facilitated by Caroline Hammond
• Tuesday 10 December 2024, 6.00 – 8.00 pm GMT
• £30 (includes background materials and opening notes)

Our latest collaboration with The British Library, featuring Toby Brothers, Vivien Kogut & Jane Wymark.

Drawing together two very different female medieval voices – Chaucer’s Wife of Bath and the twelfth-century author, poet and translator Marie de France – this friendly workshop is structured in the inclusive LitSalon tradition: dynamically facilitated discussion with a weave of contextual insights. A combination of texts and objects illustrates the lives of people in a particular time and place.

“The idea of these sessions is to find little doors through which to step into that world and find ways to relate to it through the poetry and human artefacts as representations of that time.”

Vivien Kogut 

There is time set by for a short break, with refreshments included.

JOINING DETAILS:

• An in-person workshop at the British Library led by Toby Brothers, Vivien Kogut and Jane Wymark
• Tuesday 10 December 2024, 6.30 pm
• Booking via the British Library website

Awash in murder, madness and revenge, Hamlet has spoken to the ‘beast’ in humankind for over four centuries. Written around the turn of the 17^th century, Hamlet – in its fullest version – runs for over four hours. Even then, good productions of the sensational play can hold audiences in thrall. But, despite its preoccupation with violence and vengeance, Hamlet is also deeply philosophical, and bloodlust often takes a back seat to considerations of ethics and the moral course of action. It is the tension between these two aspects of humankind – part base, part noble – that has made this protagonist and the host of characters who come into his sphere so magnetic. 

In this six-session study participants will engage in reading and discussing key scenes in Hamlet, including all seven of his soliloquies. As we undertake a close analysis of the play, we will examine the elements that make it a great revenge tragedy, but we will also consider ways in which Shakespeare makes it about so much more than revenge alone.

This study launches a series on English Renaissance revenge tragedy. Each study will be completely self-contained, but participants are welcome (and encouraged!) to consider taking part in the entire series. Next up will be Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy beginning on 19 February.

JOINING DETAILS:

• Six session study on Zoom led by Julie Sutherland
• Wednesday, 8 January-12 February 2025, 5.00-7.00 pm (UK/GMT)
• £180 for six two-hour meetings, to include opening notes and resources
• Recommended text: we strongly encourage participants to acquire the Arden Shakespeare Hamlet, revised edition, editors Ann Thompson & Neil Taylor: https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/hamlet-9781472518385/. Variations between texts can be significant, having the same version will facilitate reading and discussion. N.B. Contrary to what Amazon says in its description, this edition presents an authoritative, modernised text based on the Second Quarto text (1604/5), which was printed from a manuscript believed to be Shakespeare’s ‘foul papers’ (his rough drafts).

“tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral.”

Thus, in Act 2 of Hamlet, Polonius excitedly describes the varied possible delights on offer from the approaching players. The Winter’s Tale, cited as the penultimate solo work in Shakespeare’s canon, goes a long way to covering all the forms of drama that Polonius enumerates.

The descriptive term that might arguably cover the entire list is ‘romance’, although in Shakespeare’s day the word did not apply to drama but to euphuistic prose works such as Pandosto by Robert Greene (which is the source material for this play), so Polonius can’t be blamed for the longer-winded ‘tragical-comical-historical-pastoral’. It was not until the 19th century that this play – along with the other three plays written at the end of Shakespeare’s career: Cymbeline, Pericles and The Tempest – were described as the Late Romances.

The compilers of the First Folio would not have classified The Winter’s Tale as a history play, but the power of monarchs and questions of succession are certainly among its themes. The action moves between the formal court of Sicilia and the bucolic rural setting of Bohemia, where shepherds (the word ‘pastoral’ derives from the latin pastor meaning shepherd) are very much present. The play contains tragedy in its first half and a good deal of comedy in its second. 

“I would love to see a rep company do The Winter’s Tale and King Lear together, same actors same costumes, because I think Shakespeare wrote The Winter’s Tale to answer King Lear’s tragedy with hope”

Jane Smiley

The first half of the play moves towards an expectation of full blown tragedy, which is then altered by what is probably Shakespeare’s most famous Stage Direction: ‘Exit pursued by a bear’. As Professor Emma Smith explains, ‘the stage direction itself enacts the shock of the theatrical moment. Wait…there’s a bear? Where did that come from? But the real significance of this stage direction is the work it does as part of a cluster of dramaturgical, linguistic and structural effects in the middle of The Winter’s Tale. These effects have one concerted purpose: to wrest the play from the path of tragedy and to pluck a comedy from its darkest reaches.’

Ultimately, as one of the characters in the play, Paulina, exhorts:

“It is required, 
You do awake your faith”.

The Winter’s Tale is a romance, a fairy story, a thing of hope . . .

JOINING DETAILS:

• Eight week study on Zoom led by Jane Wymark
• Monday 13 January – 3 March 2025,  6.00 – 8.00 pm (UK)
• Recommended edition: The Arden Shakespeare, edited by John Pitcher, ISBN
  9781903436356
• £240 for eight meetings, including notes and background resources

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

from The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats

Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart offers an intimate and sweeping view of Igbo life in Nigeria during the late colonial period, capturing the complexities of family, tradition, and the forces that shape communities. Through the story of Okonkwo and his village, Achebe creates a world that is at once specific and universal, exploring how personal and cultural identities are built and challenged. 

In this study, we’ll journey through Achebe’s rich narrative, discussing his powerful storytelling, his nuanced view of colonialism, and the ways he invites us to see both the beauty and fragility of human experience. Together, we’ll delve into the themes of tradition, resilience, language, and the complex encounter between cultures, reflecting on how these themes resonate with us today. 

The workshop offers a space for all readers—whether you’re discovering Achebe for the first time or returning to his work—to come together in curiosity, empathy and open dialogue. 

JOINING DETAILS:

• Monday 13 and 20 January 2025, 7.00–9.00 pm GMT
• Led by by Alison Cable, two meeting workshop on Zoom + optional additional reflective writing session* on 27 January (also on Zoom, 7.00-9.00 pm GMT)
• £60 for two meetings + FREE optional meeting*
• Recommended edition: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Penguin Modern Classics, ISBN: 9780141023380

*In this optional reflective writing session, we will be inspired by the novel to deepen the reading experience through a variety of guided writing prompts.

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

William Faulkner

First published on 2 February 1922 – James Joyce’s 40th birthday – UIysses was immediately controversial, described by one Irish critic as “The most infamously obscene book in ancient or modern literature”.

The ‘Slow Read’ is an opportunity to read and relish of one of the greatest novels of all time in the company of others. The ‘Slow’ approach has proved popular within the Salon as our approach is not driven by completion of the text within a defined timescale, rather we focus on full enjoyment of the material.

In a typical session we might discuss – inter alia – the immaculate conception (who does or does not have a navel?), language as a tool of colonialism (and how to subvert it), space between thought and speech, amor matris, cubist paintings, Thoth (Egyptian bird-headed god), changing understandings of Hamlet, Shakespeare’s sex life, the occult, cypher jugglers, Norse mythology, the dialectic within Stephen’s head, the Daedalus-Icarus myth . . . We are all here for the tangents!

Every time I run a study of Ulysses, there is SO much we do not get to consider: I know we may still not get to everything, but this will be an opportunity to go deeper and wider in this amazing work than ever before in Salon studies. Our run rate is about 5-8 pages a week, with frequent check- ins to see if, as a group, we want to slow down, speed up or just wallow.

The ‘Slow Read’ is served in tranches of two-hour sessions – usually between six and ten in number. As long as there is continued interest, I will keep offering this study until we reach the final notes on the text.

If you are interested in this study but have not previously read Ulysses, please contact us to discuss using the enquiry form below.

“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.”

Ulysses Salon participant

I offer many resources for reading around, but the richness of our work comes from the contributions and independent research from participants. This study is particularly opportune given the abundance of new resources available thanks to the 2022 Ulysses centenary, including the offerings of the recently published Cambridge Centenary Ulysses, the brainchild of Catherine Flynn. 

Toby Brothers, Director, London Literary Salon

JOINING DETAILS:

• This is the ninth section of the ‘Slow Read’ Ulysses study led by Toby Brothers and occasional guest facilitators from within the group, 13 two-hour sessions, Tuesdays from 2.30-4.30 pm (UK), starting on 14 January and ending on 22 April 2025.
• If you are interested in joining this study but have not participated in the first seven sections please email the facilitator toby@litsalon.co.uk.
• The total cost for this section with all notes and resources is £390.00, we expect to read an average of 8 pages per week.
• Please have available 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

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet, social critic and inspector of schools. Traditionally believed to have been written on his honeymoon in 1851, Dover Beach is one of his best loved and most frequently quoted poems.

Dover Beach is a poem set on the edge of changes still too unformed to be fully understood and its rich descriptions have been interpreted in many ways. Through reading and discussion, we’ll be able to consider the poem’s influence and meaning and hear its beautiful cadences come to life. 

SALON DETAILS:

• Single meeting study facilitated by Caroline Hammond
• Tuesday 14 January 2025, 6.00 – 8.00 pm GMT
• £30 (includes background materials and opening notes)

“La Bovary, c’est moi.“

Gustave Flaubert

“Quand Mme Bovary parut, il y eut toute une révolution littéraire… Le code de l’art nouveau se trouvait écrit.“

“When Mme Bovary appeared, there was a whole literary revolution . . . the code of a new art was written.”

Emile Zola

Gustave Flaubert (1821 – 1880) is often referred to the first modern novelist and the inventor of literary realism. Madame Bovary arrived on the scene (trailing generally negative reviews and a lawsuit for offence against public morals and religion, of which Flaubert was acquitted) misunderstood and undervalued, but Flaubert knew that he had written a masterpiece. Time proved him correct.

Flaubert wrote precise fiction in reaction to idealism and romanticism. His goal was to present the world as it really was; there are no heroes in Madame Bovary. He used clear and concise language (he wanted to remove all poetry from his writing), a meticulous attention to detail, a crystalline structure, and brilliant psychological insights into his characters. Flaubert rejected the idea of artistic inspiration, and laboured like a mole for fifty-three months, testing every word for its aptness, and reading and rereading each sentence. But he wasn’t interested in merely creating the perfect form. He entered the emotional life of his characters, feeling his way through the novel. It was written in the early days of France’s industrial age, and Flaubert wanted literature to aid in the understanding of human nature, just as the natural sciences and social sciences did. 

Although Madame Bovary is completely embedded in its time and place, I believe it has much to say about how we live now, and this is something we will explore in this study. There are many young girls today who are living completely in the world of internet influencers, lost in a dream disconnected from any reality. Will they emulate Emma Bovary in our own age as they attempt to navigate the world as it really is?

JOINING DETAILS:

• Seven-meeting study led by Ralph Kleinman
• Wednesdays, 7.00-9.00 pm UK (BST)
• 15 January to 26 February 2025
• Recommended edition: Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, translated by Lydia Davis, Penguin Classics, ISBN-13: 9780143106494 (to avoid confusion we ask that all participants use the same translation during study meetings)
• £210 for seven meetings, to include opening notes and resources

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

—William Faulkner

First published on 2 February 1922 – James Joyce’s 40th birthday – UIysses was immediately controversial, described by one Irish critic as “The most infamously obscene book in ancient or modern literature”.

We offer an opportunity to read one of the greatest novels of all time in the company of others. Our work with this book will widen your perspective and deepen your experience of the power of language.

There is a strong argument for studying this huge and intimidating text – book list chart-topper of 100 greatest books of all time, critics’ darling, most lauded/least read, the book that many literary academics dedicate their lives to studying – but you will only know for yourself by diving in. I believe the best way to study it is with a group of hungry, curious readers who all contribute to evoking meaning, through their questions as well as their insights.

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 – thanks, 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.

“The classes I have taken with the Literary Salon have been extraordinary.“

“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 evening study from 5.30-7.30pm (UK time), comprising 21 meetings starting on Tuesday 21 January and finishing on Tuesday 17 June 2025, with four Sunday meetings (4.30-6.30pm on 23 February, 30 March, 18 May and 8 June) and NO meetings on 29 April, 6 and 13 May.
• The total cost for the 21 meeting study, with all notes and resources materials, is £500
• 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

” . . .Today, guess what, we became beekeepers!  We went to the local meeting last week (attended by the rector, the midwife, and assorted beekeeping people from neighboring villages) to watch a Mr Pollard make three hives out of one (by transferring his queen cells) under the supervision of the official Government bee-man.  We all wore masks and it was thrilling.  It is expensive to start beekeeping (over $50 outlay), but Mr Pollard let us have an old hive for nothing, which we painted white and green, and today he brought over the swarm of docile Italian hybrid bees we ordered and installed them.  We placed the hive in a sheltered out-of-the-way spot in the orchard the bees were furious from being in a box.  Ted had only put a handkerchief over his head where the hat should go in the bee-mask, and the bees crawled into his hair, and he flew off with half-a-dozen stings.  I didn’t get stung at all, and when I went back to the hive later, I was delighted to see bees entering with pollen sacs full and leaving with them empty at least I think that’s what they were doing.  I feel very ignorant but shall try to read up and learn all I can.  If we’re lucky, we’ll have our own honey, too!“

From Letters Home, 15 June 1962

When Sylvia Plath died on 11^th February 1963 she left a black spring binder on her desk containing a manuscript of forty poems with the title Ariel.*  The final five poems are a sequence about bees: The Bee-Meeting, The Arrival of the Bee-Box, Stings, Swarm and Wintering.  In this powerful sequence Plath purposefully changes her poetic tone as she uses the natural metaphor of bees to explore issues of female self-assertion, rites of death and rebirth, creativity and survival.  She also writes with loving precision about the details of beekeeping and the bees themselves.  The final poem, Wintering, is a tour de force evoking cold and despair but, ultimately, hope for the coming spring.  

Over the course of two hours we will study Wintering in depth, look at its form and construction and, through repeated readings, unlock the secrets of this acclaimed poem. 

*This is not the version of Ariel published in 1965, which has four of the bee poems in the middle of the book, but Faber did publish Ariel the Restored Edition in 2004, with a foreword by Frieda Hughes. 

JOINING DETAILS:

• Single meeting study facilitated by Caroline Hammond 
• Tuesday 28 January 2025, 6.00 – 8.00 pm (GMT)
• £30 (includes background materials and opening notes)

‘Give me an example,’ I said quietly. ‘Of something that means something. In your opinion.’
‘Wuthering Heights‘ she said without hesitation . . .
‘But that’s unreasonable. You’re talking about a work of genius.’
‘It was, wasn’t it? My sweet wild Cathy. God, I cried buckets. I saw it ten times.’
I said ‘Oh’ with recognizable relief, ‘oh’ with a shameful, rising inflection, ‘the movie.’

Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Ironically, this exchange between the unnamed narrator of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and its unlikely heroine, Holly Golightly, prefigures the eclipse of Truman Capote’s original 1958 novella by the 1961 film. Whether you love or loathe the iconic movie starring Audrey Hepburn, the book is different – romantic but devoid of sentimentality – painting a complex, funny and poignant portrait of a 1940’s New York demi-monde.

Credited as the inventor of the ‘non-fiction novel’, Capote’s prose style in Breakfast at Tiffany’s prompted Norman Mailer to describe him as “the most perfect writer of my generation”. In our two-meeting study we will consider whether and why this judgement was justified, as we discuss how the author evokes character – most notably the unique and irrepressible Holly Golightly – and, in less than a hundred pages, immerses the reader in his plot.

Please note, the book contains some language and cultural tropes that are true to the period described but which some readers may find offensive today.

JOINING DETAILS:

• Two-meeting study on Zoom led by Toby Brothers and Deborah Lawunmi
• Thursday 30 January & 6 February, 5.00-7.00 pm UK (GMT)
• Recommended edition: Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Penguin Modern Classics, ISBN: 9780141182797
• £70 for two meetings to include opening notes and resources

The Tyger, first published in 1794, is the product of a revolutionary age. Societal transformations in Europe and North America were radically altering industry, statehood, philosophy, law and religion. In the vanguard of the Romantic movement that was to produce a generation of poets including Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, Keats and Clare, Blake was a master of the lyric form, finding connections between the natural world and the introspective workings of the heart and mind. 

For many readers The Tyger is also woven into their earliest childhoods, one of the first poems they were introduced to, heard before it was read. Whether The Tyger is part of your personal canon or completely new, as we explore the lyricism, images and Blake’s unique voice we will uncover new and unexpected meanings through reading and discussing the poem. 

JOINING DETAILS:

• Single meeting study facilitated by Caroline Hammond
• Tuesday 4 February 2025, 6.00 – 8.00 pm GMT
• £30 (includes background materials and opening notes)

Arnica, eyebright, the
draft from the well with the
star-die on top,

in the
Hütte,

Thus begins Paul Celan’s poem Todtnauberg, setting the scene for his meeting with the philosopher Martin Heidegger.

This short poem is Celan’s record of his meeting at the philosopher’s Black Forest retreat in Todtnauberg in 1967. The two men were admirers of each other’s work, though on Celan’s side the admiration was fraught. Celan was a survivor of the European Shoah, carried out by the Third Reich, that claimed the life of both his parents. Living most of his life in France, Celan composed his poetry in German (his mother tongue and the language of his beloved mother), utilising the language that was also infused with the Reich, and which he called “the deathbringing speech” to work through the individual and collective trauma of the Shoah.   

Heidegger, one of the monumental figures in European continental philosophy of the twentieth century, had a well known affiliation with the Nazi party which he never denied, redressed, or ever spoke about publicly. Their meeting, not surprisingly, attracted much scrutiny.  

The poem, a chronicle of that meeting, closely follows the inscription that Celan left in Heidegger’s visitor’s book: “In the Hütte, with the view from the star in the well, with the hope of a coming word in the heart” (“Ins Hüttenbuch, mit dem Blick auf den Brunnenstern, mit einer Hoffnung auf eines kommendes Wort im Herzen”). 

There are many ways to read, interpret and translate the poem, a poem about silence and the hope for words. We will read the poem together, many times, hoping ourselves to come to an understanding and interpretation of this very moving and concise work. 

JOINING DETAILS:

• Single meeting study led by Desma Lawrence and Emilia Steuerman
• Wednesday 12 February 2025, 12.00 – 2.00 pm (UK)
• £40 for single meeting with two facilitators
• We will provide the German text with English Translation(s) and background notes on both Celan and Heidegger.

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

—William Faulkner

First published on 2 February 1922 – James Joyce’s 40th birthday – UIysses was immediately controversial, described by one Irish critic as “The most infamously obscene book in ancient or modern literature”.

We offer an opportunity to read one of the greatest novels of all time in the company of others. Our work with this book will widen your perspective and deepen your experience of the power of language.

There is a strong argument for studying this huge and intimidating text – book list chart-topper of 100 greatest books of all time, critics’ darling, most lauded/least read, the book that many literary academics dedicate their lives to studying – but you will only know for yourself by diving in. I believe the best way to study it is with a group of hungry, curious readers who all contribute to evoking meaning, through their questions as well as their insights.

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 – thanks, 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.

“The classes I have taken with the Literary Salon have been extraordinary.“

“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 early in the day, from 11.30-1.30pm (UK time), comprising 21 meetings starting on Tuesday 21 January and finishing on Tuesday 17 June 2025, with four Sunday afternoon meetings (4.30-6.30pm on 23 February, 30 March, 18 May and 8 June) and NO meetings on 29 April, 6 and 13 May.
• The total cost for the 21 meeting study, with all notes and resources materials, is £500
• 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

During the late reign of Queen Elizabeth I, an English writer penned a revenge tragedy for the public theatre, which unfolded like this:

Spurred on by the murder of a kinsman, a bereaved man, brought to the brink of madness by grief, seeks revenge on a royal. The information he receives urging him to exact vengeance is potentially legitimate, yet he is filled with doubt and is compelled to put it to the test. The grief-stricken man is then confronted by a terrifying vision about his delay. Growing more self-assured, he publicizes the nature of the crime through a play-within-a-play. The tragedy closes with the bloody and violent deaths of numerous characters.

Not Hamlet, this is Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy.

Kyd’s immense influence on English Renaissance drama cannot be overstated. To the playwrights already writing in the revenge tradition of the Roman Seneca (1^st century CE), Kyd added a flair and formula that was all his own and brought into sharp relief questions about life, death and justice that were pertinent to the age in which he wrote.

A box office blockbuster, The Spanish Tragedy was the third most performed play in 1590s London (after The Jew of Malta and the now-lost The Wise Men of West Chester). Its publication history was equally phenomenal. Going into at least 11 editions between 1592 and 1633, the revenge tragedy’s life in print outstripped any of Shakespeare’s plays.

In this 7-session study, participants will engage in an exhaustive reading of an edition based on the play’s earliest quarto (not dated). Pre-session resources will include the additions Ben Jonson was commissioned to write, which appeared in the 1602 edition of the play, and were a testament to The Spanish Tragedy’s ongoing popularity. Kyd himself did not live to see its astounding success.

As we examine this play together, we will consider a question central to the period’s revenge tragedies: How far must we go, what options do we have, when we must take the law into our own hands?

English Revenge Tragedy Series

“Revenge is a kind of wild justice; which the more man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.”

Francis Bacon

The Spanish Tragedy is the second in a series of studies on English Renaissance revenge tragedy led by Julie Sutherland, which begins with Hamlet (8 January to 12 February 2025). Each study is completely self-contained, but participants are welcome (and encouraged!) to consider taking part in the entire series. 

JOINING DETAILS:

• Seven week study led by Julie Sutherland
• Wednesdays, 5.00 -7.00 pm UK time
• 26 February-9 April 2025
• £210 for seven meetings
• Recommended edition: Five Revenge Tragedies: The Spanish Tragedy, Hamlet, Antonio’s Revenge, The Tragedy of Hoffman, The Revenger’s Tragedy, Penguin Classics, ISBN: 9780141192277

Why is this seven volume French novel: A la recherche du temps perdu – in English Remembrance of Things Past or In Search of Lost Time – regarded as such an iconic work? First published in French between 1913 and 1927, and in English translation between 1922 and 1931, why is it still so admired and respected? What does it offer to the twenty-first century reader in a world that has changed so much?

Who hasn’t gazed at this mountain of Modernism and felt daunted, or wondered what could possibly take any writer more than three thousand pages and six or seven volumes to say? In January 2025 I will start leading the ninth group of readers with whom I have explored this work. For myself, I have to report that I always find something new when reading Proust and that my time in his writing has transformed the way I understand the interplay of memory, imagination, intellect and sensory experience.

In this lecture I will explain why I believe that reading Proust is genuinely life-changing and an unmissable rite of passage. Curious readers are welcome to join me!

A comment from a previous Proust participant:

” . . . brilliant, frustrating, revealing, engrossing and I am part of what has become a special community of equally frustrated and hugely encouraging students of different ages and  backgrounds. Guided by Toby we are full of insights and laughter. We read aloud and discuss the week’s reading. Time flies, brains feel rejuvenated and the weeks go by much more speedily with the Salon to look forward to. Encouragement is key, there are  no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ opinions. In fact the best thing about the Salon is that we all feel valued. What’s not to love!”   

JOINING DETAILS:

• One-off lecture and discussion on Zoom led by Toby Brothers
• 6.00 -7.00 pm, 27 March 2025
• £15.00 (redeemable against the cost of joining our study of Volume 1: The Way by Swann’s starting in September 2025)

In response to demand for our previously announced third Virginia Woolf study in Alfriston, devised to celebrate the passing of 100 years since the first publication of Mrs Dalloway in 1925, we are offering a second event in Woolf’s beloved Sussex countryside. Where better to mark the centenary of this ground-breaking book than in the county that in many ways became the writer’s spiritual home?

The centenary of the publication of Mrs Dalloway affords a perfect opportunity for us to approach the text with an invigorated exploration. This study will be enriching for those who have read and re-read this multi-layered text (including those who have previously studied it with the Salon) and readers who are new to the book. Karina and Toby will open up the many issues this subversive work considers, including sanity and madness, the treatment of mental illness and the limitations of medical techniques, tensions between social classes, queer relationships in a homophobic society, the sanctity of and threats to the private self . . . We will delve into the rich language and images that Woolf uses to unpack these and consider how this work speaks to us today. 

We are planning a number of events to celebrate one hundred years of this book which opened up narrative form in an entirely new way and remains profoundly influential today. A viewing of The Hours in a London cinema followed by an audience discussion is one of the projects in the works, keep checking our newsletter for more announcements.

As one of the key members of the celebrated Bloomsbury Group, Woolf is often seen as a London writer, but she and her husband Leonard had an abiding love for the South Downs. Together they purchased Monk’s House near Rodmell in 1919 and used it as their writer’s retreat. Virginia wrote some of her major works there and the Sussex landscape was integral to her writing as she tried to capture what she saw as its unsurpassable beauty. There are a number of other Bloomsbury outposts in the area: in 1916 Virginia’s sister, Vanessa Bell, moved to Charleston Farmhouse with the painter Duncan Grant, while John Maynard Keynes and his wife Lydia Lopokova also settled locally.

She had the perpetual sense, as she watched the taxi cabs, of being out, out, far out to sea and alone; she always had the feeling that it was very, very, dangerous to live even one day.

Virginia Woolf’s writing hits emotion first — ‘what happens’ takes second place to ‘what feels’. The language is packed with subtlety, nuance and evocative images as Woolf probes the depths of intimate relationships. Come join us for this exploration of a warm June day in London: madness, aesthetics, the nature of love and intimacy, war, relationships across and between genders, Imperialism — all are prodded in this delicate and lyric work.

Mrs Dalloway makes an ideal study: her writing is challenging to read on one’s own, rich as it is in images, references and details that deliver a powerful emotional and intellectual impact. The study format encourages exploration by reading with a group of diverse and enquiring minds. Together we will work to understand Woolf’s incisive study of human personality — and use some of her contemporaries (Freud, Henri Bergson, Roger Fry) to help make sense of this new writing she creates. Here is Julia Briggs from her biographical study of Woolf through her works:

“Mrs. Dalloway is the story of a day in the lives of a man and woman who never meet — a society hostess who gives a party, and a shell-shocked soldier . . . What they have in common or why their stories are told in parallel, the reader must decide, for this is a modernist text, an open text, with no neat climax or final explanation, and what happens seems to shift as we read and reread. Woolf intended her experiment to bring the reader closer to everyday life, in all its confusion, mystery and uncertainly, rejecting the artificial structures and categories of Victorian fiction.”

JOINING DETAILS:

• To ask questions please email us at litsalon@gmail.com using ‘Mrs Dalloway 2025 #2’ as the subject line. To reserve a place please use the form below to pay an initial deposit of £20. Full payment may be made later by bank transfer (N.B. we will supply bank details which will be different from any you may have used on previous occasions).
• Four-day in-person study facilitated by Toby Brothers and Karina Jakubowicz
• Thursday 3 – Sunday 6 April 2025, Alfriston, East Sussex
• This is an opportunity to enjoy the locale, including visiting Charleston House, Charleston in Lewes and Monk’s House, as well as joining with other readers in discussing Mrs Dalloway and its relationship to Woolf’s other works. We are in the process of investigating particular outings in the area based on what exhibits will be available at the time of our visit, these will be added to the schedule as we confirm the best options.
• We are also in conversation with our fellow enthusiasts at Much Ado Books in Alfriston, who have created a great community that celebrates reading and the art of books in wonderful ways. Together we will offer an event celebrating Woolf and Mrs Dalloway during our stay there.
• £480 for twelve hours (or more) of study in six meetings spread over four days, plus accommodation costs (please see details below)
• We will stay at Wingrove House, a 19th century colonial-style country house hotel set in the beautiful and historic village of Alfriston, East Sussex in the South Downs National Park. We will be within easy reach of sites associated with Bloomsbury, making it the ideal choice for Woolf-related Salons. We expect the cost per night, including breakfast, to start at £182.50 per room (charges vary across a wide range) rising to a maximum of £257.50, but please check this with the hotel when booking, mentioning the London Literary Salon to receive a special 10% discount.
• Please note that participants are responsible for booking their own accommodation and any insurance required.
• Recommended edition: Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf; Oxford World’s Classics edition; ISBN-13: 978-0199536009