The Years

“The Years” is a captivating blend of historical novel, autobiographical fiction, a meditation on the art of fiction writing, and a social history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—all rendered through Woolf's unmistakable prose.

After the profoundly introspective and subjective style of “The Waves” (1931), Virginia Woolf's next novel took a decidedly different approach.

The initial draft, titled “The Pargiters,” was completed by the autumn of 1934 and was both monumental in scope and ambition. Monumental, in that the manuscript spanned nearly 900 pages. Ambitious, as Woolf herself noted in her diary: “I want to give the whole of present society, nothing less: facts, as well as the vision.”

What became “The Years” was a family saga. At first glance, perhaps, akin to her contemporary John Galsworthy’s “The Forsyte Saga”. Except that, in writing her fiction Virginia Woolf also wrote an almost parallel text examining the processes of writing historical fiction. Eventually, the two were pulled apart. “The Years” appeared in 1935 and became her only US bestseller.

Lots of people would love to read Virginia Woolf’s work but have felt uncertain about how to approach it, with a little help you will be able not only to read it but to really enjoy it.

The slow learning approach gives us time and space to spend a little time in the company of some great literature.