Liar

22 September 202131 July 2011 by admin

Tobias Wolff’s Liar

This short study is a good way to experience the Salon for the first time: the brief study will give you the room to consider this unique form of writing – the short story is not a novel, and not a poem, but perhaps between – and probably even more. “The Liar” by Tobias Wolff offers a protagonist caught in his own world, using language to separate and shield himself from those he loves – and fears. From a 2008 review on Slate by Judith Shulevitz: “One of the best stories in Our Story Begins, a collection of new and selected older stories by Tobias Wolff, is called “The Liar.” It’s about a teenage boy who regales strangers with dark fictions about his family—appalling accounts of misfortune and disease. These drive his mother crazy; a concrete, pious person, she can’t stand dishonesty, and she sends him to the family doctor. The charm of the story lies in the likability of its characters.”

Edgar Allen Poe argues that the writer of a short story should aim at creating a single and total psychological/spiritual effect upon the reader. The theme or plot of the piece is always subordinate to the author’s calculated construction of a single, intense mood in the reader’s or listener’s mind, be it melancholy, suspense, or horror. There are no extra elements in Poe, no subplots, no minor characters, and no digressions except those that show the madness of deranged first-person (“I”) narrators. Ultimately, Poe took writing to be a moral task that worked not through teaching lessons, but in simultaneously stimulating his readers’ mental, emotional, and spiritual faculties through texts of absolute integrity. As a literary ancestor of the form, Poe’s theories and practice offer a starting point to the development of the short story.

From a 1996 interview in Salon.com: “Short stories, like poems, demand a lot from their readers. Novels may be longer, but they don’t require the same compressed attention. They allow moments of relaxation; their narratives promise to hold you, however casual the concentration you invest.”
But Tobias Wolff, who is one of our great contemporary masters of the short story, says that the difficulty of the short story is its own reward. “The reader really has to step up to the plate and read a short story,” he once said. And the writer’s thrill is “working a miracle, making life where there was none” in the space of a few precisely and elegantly distilled pages. “There’s a joy in writing short stories,” he says, “a wonderful sense of reward when you pull certain things off.”

Boys and Girls & Why I Live at the P.O.

22 September 202131 July 2011 by admin

Short Stories by Alice Munro and Eudora Welty

Everybody knows what a house does, how it encloses space and makes connections between one enclosed space and another and presents what is outside in a new way. This is the nearest I can come to explaining what a story does for me, and what I want my stories to do for other people. (from “What is Real?”)

In this one-evening short story intensive, we will first consider Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls” and then move into Welty’s “Why I Live at the P.O.” The connections between the two pieces may not be obvious at first, but I think in our discussions we will find how they reflect and address each other while walking very different roads.

“Why I Live at the P.O.” is deeply connected to the place and time period in which it is set. As readers, we are positioned so close to Sister, the narrator, that it may take some time for us to realize we are being persuaded. Her point of view in the story she relays is strongly inflected and makes her narration unreliable, but there is much to be gained even from this dented perspective. The humor is rich and compelling, but there is also strong commentary and more subtle insights on females and familial relationships: the jealousies and tensions, sharp hurts and unspoken wounds. Notice how quickly the mood swings from teasing to rupture: what is suggested here?

Stories available:

“Why I Live at P.O. “ http://art-bin.com/art/or_weltypostoff.html

“Boys and Girls” http://womeninlit.tripod.com/alicemunro.htm

Below is selection from a review of Munro; please do not worry if you do not have time to read through this material before we meet…these resources will be equally illuminating in the Salon aftermath.

“The Germans must have a term for it. Doppelgedanken, perhaps: the sensation, when reading, that your own mind is giving birth to the words as they appear on the page. Such is the ego that in these rare instances you wonder, “How could the author have known what I was thinking?” Of course, what has happened isn’t this at all, though it’s no less astonishing. Rather, you’ve been drawn so deftly into another world that you’re breathing with someone else’s rhythms, seeing someone else’s visions as your own.

“One of the pleasures of reading Alice Munro derives from her ability to impart this sensation. It’s the sort of gift that requires enormous modesty on the part of the writer, who must shun pyrotechnics for something less flashy: an empathy so pitch-perfect as to be nearly undetectable. But it’s most arresting in the hands of a writer who isn’t too modest — one possessed of a fearless, at times, fearsome, ambition.”

From review in the New York Times By Leah Hager Cohen. Published: November 27, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/books/review/Cohen-t.html?pagewanted=all

I suggest that Munro explores juxtaposed worlds in her fiction…that she uses her characters to probe the relationships between psychological spaces and the outside world. Her female characters all have a fine double awareness of community values and of what else goes on outside those limits. They are fascinated by dark holes and unscripted spaces with their scandalous discreditable stories of transgression and desire. The romantic fantasies, the glimpses of interior lives and the rumors and gossip these engender are part of this recognition of other worlds.

FoxFoxesWildAnimalRedStalkingBirdsHunting1

Always amazed how Munro effortlessly uses metaphors of place and event to reveal deep interior turbulence and ambivalences: for ex.; the ‘pelting’ of the beautiful foxes in the ‘Boys and Girls’ becomes wonderful resonance for the way in which the narrator is skinned by the process of growing in to the skin of a ‘girl’- and must go through the act of un-skinning herself to find her sneaky, savage and hostile self that will fight this reduction.

Further reading– http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/scl/article/view/8112/9169

Here you will find an analysis of “Boys and Girls” through a feminist consideration.

Mastiff & Labor Day Dinner

22 September 202131 July 2011 by admin

Short Stories by Alice Munro and Joyce Carol Oates

This Salon Intensive offers a one-meeting study that ambitiously considers two short stories in one big, energetic gulp. Participants have described this as a wonderfully dynamic approach– we work hard and have a joyous time.

Our short story study will take two of the genre’s ruling voices, with Joyce Carol Oates’ Mastiff and Alice Munro’s Labor Day Dinner. These two works consider themes around self-knowledge and relational identities, but our focus will be on a holistic consideration of each individuallyand in their comparison. Note how the techniques of language and style probe the murky interior spaces. The Joyce Carol Oates story Mastiff is available here: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/07/01/mastiff. The Alice Munro story is in the collection The Moons of Jupiter.

Here is an extract from Lorrie Moore’s wonderful introduction to the Munro collection:

In so many tales told of romantic love, beauty casts spells that are often greeted or countered by other spells. Jupiter’s mythic moons have lives of deformity and transplant, and the moons themselves are known for their erratic orbits. How like the characters of Alice Munro. Though her protagonists are not explicitly turned into animals or cupbearers or loved by any actual omnipotent, tempestuous god, the wanderings, transformations, mischief, and anguish of possessive love—the kind of love everyone really values, “the one nobody wants to have missed out on,” according to the narrator of “Hard-Luck Stories”—are her most abiding subjects. Like the ancient Greeks, Alice Munro has always known this is where the stories are. Fate, power (gender and class), human nature (mortal strength and divine frailty) all show up there to be negotiated and expressed.

“Life would be grand if it weren’t for the people,” says a Munro character in “Labor Day Dinner,” who also offers up the line perhaps most often quoted from this collection, that “love is not kind or honest and does not contribute to happiness in any reliable way.” It is an acerbic balance to the alkaline lilt of Corinthians 1:13, also quoted in this story, which informs us that “Love suffereth long, and is kind.” That both ideas can be held simultaneously within the same narrative is part of the reason Munro’s work endures—its wholeness of vision, its complexity of feeling, its tolerance of mind. For the storyteller, the failure of love is irresistible in its drama, as is its brief happy madness, its comforts and vain griefs. And no one has brought greater depth of concentration and notice to the subject than Munro. No one has saturated her work with such startling physical observation and psychological insight. “He knew he had an advantage,” she writes in “Connection,” the book’s inaugural story, “and we had reached the point in our marriage where no advantage was given up easily.” And in the final story: “You touch a man that way to remind him that you are grateful.… It made me feel older than grandchildren would to see my daughter touch a man—a boy— this way. I felt her sad jitters, could predict her supple attentions.”

The style in which people circle one another, their mix of lunacy and hard intelligence, the manner in which our various pasts revolve simultaneously around the present, the way that children are always in a parent’s gravitational pull, even when out of sight, the fact that filial love has an infinitude of stories: all these are signalled by the book’s title and in the title story. “I found my father in the heart wing,” it begins, and the very many things it can mean to be a daughter are echoed through three generations gathered in that wing. Munro brings both a warm and cool eye to the project of loss: “I saw how the forms of love might be maintained with a condemned person but with the love in fact measured and disciplined, because you have to survive.”

The Yellow Wallpaper & Runaway

22 September 202131 July 2011 by admin

Short Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Alice Munro

A three hour intensive study of two great short stories: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Runaway by Alice Munro

‘The Yellow Wallpaper‘ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman often disappears into the category of a feminist work. This subversive first person narration gives a glimpse to the dangers of an artistic temperament smothered by care- loving, oppressive care. I will provide readers with notes on the world of late 19th century women, particularly in regards to medical care and psychiatric treatment. This is a haunting and riveting read.

I think it will be thought-provoking to bring our study of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper ’into a more contemporary moment through the rich work of Alice Munro. Although Munro appears to be exploring similar terrain–the outward manipulation of a vulnerable female protagonist– Munro’s gift is to resist any simplification of her characters or the subterranean forces they reveal. This short story will provide an interesting counter-point to ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’.

‘Runaway’ by Alice Munro can be found: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/08/11/030811fi_fiction?currentPage=all

In my research on TYW, I have found many writers summarizing the story as showing how the rest cure resulted in madness for the patient. This is positioned as an extension of the societal oppression of women at the time that Gilman exposes using her passionate narrator. But this is too simple – and disregards the intrigue and complexity of the mind that changes over the course of the story. Pay close attention to the images and patterns of narration: how does Gilman bring the reader into the world of the narrator? How is this world made plausible – up to and through the end? To position this work as a feminist writing can be useful but also runs the risk of reducing the peculiarities of the piece. We may discuss the rubric of feminist writings and how that can be useful to our understanding of the historical context of the story while we attend to the range of questions raised in the piece. What is madness, for example, and can we definitively describe the narrator as mad?

Some Notes on Charlotte Perkins Gilman (outlined from the Norton Anthology of American Literature)
1860-1935: CPG lived her life on the margins of a society whose economic assumptions about women she vigorously repudiated. Through her resistance to the ‘masculinist ideals’ of the time came the body of work, both fiction and non-fiction, that she produced to question and offer a new societal vision.
Raised by her mother alone in Rhode Island after her father abandoned her family, Charlotte describes her upbringing as painful and lonely. Her mother tried to prevent her children from dependency on broken relationships by withholding all expressions of physical love. Charlotte struggled to support herself as a governess and designer of greeting cards before she married, and quickly came to understand the lack of economic opportunities available to women. She became involved in the suffrage movement, writing in defense of prostitutes among other subjects. When she married, she struggled to continue her growing career as a writer and lecturer while taking on the mantle of wife and mother. Her growing despondency led to her treatment at the hands of Dr. S. Weir Mitchell and the use of his rest cure (please read the one page description cited below). Gilman chose to separate from her husband when she became convinced her marriage threatened her sanity; her private choices reflected her championing of non-traditional roles for women. Her writings included Women and Economics wherein she argues that women’s economic dependency on men stunts not only the growth of women but that of the whole human species. In Herland, Gilman imagines a feminist utopia populated only by women (reproduced by parthenogenesis) in a society that is collectively administrated and ecologically sound.

Read more about Dr. S Weir Mitchell’s *Rest Cure
*Google book introduction from Dr. S. Weir Mitchell: http://www.archive.org/stream/doctorandpatien00mitcgoog#page/n13/mode/1up

The Swimmer & Feathers

22 September 202131 July 2011 by admin

Short Stories by John Cheever and Raymond Carver

“The Swimmer” by John Cheever and “Feathers” by Raymond Carver

For this one-meeting short story intensive, we will look closely at these two works that share an aesthetic of overturning the rules of normality in suburban life. We will consider each work individually, and find areas of overlap as the impressions of each inform the other.

“When John Cheever first began writing “The Swimmer,” he conceived of it as a novel—and he actually wrote a good chunk of it before reconsidering. As Blake Bailey relates in his biography, “Soon Cheever suspected he had ‘a perfectly good’ novel on his hands,” but his self-assurance gradually turned to dissatisfaction:

“As he began to find the core of the story, he threw away pages and took yet a different approach. The main technical challenge, he realized, could not be sustained over the course of the novel: that is, Neddy could not possibly repress the truth for some two hundred pages. . . .

“From the approximately 150 pages of material he had assembled, Cheever carved out his finely honed story. Michael Chabon, who first read it as a teenager, called it “a masterpiece of mystery, language and sorrow. It starts out, on a perfect summer morning, as the record of a splendid exploit . . . and ends up as a kind of ghost story.”

—from The Library of America website

Raymond Carver is considered by some to be the post-modern king of the short story. He refused traditional narrative conventions and was a practitioner of a stripped down minimalist style where significant meaning may lurk in the pauses and silences as much as what is said. His characters at times seem to evoke our pity, other times our disgust: but all are fully drawn and compelling in the shards of the lives that Carver offers us.

Terra Incognita & The Vane Sisters

22 September 202131 July 2011 by admin

Vladimir Nabokov’s Terra Incognita and The Vane Sisters

This one-meeting study is an opportunity to notice and savour the details in two of Nabokov’s short stories. We will see things and hear things; we will visualize the rooms, the clothes and the manners of the author’s people. We will read not just with our hearts, not just with our brains, but with our spines. For it is there that the tell-tale tingle occurs.

Although this stand-alone session is an introduction to Nabokov’s stories, it is also a gateway drug to an upcoming study of the author’s addictive novel Pale Fire.

SALON DETAILS

One-meeting study
The facilitator will provide participants with copies of the stories and pre-session reading material to help situate the reader in the texts.

The facilitated discussion will use these stories as a springboard for our conversation; we welcome participant questions, responses and ideas as we navigate the challenges of the work. There is no expectation of previous study or work with the texts nor in the academic tradition: this study will challenge and invigorate the first-time reader as well as the life-long lover of Vladimir Nabokov’s extraordinary prose.

The Dead

22 September 202131 July 2011 by admin

James Joyce’s The Dead

This longer short story is a rich feast through which one may taste the world of Joyce. Nothing – NOTHING – in Joyce is casual. Each image, reference, description carries symbolic resonance. Career Joyce scholars may try to align all the references – but I like W. Tindall’s attitude: “The text is not a system of mathematical equations but a flexible relationship of possibilities. . .” Bearing this in mind, we will dig at some of these references to give a sense of the richness in the writing.

Pay attention to the title even as it sits in contrast with the opening scene of the story itself – how is the image of death and the Dead brought up throughout the work? This story also holds to Joyce’s fascination with epiphanies – that moment of sudden and intense illumination when a profound truth is, or may be, revealed. Joyce describes the epiphany as ‘the most delicate and evanescent of moments’ that offer ‘a sudden spiritual manifestation, whether in the vulgarity of speech or of gesture or in memorable phase of the mind itself’. For Joyce, these moments did not occur at the height of the heroic or dramatic gesture, but in the ordinary acts of life. What are the moments in ‘The Dead’ that fit this description? More importantly, what is revealed?

SALON DETAILS:

One-meeting intensive study, 2 1/2 hours

April 2024

mon01apr1:00 pmmon3:00 pmMarcel Proust: In Search of Lost Time Vol. II - Within a Budding Grove (afternoon)1:00 pm - 3:00 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByToby BrothersType of studyLiteratureDurationEleven meetingsVIRTUAL

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“When we are in love, our love is too big a thing for us to be able altogether to contain it within ourselves. It radiates towards the loved one, finds there a surface which arrests it, forcing it to return to its starting-point, and it is this repercussion of our own feeling which we call the other’s feelings and which charms us more then than on its outward journey because we do not recognise it as having originated in ourselves.”

Marcel Proust, Within a Budding Grove

Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time is one of the great mountains of Modernism. We spent eight weeks reading the first volume of the work, now we turn to Volume II: Within a Budding Grove (recommended edition: Vintage Classics, translators D.J Enright, C. K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin). This study is designed for people who have already read Volume I, but it may be possible to pick up from Volume II and return to the first book at a later date, please use the ‘enquire before you buy’ button below to discuss this with the facilitator.

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.”

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, idealized experience (dreams) and relationships with what our senses perceive that moulds our consciousness.

Proust also uses his curious and attentive narrator to uncover the ombre — the part of the self that hides in the shade or shadow. As we come to know the characters in the narrator’s world, each turns out to have aspects that reveal a savagery or laziness or discrepancy that was not what appeared on the surface. Of course, as soon as Proust reflects this to the reader, we recognize this truth of human nature: all carry a shadow, an untoward or simply unmanageable part of the self that we struggle to contain. In Proust’s world, these aspects are equally a part of the coherent self. This has me thinking a great deal about how carefully we construct the social self, and how we temper what simmers beneath the surface.

In Volume II, Proust will continue to explore class structures and awakening sexuality. As we considered in Volume I, the form of love as Proust conceives it is an entity not necessarily shared between the lovers – but may often be a projection from one onto the love object – and therefore limited in how much that love depends on the actuality of the other in its conception.

STUDY DETAILS:

11 meeting study, 15 January – 1 April 2024 (no meeting 12 February)

Mondays, 1.00-3.00 pm (UK)

Facilitated by Toby Brothers

£275 for 11 meetings

Recommended edition: Within a Budding Grove by Marcel Proust, translated by D.J. Enright, C.K. Scott Moncrieff, T. Kilmartin, Vintage Classics, ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0099362319

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Toby Brothers

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(Monday) 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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mon01apr6:00 pmmon8:00 pmMarcel Proust: In Search of Lost Time Vol. II - Within a Budding Grove (evening)6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByToby Brothers & Ralph KleinmanType of studyLiteratureDurationEleven meetingsVIRTUAL

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“When we are in love, our love is too big a thing for us to be able altogether to contain it within ourselves. It radiates towards the loved one, finds there a surface which arrests it, forcing it to return to its starting-point, and it is this repercussion of our own feeling which we call the other’s feelings and which charms us more then than on its outward journey because we do not recognise it as having originated in ourselves.”

Marcel Proust, Within a Budding Grove

STUDY DETAILS:

11 meeting study, 15 January – 1 April 2024 (no meeting 12 February)

Mondays, 6.00-8.00 pm (UK)

Facilitated by Toby Brothers

£275 for 11 meetings

Recommended edition: Within a Budding Grove by Marcel Proust, translated by D.J. Enright, C.K. Scott Moncrieff, T. Kilmartin, Vintage Classics, ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0099362319

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Toby Brothers & Ralph Kleinman

Salon Director

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(Monday) 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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tue02apr12:00 pmtue2:00 pmAn introduction to Fernando Pessoa12:00 pm - 2:00 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByDesma LawrenceDurationFive meetingsVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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*Photograph of monument to Fernando Pessoa in front of cafe “A Brasileira” in Lisbon by Nol Aders via Wikimedia Commons*

Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) was, quipped one critic, Portugal’s three greatest modern poets. To read Pessoa is not just to read one poet but to enter into a whole literature.

Pessoa’s attempt to forge a new literary modernism for Portugal took shape through his creation of different literary personas. He called these personas ‘heteronyms’, to distinguish them from pseudonyms, as essentially distinct personalities with biographies, literary styles and philosophical and political ideas as different from each other as from Pessoa himself.

Pessoa authored works under at least 72 different names throughout his life, and this compulsion seems to have been both an aesthetic and a psychological necessity. At the centre of his most important and accomplished literary achievements is the poetry authored by the three main heteronyms – Alberto Caiero, Alvaro de Campos and Ricardo Reis; by Pessoa himself as one of that company of heteronyms; and his great prose masterpiece The Book of Disquiet, authored by the semi-heteronym Bernardo Soares.

Over five meetings we will take a sample of work from each of Pessoa’s heteronyms as a general introduction to the work – and the literary universe – of Fernando Pessoa.

JOINING DETAILS:

Five-week introductory study led by Desma Lawrence

Tuesdays, 12.00-2.00 pm (UK), 5 March to 2 April 2024

£150 for five session study, to include opening notes and resources

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Desma Lawrence

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(Tuesday) 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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tue02apr2:30 pmtue4:30 pmULYSSES BY JAMES JOYCE - The Slow Read (section 6, Scylla & Charybdis and onwards . . . )THE 'SLOW READ' PART 52:30 pm - 4:30 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByToby BrothersType of studyLiteratureDurationSix meetingsVIRTUAL

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“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 are offering an opportunity to join in a ‘Slow Read’ of one of the greatest novels of all time in the company of others. The ‘Slow Read’ 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.

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. I propose we start with 5-8 pages a week, then check in and see if, as a group, we want to slow down, speed up or just wallow. I expect we will find our rhythm at about five pages per week, but I am open to possibilities.

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 have not previously read Ulysses and are interested in this study, please contact us to discuss using the enquiry form below. Please also contact us if you are interested in the study but the timing does not work for you as we are considering a later meeting schedule if there is sufficient interest.

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.

“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 will offer many resources for reading around, but also welcome contributions and independent research from participants. This study is particularly opportune given the abundance of new resources available thanks to the Ulysses centenary, including the offerings of the newly published Cambridge Centenary Ulysses, the brainchild of Catherine Flynn.

Toby Brothers, Director, London Literary Salon

JOINING DETAILS:

This is the sixth section of the ‘Slow Read’ Ulysses study led by Toby Brothers, 6 two-hour sessions, Tuesdays from 2.30-4.30 pm (UK), starting on 20 February and ending on 2 April 2024 with NO MEETING on 27 February.

If you are interested in joining this study but have not participated in the first five sections please email the facilitator toby@litsalon.co.uk.

The total cost for this section with all notes and resources is £165.00. 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

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Toby Brothers

Salon Director

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(Tuesday) 2:30 pm - 4:30 pm(GMT+01:00)

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wed03apr6:30 pmwed8:30 pmMarcel Proust: In Search of Lost Time Vols. V & VI - The Prisoner & The Fugitive6:30 pm - 8:30 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByToby BrothersType of studyLiteratureDurationFifteen meetingsVIRTUAL

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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, The Prisoner & The Fugitive

We continue our voyage through Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time with this, the fifth and sixth volumes (combined), which together consider closely the seductive agony of jealousy. There are one or two spaces in the study alongside people who have already journeyed through the first four volumes. If you are interested in joining the group please use the ‘enquire’ link below 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.”

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.

SALON DETAILS

Virtual study facilitated by Toby Brothers

Wednesdays, 6.30-8.30 pm (UK time)

15 meeting study from 7 February to 19 June 2024

Recommended edition: Penguin Classics, ISBN-13:‎ 978-0141180359

£350 for 15 meetings (includes background materials, literary criticism, opening notes and discussion notes)

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Toby Brothers

Salon Director

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(Wednesday) 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Future Event Times in this Repeating Event Series

1May 6:30:pm29May 6:30:pm5June 6:30:pm12June 6:30:pm19June 6:30:pm

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thu04apr3:00 pmthu5:15 pmOvid's Metamorphoses Books 6-10A year-long reading of Ovid's great poem of myths3:00 pm - 5:15 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByMark CwikType of studyClassical,LiteratureDurationFifteen meetingsVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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*Antonio Tempesta, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons*

“Everything changes, nothing dies: the spirit wanders, arriving here or there,
occupying whatever body it pleases.”

Part II of our three-part, year-long reading of Ovid presents a perfect opportunity for new readers to join this study. The episodic structure of the Metamorphoses invites entry into the poem at any point along the way. In books 6 through 10, Ovid continues his artful version of the famous and infamous tales of gods and humans, among them the stories of Jason and Medea, Daedalus and Icarus, Orpheus and Eurydice, Venus and Adonis, Arachne, Niobe, Pygmalion, and Hercules.

The Roman poet Ovid’s (43 BCE – 17 CE) masterful work Metamorphoses weaves together over 200 of the most famous myths of the Greeks and Romans. Pulsating with energy, wit, sensuality and sensitivity, his epic poetic tapestry envisions the history of the cosmos as an unbroken and intertwining stream that stretches from the creation of the world to the rise of the Caesars. Ovid’s ever-flowing narrative explores life’s many changes, from the intimacies—and violence—of human love and desire, to the global scale of destruction and renewal.

Our study will read from two translations of the Metamorphoses, including the recently released version by Stephanie McCarter (please read notes below), that seek to address questions of accuracy in translation and the representation of women, gendered dynamics of power, and sexual violence in Ovid’s classic.

If you have any questions about this study, please contact facilitator Mark Cwik.

STUDY DETAILS:

Fifteen-week virtual study (on Zoom), 11 January – 25 April 2024 (N.B. no meeting on 15 February)

Thursdays, 3.00-5.15 pm (UK), facilitated by Mark Cwik

£375 for fifteen-week study

Recommended editions:
- The Metamorphoses of Ovid, translated by Allen Mandelbaum
  Harcourt/HMH/Mariner Books (1995)
  ISBN-13: 978-0156001267
- Metamorphoses by Ovid, translated by Stephanie McCarter
  Penguin Classics (13 April 2023)
  ISBN-13: 978-0525505990

Organizer

Mark Cwik

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Time

(Thursday) 3:00 pm - 5:15 pm(GMT+01:00)

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VIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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tue09apr11:00 amtue1:00 pmULYSSES BY JAMES JOYCE (January 2024, morning)2024 MORNING STUDY11:00 am - 1:00 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByToby BrothersType of studyLiteratureDurationTwenty meetingsVIRTUAL

Event Details

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

—William Faulkner

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.

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.

“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

SALON DETAILS

We are offering this morning study from 11.00 am-1.00 pm (UK time), comprising 20 meetings starting on Tuesday 16 January and finishing on Tuesday 25 June 2024, with three Sunday meetings (dates and times to be confirmed) and NO meetings on 13 February, 2 April, 7 May and 4 June.

The total cost for the 20 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

Organizer

Toby Brothers

Salon Director

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Time

(Tuesday) 11:00 am - 1:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Location

VIRTUAL

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30April 11:00:am - 1:00:pm14May 11:00:am - 1:00:pm21May 11:00:am - 1:00:pm28May 11:00:am - 1:00:pm11June 11:00:am - 1:00:pm18June 11:00:am - 1:00:pm

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tue09apr5:00 pmtue7:00 pmRussian Short Stories - a brief exploration5:00 pm - 7:00 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByAlison CableType of studyLiterature,Reading & Writing for WellbeingDurationSix meetingsVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

Event Details

Russian writers are renowned the world over for their mastery of the short story form. In his 2021 book A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (in which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading and Life) Man Booker Prize winner George Saunders offers his own masterclass in storytelling and life. In his wondrous investigation, he presents seven classic Russian short stories alongside close readings of his own.

In our focused study of the reading and writing of short stories we will read stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy and Gogol. Alongside our own reading and responses we will consider George Saunders’ reactions, technical explanations and questions, which will inform our detailed discussions of these exceptional works.

On the value of close reading together, Saunders writes:

‘To study the way we read is to study the way the mind works: the way it evaluates a statement for truth, the way it behaves in relation to another mind (i.e., the writer’s) across space and time… The part of the mind that reads a story is also the part that reads the world; it can deceive us, but it can also be trained to accuracy; it can fall into disuse and make us more susceptible to lazy, violent, materialistic forces, but it can also be urged back to life, transforming us into more active, curious, alert readers of reality.’

George Saunders

Join us as we dive into this unique blend of fiction and non-fiction. As we read we will consider what makes a good story as well as what makes a good life.

JOINING DETAILS:

Six-week study on Zoom led by Alison Cable

Tuesdays, 5.00-7.00 pm (UK)

9, 16, 23, 30 April & 7, 14 May 2024

£150 to include introductory notes and resources

In addition to reading individual stories, we will refer extensively to George Saunders’ analysis in A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, ISBN 978-1526624246, which is a required text for this study

Organizer

Alison Cable

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Time

(Tuesday) 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Location

VIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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Future Event Times in this Repeating Event Series

30April 5:00:pm - 7:00:pm7May 5:00:pm - 7:00:pm14May 5:00:pm - 7:00:pm

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tue09apr5:00 pmtue7:00 pmULYSSES BY JAMES JOYCE (January 2024, evening)2024 EVENING STUDY5:00 pm - 7:00 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByToby BrothersType of studyLiteratureDurationTwenty meetingsVIRTUAL

Event Details

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

—William Faulkner

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.

“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

SALON DETAILS:

We are offering this evening study from 5.45-7.45pm (UK time), comprising 20 meetings starting on Tuesday 16 January and finishing on Tuesday 25 June 2024, with three Sunday meetings (dates and times to be confirmed) and NO meetings on 13 February, 2 April, 7 May and 4 June.

The total cost for the 20 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

Organizer

Toby Brothers

Salon Director

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Time

(Tuesday) 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Location

VIRTUAL

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Future Event Times in this Repeating Event Series

30April 5:00:pm - 7:00:pm14May 5:00:pm - 7:00:pm21May 5:00:pm - 7:00:pm28May 5:00:pm - 7:00:pm11June 5:00:pm - 7:00:pm18June 5:00:pm - 7:00:pm25June 5:00:pm - 7:00:pm

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thu11apr(apr 11)5:00 pmsun14(apr 14)1:00 pmNight and Day by Virginia WoolfFour-day study in East Sussex5:00 pm - 1:00 pm (14)(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByToby Brothers & Karina JakubowiczType of studyLiterature,TravelDurationFour daysWingrove House, High Street, Alfriston, East Sussex, BN26 5TD

Event Details

This is our second Virginia Woolf study in East Sussex, a county which in many ways became the writer’s spiritual home.

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.

Night and Day (published in 1919) is full of surprises. Written by Virginia Woolf in the early stages of her career, it doesn’t offer what her seasoned readers have been primed to expect. Instead of a bold use of form and curious choice of subject matter, the text features a typical marriage plot with a supposedly happy ending and a dose of romantic conflict along the way. The common criticism of Night and Day is that it is far too conventional. For this reason, the text is rarely studied and eagerly dismissed, despite the fact that Woolf herself credited it with teaching her ‘certain elements of composition’ she felt she needed to learn. If works such as Jacob’s Room (1922) and Mrs Dalloway (1925) represent Woolf’s ‘arrival’ as a writer, then Night and Day is part of the journey that gets her there. Read in this way, the novel becomes a blueprint for her later books, containing the seeds of the radicalism that is yet to come. Indeed, the greatest surprise concealed within Night and Day is that it isn’t conventional at all, it is simply a set of challenges posed in conventional terms – a Woolf in sheep’s clothing.

This study will suit both new and experienced readers of Woolf’s writing, providing an insight into her creative development that also enhances an understanding of her other works. Sessions will focus on close-reading sections of the text in order to allow for a deep and thorough understanding of this enjoyable novel.

SALON DETAILS:

To make a booking or ask questions please email us at litsalon@gmail.com using ‘Night and Day 2024’ as the subject line. Payment will be by bank transfer (N.B. we will supply bank details which will be different from any you may have used on previous occasions).

Facilitated by Toby Brothers and Karina Jakubowicz

11-14 April 2024, 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 Night and Day 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.

£460 for twelve hours (or more) of study 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. The cost for three nights, including breakfast, will start at £504.00 per person (room charges vary, rising to a maximum of £711.00). Please note that participants are responsible for booking their own accommodation and any insurance required, the hotel is holding a number of rooms for clients of the London Literary Salon until 31 January 2024, please mention that you are with the Salon when booking.

Recommended edition: Night and Day by Virginia Woolf, Oxford World’s Classics, ISBN-13: 9780199555604

Organizer

Toby Brothers & Karina Jakubowicz

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Time

11 (Thursday) 5:00 pm - 14 (Sunday) 1:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Location

Wingrove House

High Street, Alfriston, East Sussex, BN26 5TD

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sun14apr4:30 pmsun6:00 pmLitSalon Short #3: Demystifying the English RenaissanceA LitSalon Short4:30 pm - 6:00 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByVivien KogutType of studyLitSalon Short,The Renaissance through texts and objectsDurationOne and a half hoursVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

Event Details

*Science Museum Group. European astrolabe, 1495-1505,*
*Science Museum Group Collection Online*

Have you ever felt drawn to Shakespeare, or Spenser, or Donne, but found them too difficult, elaborate or remote? Do you sometimes wonder whether 16^th and 17^th-century poetry in English is only for the initiated?

This LitSalon Short invites lovers of poetry and the Renaissance – or those who remain curious – to embark on a journey to the past. In our 90-minute session we will search for connections with our own times as we explore themes in 16^th and 17^th century English poetry, such as impermanence, spectacle and pathos. We will consider how ‘reading’ artefacts of the time alongside text can add to our reading experience, and what the resulting conversation can reveal about both the distant past and our own present.

This free single session stands on its own, but can also be used as an introduction to the ongoing ‘English Renaissance through Texts and Objects’ series which has been running in the LitSalon since 2021. The next four studies can be found below.

JOINING DETAILS:

A LitSalon Short, 90 minutes, free of charge

Sunday 14 April, 4.30-6.00 pm BST

Led by Vivien Kogut

Related studies The English Renaissance Through Texts and Objects:
Appearance x Essence
Transformation
Human Passions
Swift-footed Time

Organizer

Vivien Kogut

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Time

(Sunday) 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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VIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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tue16apr6:00 pmtue8:00 pmThe Art of Reading Aloud6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByJane Wymark & Caroline HammondType of studyPoetryDurationThree weeksVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

Event Details

*Image credit: Reading Aloud by Hanna Hirsch-Pauli, public domain*

“Every time you read a poem aloud to yourself in the presence of others, you are reading it into yourself and them. Voice helps to carry words farther and deeper than the eye.“

Seamus Heaney

Reading aloud, the joy of hearing text come off the page in different voices, is at the heart of the studies that both Jane and Caroline lead. While these may not be performances as such, sharing poetry and theatre as a group brings us closer to unlocking the meaning and interpretation of these texts and can amplify the pleasure we derive from the work. But what are the elements that we draw upon when we read?

In this series of three workshops we will explore aspects of sound and speech that are rarely included in our regular Salon studies, with their strong focus on text and analysis. Suitable for readers with all levels of confidence, this fun and inclusive study will be useful and enlightening for anyone who regularly attends the Salon.

Each week we will focus on a different poem: Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare, The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins and And Yet the Books by Czeslaw Milosz. We will aim to demystify the practice of reading aloud as we consider meter, pacing and emphasis using these three very different poems as our guides. Most importantly, we will enjoy the process of bringing the words to life.

And Yet the Books

And yet the books will be there on the shelves, separate beings,
That appeared once, still wet
As shining chestnuts under a tree in autumn,
And, touched, coddled, began to live
In spite of fires on the horizon, castles blown up,
Tribes on the march, planets in motion.
“We are,” they said, even as their pages
Were being torn out, or a buzzing flame
Licked away their letters. So much more durable
Than we are, whose frail warmth
Cools down with memory, disperses, perishes.
I imagine the earth when I am no more:
Nothing happens, no loss, it’s still a strange pageant,
Women’s dresses, dewy lilacs, a song in the valley.
Yet the books will be there on the shelves, well born,
Derived from people, but also from radiance, heights.

Berkeley, 1986
Czeslaw Milosz, translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Robert Haas

JOINING DETAILS:

Three-workshops facilitated by Caroline Hammond and Jane Wymark

Tuesdays, 6.00–8.00 pm (UK), 16, 23 & 30 April 2024

£130 for three meeting study, including background materials and opening notes

Organizer

Jane Wymark & Caroline Hammond

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(Tuesday) 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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thu18apr1:00 pmthu4:30 pm'Reading' Great Paintings #41:00 pm - 4:30 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized BySean ForesterType of studyVisual artsDurationThree-and-a-half-hoursNational Gallery, Trafalgar Square

Event Details

*Antonello da Messina, Portrait of a Man, 1475-76, National Gallery, Creative Commons*

Join the London Literary Salon at the National Gallery in London to look at masterpieces by Piero della Francesca, Antonello da Messina, Canaletto, Turner, Monet and Degas. Sean Forester, a classically trained painter and literary discussion leader, will help you to think about form and content in paintings: how are drawing, colour, composition and brushwork used by the artist? What do you feel when looking at a particular picture and why? What ideas are visually expressed here?

The artworks we will view are displayed in a Padlet here. As we look at paintings in the gallery we will explore Classicism, Romanticism and Impressionism. What characterises these different approaches? How do individual artists fit into these broader movements?

This afternoon study will last for three-and-a-half hours, with approximately two hours in the gallery followed by tea and cake and group discussion. Our group of no more than eight will meet at 1.00 pm at the Getty Entrance of the National Gallery and then move to the Crypt at St. Martins in the Fields for refreshment and discussion.

JOINING DETAILS:

Single meeting in-person study at the National Gallery, led by Sean Forester

Thursday 18 April 2024, 1.00-4.30 pm

The paintings we will study: Piero della Francesca Baptism of Christ; Antanello da Mesina Portrait of a Man and St. Jerome in his Study; Canaletto The Doge’s Palace and the Riva degli Schiavoni and Piazza San Marco; Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire; Monet The Thames below Westminster and Water Lilies; Degas La Coiffure.

£60.00 (to include background notes, as well as refreshments at the Crypt Café in St Martin in the Fields)

Organizer

Sean Forester

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Time

(Thursday) 1:00 pm - 4:30 pm(GMT+01:00)

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National Gallery

Trafalgar Square

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sat20apr1:00 pmsat3:00 pmOn Not Knowing Greek: why the classics matter todayAn 'in person' LitSalon Special1:00 pm - 3:00 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized BySean Forester & Karina JakubowiczType of studyClassical,Visual artsDurationTwo hours81 Gower Street, London WC1

Event Details

Ancient Greek literature and art are a foundation of Western culture. Yet they feel distant from us – foreign, strange and long ago. Homer’s epics, Sophocles’ tragedies, Plato’s dialogues, the sculptures of Praxiteles: why do they remain so compelling today?

Join us at the London Literary Salon as we explore this question. In her essay On Not Knowing Greek Virginia Woolf argues that Ancient Greece resists translation, and that its language, culture, and people remain, in a sense, unknowable. Nevertheless, she shows how they contain universal experiences that speak to us with powerful force. Similarly, in Archaic Torso of Apollo the modern German poet Rainer Maria Rilke’s has a dramatic encounter with a fragment from the ancient world.

Facilitated by Sean Forester, a classically trained painter and literary discussion leader, and Karina Jakubowicz, Virginia Woolf scholar and lecturer at Literature Cambridge, the aim of this study is to bring together literature and art, the ancient and the modern, and the men and women of the LitSalon community for fun and eclectic afternoon. It is likely to be of particular interest for those who have studied Woolf before, but no previous experience is necessary. The event will also serve as an introduction to classical studies the LitSalon will offer in the future.

Following a two-hour discussion at a convenient location on Gower Street, a short walk away from the British Museum, the Parthenon sculptures await us. After visiting the museum participants are invited to join Karina and Sean at a local pub for food, drinks and continuing conversation.

*Sculpture of a horse’s head from Athens, Greece, 438-432 BC, British Museum, Parthenon sculptures*

JOINING DETAILS:

Two-hour in-person study led by Sean Forester and Karina Jakubowicz, Saturday 20 April, 1.00-3.00 pm BST, Gower Street, London WC1 (regrettably this venue is not wheelchair accessible)

Readings Virginia Woolf’s On Not Knowing Greek and Archaic Torso of Apollo by Rainer Maria Rilke

£60.00 (please note that we will provide tea and coffee but not lunch)

Participants are encouraged to visit the Parthenon sculptures at the British Museum following the meeting (admission is free) and invited to join Karina and Sean at Truckles of Pied Bull Yard if they would like to continue the conversation.

Organizer

Sean Forester & Karina Jakubowicz

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Time

(Saturday) 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Location

81 Gower Street

London WC1

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tue23apr2:30 pmtue4:30 pmULYSSES BY JAMES JOYCE - The Slow Read (section 7, the last pages of Scylla & Charybdis; navigating through the Wandering Rocks)THE 'SLOW READ' PART 72:30 pm - 4:30 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByToby BrothersType of studyLiteratureVIRTUAL

Event Details

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

William Faulkner

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.

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 seventh section of the ‘Slow Read’ Ulysses study led by Toby Brothers and occasional guest facilitators from within the group, 14 two-hour sessions, Tuesdays from 2.30-4.30 pm (UK), starting on 23 April and ending on 10 September 2024 (see full dates below).

If you are interested in joining this study but have not participated in the first six sections please email the facilitator toby@litsalon.co.uk.

The total cost for this section with all notes and resources is £375.00, 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

Organizer

Toby Brothers

Salon Director

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Time

(Tuesday) 2:30 pm - 4:30 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Location

VIRTUAL

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30April 2:30:pm - 4:30:pm7May 2:30:pm - 4:30:pm14May 2:30:pm - 4:30:pm28May 2:30:pm - 4:30:pm4June 2:30:pm - 4:30:pm11June 2:30:pm - 4:30:pm25June 2:30:pm - 4:30:pm16July 2:30:pm - 4:30:pm30July 2:30:pm - 4:30:pm6August 2:30:pm - 4:30:pm13August 2:30:pm - 4:30:pm20August 2:30:pm - 4:30:pm10September 2:30:pm - 4:30:pm

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wed24apr5:30 pmwed7:30 pmReflective Journalling: 'What type of journal should I like mine to be?' - April, May & June 2024A monthly journalling workshop5:30 pm - 7:30 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByAlison CableType of studyReading & Writing for WellbeingDurationTwelve meetings,Two hoursVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

Event Details

‘What sort of diary should I like mine to be? Something loose knit and not slovenly, so elastic it will embrace anything, solemn, slight or beautiful that comes into my mind. I would like it to resemble some deep old desk, or capacious hold-all, in which one flings a mass of odds and ends without looking them through.’

Virginia Woolf, A Writer’s Diary: Being Extracts from the Diary of Virginia Woolf

Freeing? Playful? Empowering? Reflective writing in the safety of a private journal is a good way to take a deeper, more imaginative look at life’s experiences. Not sure how to get started, or in need of support to keep a regular practice going? These monthly workshops will introduce you to a range of creative ideas for your own reflective journal, keeping you engaged and committed in a non-critical space. Each month’s workshop will offer inspiring themes and tools for reflection and expression – and opportunities to share with the group if you choose to. Join us to brighten and expand your writing practice in 2024.

We are offering the workshops in quarterly blocks of three (or two in the case of February and March following the ‘taster’ session in January).

Alison will also send each participant a weekly self-guided prompt to keep their practice going between workshop sessions!

STUDY DETAILS:

A series of workshops on Zoom, each on the last Wednesday of the month, 5.30-7.30 pm (UK) led by Alison Cable.

Offered in blocks: February/March (following the free ‘taster’ session in January); April/May/June; July/August/September; October/November/December.

Three two-hour workshops on 24 April, 29 May and 26 June 2024, £75 (including notes, resources and weekly writing prompts).

Organizer

Alison Cable

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Time

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

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VIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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Future Event Times in this Repeating Event Series

29May 5:30:pm26June 5:30:pm

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wed24apr7:00 pmwed8:30 pmReflective Journalling: 'What type of journal should I like mine to be?' FREE taster sessionA monthly journalling workshop7:00 pm - 8:30 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByAlison CableType of studyReading & Writing for WellbeingDuration1.5 hoursVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

Event Details

‘What sort of diary should I like mine to be? Something loose knit and not slovenly, so elastic it will embrace anything, solemn, slight or beautiful that comes into my mind. I would like it to resemble some deep old desk, or capacious hold-all, in which one flings a mass of odds and ends without looking them through.’

Virginia Woolf, A Writer’s Diary: Being Extracts from the Diary of Virginia Woolf

January’s workshop offers a free ‘taster’ session. You are under no obligation, but if you enjoy the workshop you may register for the remaining eleven meetings here.

STUDY DETAILS:

Wednesday 31 January 2024, 7.00-8.30 pm (UK)

Initial ‘taster’ session for a series of twelve workshops on Zoom on the last Wednesday of the month, 7.00-8.30 pm (UK) led by Alison Cable

First meeting free of charge (series of twelve meetings £220)

Organizer

Alison Cable

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Time

(Wednesday) 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm(GMT+01:00)

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VIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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Future Event Times in this Repeating Event Series

29May 7:00:pm26June 7:00:pm31July 7:00:pm28August 7:00:pm25September 7:00:pm30October 7:00:pm27November 7:00:pm

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Places are no longer available for this event

May 2024

mon06may(may 6)5:00 pmmon13(may 13)12:00 pmHomer's Iliad on the Greek island of AgistriPLEASE NOTE THAT THIS WEEK IS FULLY BOOKED & THERE IS A WAITING LIST5:00 pm - 12:00 pm (13)(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByToby Brothers, Caroline Hammond & Jane WymarkType of studyClassical,TravelDurationSeven daysAgistri, Greece

Event Details

After three exhilarating trips to the beautiful island of Agistri on the Saronic Gulf to study Homer and Aeschylus, we plan to return in 2024, this time to immerse ourselves in Homer’s Iliad.

“When I first ran studies of The Iliad, I had the great privilege of working with the sparkling Liane Aukin, who had directed the productions of Christopher Logue’s War Music, a modern re-telling of Homer’s great chronicle of rage and loss. Now we meet this epic again, this time in the moment of Emily Wilson’s new translation – eagerly anticipated after her Odyssey – bringing the ancient poem to modern readers as a fresh and vibrant work. “

Toby Brothers, Founding Director, The London Literary Salon

The Iliad and The Odyssey, the twin roots of classical epic literature, call to us across the ages. To truly understand where we are in our cultural development today, we must first know where we have come from: how our ideas around honour, community, justice, love, conflict and loyalty arise from the stories and lives of those who came before us. We have offered The Odyssey in many Salon studies previously: the heat of the work considered through our contemporary lens is fierce. We still grapple with the wavering line between cunning and deceit; the decision to sacrifice a few lives to save more; the modification of oaths sworn in war or love when unforeseeable circumstances exert their force.

The Iliad is about much more than the war fought between the two most powerful armies of the ancient world. To study the Iliad, it is necessary to confront the reality of war, in both the past and in the present, which is perhaps why Homer’s very modern sounding account does not make the Greeks the good guys and the Trojans the bad . . . the heroes are flawed, the battles remain murky and unresolved. The gorgeousness of the language lies in the cries for forgiveness, for honour of the dead, for the loss of loved ones, and how the quiet moments of life become exquisite in the face of loss.

In these studies we will focus on Emily Wilson’s wonderful new translation of The Iliad and this interview with Charlotte Higgins in the Guardian explains what makes it so fresh, rewarding and relevant to our times. Of course, The Iliad is first and foremost a book about war, and that is perhaps why I have avoided studying it previously. Today, I understand that the horror of war is not to be avoided; in fact, the choices in the moment of battle, the sacrifices and force of the moment are not someone else’s story, this is my story, this is everyone’s story. If I have the good fortune not to experience war in my immediate world, this is an illusion created by layers of privilege and technology; war happens now, and is still a terrible and authentic determinant of the human story. When I first wrote about this some years ago, I was in that privileged position of experiencing war only indirectly. Today, with my daughter working in Ukraine, providing humanitarian aid in the face of a war prompted by Russia’s invasion, I am no longer at that remove. I witness through her the way war clarifies choices and heightens all encounters.

In this book I am struck by how present the Greek gods and goddesses are: they argue, they interfere, they are wounded in battles – much more so than in The Odyssey. The huge themes of honour (the physical expression seen in the form of gifts and war booty) and fame (Kleos: eternal glory, what is spoken aloud about you) are explored and dramatised. These ideas are fundamental to the warrior ethos, but in the modern world we have lost neither our sensitivity to nor our desire for these rewards. The Homeric epics are foundational, at the core of Western culture and literary tradition. Their treatment of the meaning of mortality, the impact of time, the complexity of relationships between men and women – and men and men – continue to resonate in human experience to the present day.

Actor Jane Wymark and poet Caroline Donnelly will add their considerable talents and energy to this study, bringing their understanding of the dramatic possibilities of the text, the poetry inspired by the Homeric original and illuminating the poetic structures. They will guide us to play within this phenomenal work.

STUDY DETAILS:

Two seven-day studies of Homer’s Iliad on the island of Agistri: 6-13 and 15-22 May 2024 (N.B. the first week is now fully booked and there is a waiting list for places).

Facilitated by: Toby Brothers, Jane Wymark and Caroline Hammond.

Cost: £680 for the Salon study, to include preparatory meeting in April (via Zoom, date to be confirmed), background materials and opening notes. Opening notes will be sent after registration.

The study programme will run for four to five hours per day for five days, with one day left open and travel at each end. There will be time for other optional activities including kayaking adventures, a trip to the Temple of Aphaia on Aegina, or pure relaxation.

We will ask you to read the recommended translation before arriving on Agistri: Homer’s Iliad translated by Emily Wilson (WW Norton & Co, publication date 26 September 2023), ISBN-10: 1324001801, ISBN-13: 978-1324001805.

You may also find it helpful (although it is not necessary) to read Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey (WW Norton & Co, ISBN-10: 0393356256; ISBN-13: 978-0393356250). Alternatively, Ian McKellen’s audio reading of Robert Fagles’ translation would also be a great way to experience The Odyssey.

Payment: we understand that you may not want to pay the entire charge at once, so we ask for an initial (non-returnable) deposit of £200 on registration and the balance of £480 by 31 January 2024.

Refunds: please note that any refunds will be entirely at the discretion of the London Literary Salon, dependent on our ability to fill the place, and will be subject to a charge to cover our administration costs.

BOOKING

To make a booking or ask questions please email us at litsalon@gmail.com using ‘Agistri 2024’ as the subject line. Payment will be by bank transfer (N.B. we will supply bank details which will be different from any you may have used on previous occasions). Please indicate whether you wish to book for the second week (15-22 May) or be added to the waiting list for the first week.

ADDITIONAL COSTS

Room and half board (breakfast and dinner each day) will be arranged by each participant with the hotel and paid for directly to them. A deposit to cover two nights accommodation will be required by the hotel. We will send you full contact details for payment on registration. We have set out the anticipated charges below, but these may be subject to change at the time of booking at the discretion of the hotel.

Accommodation prices per night at the hotel – Rosy’s Little Village – based on 2023 charges:

Single – €65 per night plus half board (breakfast and dinner) estimated at €50 per day

Double – €71 per night plus half board (breakfast and dinner) estimated at €50 per person per day

Triple – €77 per night plus half board (breakfast and dinner) estimated at €50 per person per day

Family room for two people – €83 per night plus half board (breakfast and dinner) estimated at €50 per person per day

Family room for three people – €98 per night plus half board (breakfast and dinner) estimated at €50 per person per day

Family room for four people – €110 per night plus half board (breakfast and dinner) estimated at €50 per person per day

Flights to Athens: when booking please make sure you can arrive in Piraeus by 15.00 local time on the first day of your study to catch the ferry. We will not be meeting formally on the final day of each study, so you have choices about your return (ferries are frequent and the travel time to Piraeus is one hour).

Ferry to Agistri: normally €14 each way, but may be €30 for arrival if the group chooses to use a private water taxi.

Incidental expenses: drinks, lunches, extra trips etc.

Insurance: we hope this will be entirely redundant, but we do ask you to arrange your own travel and health insurance to protect you in case of anything untoward happening.

Organizer

Toby Brothers, Caroline Hammond & Jane Wymark

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Time

6 (Monday) 5:00 pm - 13 (Monday) 12:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Location

Agistri, Greece

Other Events

sun12may4:00 pmsun6:00 pmDante's Purgatorio4:00 pm - 6:00 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized BySean ForesterType of studyPoetryDurationTwelve meetingsVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

Event Details

*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:

Twelve meeting study (on Zoom) led by Sean Forester

Sundays, 4.00-6.00 pm BST

12, 19, 26 May; 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 June; 7, 14, 21, 28 July (+ 28 April, review of Inferno free of charge)

£360 for twelve two-hour meetings, to include opening notes and resources

You may use any edition of the book but Sean will be using D.M. Black’s translation, ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1681376059

Organizer

Sean Forester

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Time

(Sunday) 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Location

VIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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Future Event Times in this Repeating Event Series

19May 4:00:pm - 6:00:pm26May 4:00:pm - 6:00:pm2June 4:00:pm - 6:00:pm9June 4:00:pm - 6:00:pm16June 4:00:pm - 6:00:pm23June 4:00:pm - 6:00:pm30June 4:00:pm - 6:00:pm7July 4:00:pm - 6:00:pm14July 4:00:pm - 6:00:pm21July 4:00:pm - 6:00:pm28July 4:00:pm - 6:00:pm

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All places are booked

mon13may6:00 pmmon8:00 pmA LitSalon Special - The stories of Katherine MansfieldA Lecture by Dr Gerri Kimber6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByKarina Jakubowicz & Gerri KimberType of studyLiteratureDurationTwo hoursVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

Event Details

“Do you remember your childhood? I am always coming across these marvellous accounts by writers who declare that they remember ‘everything’. I certainly don’t. The dark stretches, the blanks, are much bigger than the bright glimpses. I seem to have spent most of my time like a plant in a cupboard.”

Katherine Mansfield

This LitSalon Special, a lecture by Dr Gerri Kimber, acknowledged as the world expert on Katherine Mansfield, serves as an introduction to our six week reading of Mansfield’s work: The Child Who Was Tired & other stories led by Karina Jakubowicz but can also be booked as a standalone event. Gerri Kimber has contributed to over 40 books on Mansfield’s life and work, was President of the Katherine Mansfield Society for ten years (2010-2020) and is currently working on a new biography of Mansfield for Reaktion Books.

Katherine Mansfield was a master of the modern short story. She crafted precise pictures of individual moments and scenes, resulting in deft narratives that are as devastating as they are beautiful. While the early 20th century novel has received a significant amount of critical attention, the short story has been somewhat overlooked. Nonetheless, as Mansfield’s biographer states, the short story ‘was often the most aesthetically experimental, formally innovative, emotionally powerful prose form of the early twentieth century.’ One critic has gone so far as to call it ‘the chosen form of the exile’, due to its daring and artistically marginal status.

Our six-week study following the introductory lecture will consider themes including childhood, motherhood and female relationships. We will ask how Mansfield responds to the vulnerability of children while also addressing the difficulty of motherhood. We may also consider the fate of reluctant parents and the role of older carers.

JOINING DETAILS:

A LitSalon Special from world expert on Katherine Mansfield, Dr Gerri Kimber.

Monday 13 May 2024, 6.00-8.00 pm BST on Zoom

£30 (or £20 if booked as part of The Child Who Was Tired)

Organizer

Karina Jakubowicz & Gerri Kimber

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Time

(Monday) 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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VIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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mon13may6:00 pmmon8:00 pmThe Child Who Was Tired & other stories by Katherine Mansfield6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByKarina JakubowiczType of studyLiteratureDurationSeven meetingsVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

Event Details

“Do you remember your childhood? I am always coming across these marvellous accounts by writers who declare that they remember ‘everything’. I certainly don’t. The dark stretches, the blanks, are much bigger than the bright glimpses. I seem to have spent most of my time like a plant in a cupboard.”

Katherine Mansfield

We will open this study with a LitSalon Special lecture by Dr Gerri Kimber which can also be booked as a standalone event.

This six-week study will consider themes including childhood, motherhood and female relationships. We will ask how Mansfield responds to the vulnerability of children while also addressing the difficulty of motherhood. We may also consider the fate of reluctant parents and the role of older carers.

These stories cover a broad geographical landscape, including Germany, Paris, London and New Zealand, and represent different stages in Mansfield’s career. This study is perfect for those who are new to Mansfield’s work as well as those who have already participated in our reading and discussion of her wonderful writing.

JOINING DETAILS:

Seven meetings on Zoom facilitated by Karina Jakubowicz, including single introductory LitSalon Special lecture on Monday 13 May, 6.00-8.00 pm BST from the world expert on Katherine Mansfield, Dr Gerri Kimber.

Mondays, 6.00-8.00 pm (UK), 13 May-24 June 2024, stories to be studied (in order, weeks 2-7):
Week 2. Something Childish But Very Natural
Week 3. The Child Who Was Tired
Week 4. At Lehmanns
Week 5. How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped
Week 6. Je ne Parle Pas Francais
Week 7. Life of Ma Parker
Most are available free of charge from the Katherine Mansfield Society

£200 for seven meetings and introductory notes (including LitSalon Special Lecture at discounted rate of £20)

Organizer

Karina Jakubowicz

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Time

(Monday) 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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VIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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Future Event Times in this Repeating Event Series

20May 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm27May 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm3June 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm10June 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm17June 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm24June 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm

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Enquire before you buy

wed15may(may 15)5:00 pmwed22(may 22)12:00 pmHomer's Iliad on the Greek island of Agistri5:00 pm - 12:00 pm (22)(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByToby Brothers, Caroline Hammond & Jane WymarkType of studyClassical,TravelDurationSeven daysAgistri, Greece

Event Details

After three exhilarating trips to the beautiful island of Agistri on the Saronic Gulf to study Homer and Aeschylus, we plan to return in 2024, this time to immerse ourselves in Homer’s Iliad.

“When I first ran studies of The Iliad, I had the great privilege of working with the sparkling Liane Aukin, who had directed the productions of Christopher Logue’s War Music, a modern re-telling of Homer’s great chronicle of rage and loss. Now we meet this epic again, this time in the moment of Emily Wilson’s new translation – eagerly anticipated after her Odyssey – bringing the ancient poem to modern readers as a fresh and vibrant work. “

Toby Brothers, Founding Director, The London Literary Salon

N.B. This study is separate from but complementary to our eight-week Iliad study led by Mark Cwik on Zoom starting on 16 January 2024.

STUDY DETAILS:

Two seven-day studies of Homer’s Iliad on the island of Agistri: 6-13 and 15-22 May 2024 (N.B. the first week is now fully booked and there is a waiting list for places).

Facilitated by: Toby Brothers, Jane Wymark and Caroline Hammond.

Cost: £680 for the Salon study, to include preparatory meeting in April (via Zoom, date to be confirmed), background materials and opening notes. Opening notes will be sent after registration.

The study programme will run for four to five hours per day for five days, with one day left open and travel at each end. There will be time for other optional activities including kayaking adventures, a trip to the Temple of Aphaia on Aegina, or pure relaxation.

We will ask you to read the recommended translation before arriving on Agistri: Homer’s Iliad translated by Emily Wilson (WW Norton & Co, publication date 26 September 2023), ISBN-10: 1324001801, ISBN-13: 978-1324001805.

You may also find it helpful (although it is not necessary) to read Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey (WW Norton & Co, ISBN-10: 0393356256; ISBN-13: 978-0393356250). Alternatively, Ian McKellen’s audio reading of Robert Fagles’ translation would also be a great way to experience The Odyssey.

Payment: we understand that you may not want to pay the entire charge at once, so we ask for an initial (non-returnable) deposit of £200 on registration and the balance of £480 by 31 January 2024.

Refunds: please note that any refunds will be entirely at the discretion of the London Literary Salon, dependent on our ability to fill the place, and will be subject to a charge to cover our administration costs.

BOOKING

ADDITIONAL COSTS

Accommodation prices per night at the hotel – Rosy’s Little Village – based on 2023 charges:

Single – €65 per night plus half board (breakfast and dinner) estimated at €50 per day

Double – €71 per night plus half board (breakfast and dinner) estimated at €50 per person per day

Triple – €77 per night plus half board (breakfast and dinner) estimated at €50 per person per day

Family room for two people – €83 per night plus half board (breakfast and dinner) estimated at €50 per person per day

Family room for three people – €98 per night plus half board (breakfast and dinner) estimated at €50 per person per day

Family room for four people – €110 per night plus half board (breakfast and dinner) estimated at €50 per person per day

Ferry to Agistri: normally €14 each way, but may be €30 for arrival if the group chooses to use a private water taxi.

Incidental expenses: drinks, lunches, extra trips etc.

Insurance: we hope this will be entirely redundant, but we do ask you to arrange your own travel and health insurance to protect you in case of anything untoward happening.

Organizer

Toby Brothers, Caroline Hammond & Jane Wymark

Learn More

Time

15 (Wednesday) 5:00 pm - 22 (Wednesday) 12:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

View in my time

Location

Agistri, Greece

Other Events

mon20may5:30 pmmon7:30 pmThe English Renaissance through texts and objects #1: Appearance x EssenceThe Renaissance Through Texts & Objects5:30 pm - 7:30 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByVivien KogutType of studyThe Renaissance through texts and objectsDurationTwo hoursVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

Event Details

“This literature – which to us can sometimes seem difficult, exotic, highbrow, remote – is the product of a certain sensibility and a particular context. 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

Please note, participants can sign up for individual sessions or the whole study, joining details below.

Session 1: Appearance x Essence

Sixteenth-century England was a place of spectacle: court pageants, public theatres, the progresses of Elizabeth I, public executions. How can literature speak truth to power in a world where each word might mean promotion or death?

This is one of four meetings which can be attended individually or as a series. In each we will explore the literature of sixteenth and seventeenth century England through some of its texts, placing them in dialogue with iconic images or objects.

With guest appearances from writers including Wyatt, Shakespeare, Herbert, Sidney, Raleigh and Donne, during each session we will read together two unseen texts that engage with a defining theme. We will discuss how writers in Renaissance England expressed their experience of living in a world as precarious as it was exciting and consider how similar or different it is to our own.

JOINING DETAILS:

The first of four meetings on Zoom led by Vivien Kogut, 20 May 2024, 5.30-7.30 pm (UK)

Participants can sign up for individual sessions or the whole study: Mondays 5:30-7:30 pm (UK), 20, 27 May & 3, 10 June 2024

Each session can be booked individually at £35 to include opening notes and resources (if you wish to book all four please email us using the heading ‘English Renaissance’ and we will arrange a discounted price of £120 for the series).

Organizer

Vivien Kogut

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Time

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

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Location

VIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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sun26may4:00 pmsun6:00 pmThe Art of Film #1: Thelma and LouiseA LitSalon Short4:00 pm - 6:00 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByToby Brothers & Julie SutherlandType of studyLitSalon Short,The Art of FilmDurationTwo hoursVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

Event Details

Thelma: [with her gun to the state trooper’s head] “I swear three days ago neither one of us would’ve EVER pulled a stunt like this, but if you’d ever meet my husband you’d understand why.“

Thelma and Louise (1991), directed by Ridley Scott and written by Callie Khouri, is a controversial film that has only gained in reputation from the wide spectrum of responses it has attracted over time. Though often described as an American ‘buddy’ road movie, by inverting the traditional gender roles and brutally exposing challenges to female autonomy, this landmark film raises questions about female friendship, justice, sexual pleasure and the use of violence.

The power of Thelma and Louise remains with viewers long after the closing credits. From the stunning vision of the wide open spaces of the western USA to the foot-tapping soundtrack and whip-smart dialogue, we remember its vivid and searing movement. Since last year’s Barbie Forum we have wanted to add more film studies to the Salon’s menu of offerings, so when Toby and Julie discovered a shared love for this film we decided it was the perfect choice to kick off a rich new area of exploration under the heading ‘The Art of Film’.

For this LitSalon Short we will use clips of the film as the launchpad for our discussion. In preparation, we ask participants to view the film (or refresh your memory if it has been a while). As part of the study we will provide participants with a short list of cinema terminology and techniques and use the skills we have developed in exploring narrative form to consider what creates the memorable aesthetic and emotional power of this film.

Although initially a ‘Short’, we believe this study may have potential to open up a longer series of discussions about subjects such as the portrayal of sexual violence and abuse and female representation (particularly in films of the 1980s and 1990s). We are both interested in how, in this period, art attempted to chronicle female experience and to what extent shifts in gender roles and resistances were reflected in cinematic presentation.

JOINING DETAILS:

A FREE OF CHARGE LitSalon Short on the Art of Film

Sunday 26 May 2024, 4.00-6.00pm (UK) on Zoom

Discussion led by Toby Brothers and Julie Sutherland

Thelma and Louise is available on DVD and to download from Amazon and other platforms.

Organizer

Toby Brothers & Julie Sutherland

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Time

(Sunday) 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Location

VIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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Book this Salon

mon27may5:30 pmmon7:30 pmThe English Renaissance #2: TransformationThe Renaissance Through Texts & Objects5:30 pm - 7:30 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByVivien KogutType of studyThe Renaissance through texts and objectsDurationTwo hoursVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

Event Details

*Map of the New World, Wellcome Library London via Wikimedia Creative Commons*

“This literature – which to us can sometimes seem difficult, exotic, highbrow, remote – is the product of a certain sensibility and a particular context. 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

Please note, participants can sign up for individual sessions or the whole study, joining details below.

Session 2: Transformation

For Europeans this was a time of extraordinary inventions and discoveries: the printing press, the telescope, the microscope, the mechanical clock, atlases, blood circulation, the New World and heliocentrism, are just some of them. The understanding of oneself and the world was in constant flux. How did writers respond to this in England? Could words fully encompass this metamorphosis?

JOINING DETAILS:

The second of four meetings on Zoom led by Vivien Kogut, 27 May 2024, 5.30-7.30 pm (UK)

Participants can sign up for individual sessions or the whole study: Mondays 5:30-7:30 pm (UK), 20, 27 May & 3, 10 June 2024

Each session can be booked individually at £35 to include opening notes and resources (if you wish to book all four please email us using the heading ‘English Renaissance’ and we will arrange a discounted price of £120 for the series).

Organizer

Vivien Kogut

Learn More

Time

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

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Location

VIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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Enquire before you buy

June 2024

mon03jun1:00 pmmon3:00 pmTHE GUERMANTES WAY (early)The third volume of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time1:00 pm - 3:00 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByToby BrothersType of studyLiteratureDurationThirteen weeksVIRTUAL

Event Details

“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 seventh 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

Mondays, 1.00-3.00 pm (UK time)

Thirteen meeting study: 5 weeks from 3 June – 1 July 2024, resuming for 8 weeks from 9 September (beginning with a free ‘regathering’ session for all three Proust groups together from 6.00-8.00 pm) and then 16 September – 18 November 2024 at the normal times (N.B. no meetings on 30 September and 7 October)

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

£390 for thirteen meetings, includes background materials, literary criticism, opening notes and discussion notes

Organizer

Toby Brothers

Salon Director

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Time

(Monday) 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Location

VIRTUAL

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Future Event Times in this Repeating Event Series

10June 1:00:pm - 3:00:pm17June 1:00:pm - 3:00:pm24June 1:00:pm - 3:00:pm1July 1:00:pm - 3:00:pm9September 6:00:pm18November 8:00:pm16September 1:00:pm - 3:00:pm23September 1:00:pm - 3:00:pm14October 1:00:pm - 3:00:pm21October 1:00:pm - 3:00:pm28October 1:00:pm - 3:00:pm4November 1:00:pm - 3:00:pm11November 1:00:pm - 3:00:pm18November 1:00:pm - 3:00:pm

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mon03jun3:30 pmmon5:30 pmTHE GUERMANTES WAY (for second timers)The third volume of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time3:30 pm - 5:30 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByToby BrothersType of studyLiteratureDurationThirteen weeksVIRTUAL

Event Details

“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

This ‘second time around’ study is designed specifically for people who, having completed their journey through Proust’s monumental creation at least once, have the urge to do it again.

Facilitator Toby Brothers writes:

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

Mondays, 3.30-5.30 pm (UK time)

Thirteen meeting study: 5 weeks from 3 June – 1 July 2024, resuming for 8 weeks from 9 September (beginning with a free ‘regathering’ session for all three Proust groups together from 6.00-8.00 pm) and then 16 September – 18 November 2024 at the normal times (N.B. no meetings on 30 September and 7 October)

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

£390 for thirteen meetings, includes background materials, literary criticism, opening notes and discussion notes

Organizer

Toby Brothers

Salon Director

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Time

(Monday) 3:30 pm - 5:30 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Location

VIRTUAL

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Future Event Times in this Repeating Event Series

10June 3:30:pm - 5:30:pm17June 3:30:pm - 5:30:pm24June 3:30:pm - 5:30:pm1July 3:30:pm - 5:30:pm9September 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm16September 3:30:pm - 5:30:pm23September 3:30:pm - 5:30:pm14October 3:30:pm - 5:30:pm21October 3:30:pm - 5:30:pm28October 3:30:pm - 5:30:pm4November 3:30:pm - 5:30:pm11November 3:30:pm - 5:30:pm18November 3:30:pm - 5:30:pm

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mon03jun5:30 pmmon7:30 pmThe English Renaissance through texts and objects #3: Human PassionsThe Renaissance Through Texts & Objects5:30 pm - 7:30 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByVivien KogutType of studyThe Renaissance through texts and objectsDurationTwo hoursVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

Event Details

*Shakespeare Performing before Queen Elizabeth and her court: anonymous engraver, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*

“This literature – which to us can sometimes seem difficult, exotic, highbrow, remote – is the product of a certain sensibility and a particular context. 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

Please note, participants can sign up for individual sessions or the whole study, joining details below.

Session 3: Human Passions

In Renaissance England control was part of existence: laws regulated every aspect of life, from what you wore to what you believed in. Texts for publication or performance had to pass the censor. And yet (and yet!), literature was able to find ingenious ways of channelling violent passions. How, from our place in the 21^st century, can we access Renaissance literature sensitivities?

JOINING DETAILS:

The third of four meetings on Zoom led by Vivien Kogut, 3 June 2024, 5.30-7.30 pm (UK)

Participants can sign up for individual sessions or the whole study: Mondays 5:30-7:30 pm (UK), 20, 27 May & 3, 10 June 2024

Each session can be booked individually at £35 to include opening notes and resources (if you wish to book all four please email us using the heading ‘English Renaissance’ and we will arrange a discounted price of £120 for the series).

Organizer

Vivien Kogut

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Time

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

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Location

VIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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mon03jun6:00 pmmon8:00 pmTHE GUERMANTES WAY (later)The third volume of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByToby Brothers & Ralph KleinmanType of studyLiteratureDurationThirteen weeksVIRTUAL

Event Details

“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:

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 and Ralph Kleinman

Mondays, 6.00-8.00 pm (UK time)

Thirteen meeting study: 5 weeks from 3 June – 1 July 2024, resuming for 8 weeks from 9 September (beginning with a free ‘regathering’ session for all three Proust groups together from 6.00-8.00 pm) and then 16 September – 18 November 2024 at the normal times (N.B. no meetings on 30 September and 7 October)

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

£390 for thirteen meetings, includes background materials, literary criticism, opening notes and discussion notes

Organizer

Toby Brothers & Ralph Kleinman

Salon Director

Learn More

Time

(Monday) 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

View in my time

Location

VIRTUAL

Other Events

Future Event Times in this Repeating Event Series

10June 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm17June 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm24June 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm1July 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm9September 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm16September 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm23September 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm14October 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm21October 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm28October 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm4November 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm11November 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm18November 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm

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wed05jun1:00 pmwed3:00 pmShakespeare's King Lear with Jane Wymark & Toby Brothers1:00 pm - 3:00 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByJane Wymark & Toby BrothersType of studyDramaDurationEight weeksVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

Event Details

*King Lear, unknown artist, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*

King Lear opens with a focus on the divisions that will pit the characters against each other for the rest of the play. Audiences are invited to listen to two earls discussing the King’s favourites, not just among his subjects but even between his sons-in-law. The conversation unfolds to reveal the scene’s “darker purpose” – Lear’s plan to divide his kingdom among his daughters, relinquishing his responsibility but not the privileges that come with power.

Division, then, is at the heart of this play, and leads to hatred, mistrust and death. In this world of fracture and betrayal, Lear learns important lessons about greatness and vulnerability. He loses his kingship to become human. If King Lear was only about the titular character’s allegorical journey, the play would be simply another morality tale and a far cry from the full-blown nihilistic tragedy that it actually is.

As we examine this play, we shall discuss that nihilism, along with the many other themes for which it is so well known: loyalty, suffering, madness and self-knowledge.

STUDY DETAILS:

Eight-meeting study led by Jane Wymark & Toby Brothers

Wednesdays, 1.00-3.00 pm (UK), 5 June – 24 July 2024

£280 for 8 meetings with two facilitators, to include opening notes and resources

We will use the Arden Shakespeare edition edited by R.A. Foakes: ISBN-13 978-1903436592, but other editions are welcome, particularly the Folger and RSC editions (it’s useful to have a range of footnotes).

Organizer

Jane Wymark & Toby Brothers

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Time

(Wednesday) 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Location

VIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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Future Event Times in this Repeating Event Series

12June 1:00:pm - 3:00:pm19June 1:00:pm - 3:00:pm26June 1:00:pm - 3:00:pm3July 1:00:pm - 3:00:pm10July 1:00:pm - 3:00:pm17July 1:00:pm - 3:00:pm24July 1:00:pm - 3:00:pm

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wed05jun6:00 pmwed8:00 pmShakespeare's King Lear with Jane Wymark & Julie Sutherland6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByJane Wymark & Julie SutherlandType of studyDramaDurationEight weeksVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

Event Details

As we examine this play, we shall discuss that nihilism, along with the many other themes for which it is so well known: loyalty, suffering, madness and self-knowledge.

STUDY DETAILS:

Eight-meeting study led by Jane Wymark & Julie Sutherland

Wednesdays, 6.00-8.00 pm (UK), 5 June – 24 July 2024

£280 for 8 meetings with two facilitators, to include opening notes and resources

We will use the Arden Shakespeare edition edited by R.A. Foakes: ISBN-13 978-1903436592, but other editions are welcome, particularly the Folger and RSC editions (it’s useful to have a range of footnotes).

Organizer

Jane Wymark & Julie Sutherland

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Time

(Wednesday) 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Location

VIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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Future Event Times in this Repeating Event Series

12June 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm19June 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm26June 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm3July 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm10July 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm17July 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm24July 6:00:pm - 8:00:pm

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sat08jun3:00 pmsat8:00 pmIn search of Mrs DallowayAn 'in-person' LitSalon Special3:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByToby Brothers & David TaylorType of studyLitSalon SpecialPyports, Cobham, Surrey

Event Details

Join us for a rare opportunity to visit Pyports in Cobham, Surrey, the childhood family home of Kitty Lushington, who was the model for her friend Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and whose engagement to the journalist and political writer Leopold Maxse also served as the basis for a fictional coming together in To the Lighthouse.

The house remains privately owned and is not open to the general public. It offers a glimpse of the lives once lived within it by three generations of Lushingtons, a family closely involved with some of the most notable writers and artists from the early nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries, embracing the Romantics, the Pre-Raphaelites and then the modernist age and the world of Virginia Woolf and Bloomsbury. More information about the family can be found here.

At Pyports we will discuss the links and correspondence between Virginia Woolf and Kitty Maxse (née Lushington) as part of a two-hour exploration of how real lives and relationships inspire narrative art, during which we will also consider the sometimes tricky dynamics of representing living people in fiction. After an early evening aperitif – we hope, if weather allows, in the gardens of Pyports – we will move on to enjoy dinner at the Coppa Club restaurant in Cobham.

Kitty’s story is woven into key aspects of two of Woolf’s most famous novels. Toby Brothers, founder of the London Literary Salon, Woolf scholar Karina Jakubowicz and Cobham historian David Taylor, author of The Remarkable Lushington Family: Reformers, Pre-Raphaelites, Positivists and the Bloomsbury Group (who was also responsible for placing the historic blue plaque at Pyports) will lead our discussions.

JOINING DETAILS:

Saturday 8 June 2024, 3.00-8.00 pm

Pyports, Cobham, Surrey, followed by dinner at the Coppa Club in Cobham

Study led by Toby Brothers, David Taylor and Karina Jakubowicz

£60 to cover visiting Pyports, two hour discussion and aperitif

Dinner will be paid for by individual guests at the restaurant

There are regular trains from Waterloo to Cobham & Stoke d’Abernon (about 1.5 miles from Pyports) and car parking is available nearby

Organizer

Toby Brothers & David Taylor

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Time

(Saturday) 3:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Location

Pyports

Cobham, Surrey

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mon10jun5:30 pmmon7:30 pmThe English Renaissance through texts and objects #4: Swift-footed TimeThe Renaissance Through Texts & Objects5:30 pm - 7:30 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByVivien KogutType of studyThe Renaissance through texts and objectsDurationTwo hoursVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

Event Details

*Image credit: Dance of Death (woodcut), Wellcome Library, London, Creative Commons*

“This literature – which to us can sometimes seem difficult, exotic, highbrow, remote – is the product of a certain sensibility and a particular context. 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

Please note, participants can sign up for individual sessions or the whole study, joining details below.

Session 4: Swift-footed Time

The average lifespan in 1500s England was just thirty-five years: living was a constant dodging of “the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to”, as Hamlet describes life’s afflictions. Time was short and life had to be lived to the full. How does this brevity impact on English Renaissance literature?

JOINING DETAILS:

The final session of a four meeting study on Zoom led by Vivien Kogut, Monday 10 June 2024, 5.30-7.30 pm (UK)

Participants can sign up for individual sessions or the whole study: Mondays 5:30-7:30 pm (UK), 20, 27 May & 3, 10 June 2024

Each session can be booked individually at £35 to include opening notes and resources (if you wish to book all four please email us using the heading ‘English Renaissance’ and we will arrange a discounted price of £120 for the series).

Organizer

Vivien Kogut

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Time

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

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Location

VIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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July 2024

wed31jul5:30 pmwed7:30 pmReflective Journalling: 'What type of journal should I like mine to be?' - July, August & September 2024A monthly journalling workshop5:30 pm - 7:30 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByAlison CableType of studyReading & Writing for WellbeingDurationTwelve meetings,Two hoursVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

Event Details

‘What sort of diary should I like mine to be? Something loose knit and not slovenly, so elastic it will embrace anything, solemn, slight or beautiful that comes into my mind. I would like it to resemble some deep old desk, or capacious hold-all, in which one flings a mass of odds and ends without looking them through.’

Virginia Woolf, A Writer’s Diary: Being Extracts from the Diary of Virginia Woolf

We are offering the workshops in quarterly blocks of three (or two in the case of February and March following the ‘taster’ session in January).

Alison will also send each participant a weekly self-guided prompt to keep their practice going between workshop sessions!

STUDY DETAILS:

A series of workshops on Zoom, each on the last Wednesday of the month, 5.30-7.30 pm (UK) led by Alison Cable.

Offered in blocks: February/March (following the free ‘taster’ session in January); April/May/June; July/August/September; October/November/December.

Three two-hour workshops on 31 July, 28 August and 25 September 2024, £75 (including notes, resources and weekly writing prompts).

Organizer

Alison Cable

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Time

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

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Location

VIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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Future Event Times in this Repeating Event Series

28August 5:30:pm25September 5:30:pm

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September 2024

thu19sep5:00 pmthu7:00 pmInvisible Man5:00 pm - 7:00 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByToby Brothers & Deborah LawunmiType of studyLiteratureDurationSeven meetingsVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

Event Details

“I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me.”

Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

As co-facilitators with different cultural backgrounds and experiences, we both consider this to be one of the greatest and most influential works of American literature. The unnamed protagonist’s search for identity in a world that will not see him gives us as readers an opportunity to try to understand the psychological devastation of racism in its subtle as well as its violent forms, and to consider how each of us participates in the fate of all humanity. Ellison weaves in themes and images from Virgil, Dante, Emerson, and TS Eliot while also using the structure and transcendence of jazz to create a work that haunts and stirs to the core of our experience.

Why read this book? Toby explains in more detail here:

Includes extracts from the recording of the spiritual ‘No More Auction Block‘ performed by Martha Redbone, accompanied by Aaron Whitby on piano, in the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House on 21 March 2017. Based on the work of Howard Zinn (1922–2010), directed by Anthony Arnove In association with Voices of a People’s History of the United States (peopleshistory.us), co-presented by Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Onassis Cultural Center New York Part of Onassis Programs at BAM. View the whole performance here.

*After “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison, the Prologue*
Jeff Wall (Canadian, born 1946) 2000. Silver dye bleach transparency; aluminum light box,
See this work in MoMA’s Online Collection

An extract from “Man Underground”, Saul Bellow’s review of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, published in Commentary (June 1952):

“It is commonly felt that there is no strength to match the strength of those powers which attack and cripple modern mankind. And this feeling is, for the reader of modern fiction, all too often confirmed when he approaches a new book. He is prepared, skeptically, to find what he has found before, namely, that family and class, university, fashion, the giants of publicity and manufacture, have had a larger share in the creation of someone called a writer than truth or imagination that Bendix and Studebaker and the nylon division of Du Pont, and the University of Chicago, or Columbia or Harvard or Kenyon College, have once more proved mightier than the single soul of an individual; to find that one more lightly manned position has been taken. But what a great thing it is when a brilliant individual victory occurs, like Mr. Ellison’s, proving that a truly heroic quality can exist among our contemporaries. People too thoroughly determined and our institutions by their size and force too thoroughly determine can’t approach this quality. That can only be done by those who resist the heavy influences and make their own synthesis out of the vast mass of phenomena, the seething, swarming body of appearances, facts, and details. From this harassment and threatened dissolution by details, a writer tries to rescue what is important. Even when he is most bitter, he makes by his tone a declaration of values and he says, in effect: There is something nevertheless that a man may hope to be. This tone, in the best pages of Invisible Man, those pages, for instance, in which an incestuous Negro farmer tells his tale to a white New England philanthropist, comes through very powerfully; it is tragi-comic, poetic, the tone of the very strongest sort of creative intelligence. In a time of specialized intelligences, modern imaginative writers make the effort to maintain themselves as unspecialists, and their quest is for a true middle-of-consciousness for everyone. What language is it that we can all speak, and what is it that we can all recognize, burn at, weep over, what is the stature we can without exaggeration claim for ourselves; what is the main address of consciousness?

“I was keenly aware, as I read this book, of a very significant kind of independence in the writing. For there is a way for Negro novelists to go at their problems, just as there are Jewish or Italian ways. Mr. Ellison has not adopted a minority tone. If he had done so, he would have failed to establish a true middle-of-consciousness for everyone.”

Saul Bellow

JOINING DETAILS:

Virtual study (via Zoom) facilitated by Toby Brothers and Deborah Lawunmi

Thursdays, 5.00 – 7.00 pm (UK time)

Seven meetings starting 19 September (N.B. no meeting on 3 October)

Recommended edition: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Penguin Modern Classics (August 2001) ISBN-13: 978-0141184425

£245 for seven-meeting study with two facilitators

Organizer

Toby Brothers & Deborah Lawunmi

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Time

(Thursday) 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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Location

VIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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Future Event Times in this Repeating Event Series

26September 5:00:pm - 7:00:pm10October 5:00:pm - 7:00:pm17October 5:00:pm - 7:00:pm24October 5:00:pm - 7:00:pm31October 5:00:pm - 7:00:pm7November 5:00:pm - 7:00:pm

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sun29sep(sep 29)5:00 pmwed02oct(oct 2)1:00 pmVirginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse – four day study in St Ives(September 29) 5:00 pm - (October 2) 1:00 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByToby BrothersType of studyLiterature,TravelDurationFour daysSt Ives, Cornwall

Event Details

It is now a Salon tradition to spend some time each year in St Ives reading Virginia Woolf’s work and enjoying a place she loved and in which she spent significant parts of her childhood. In 2024 we will again offer two Woolf studies in St Ives: To the Lighthouse (29 September to 2 October) and Jacob’s Room (4 to 7 October).

The Cornish coastal town of St Ives serves as a prism through which we will explore Woolf’s perspectives on landscape, domesticity and identity in To the Lighthouse. We have already completed five magical journeys through this book in the environment that inspired it – this is an incredible experience!

“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 the opportunity to visit the iconic Tate St Ives gallery overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, built between 1988 and 1993 on the site of an old gasworks. 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). For several months of the year the elegant house overlooking St Ives Bay would be the Stephens’ family home until 1895 when Virginia’s mother, Julia Stephen, died. Although the complete family never returned to St Ives following their mother’s death, her children travelled back in 1905 following the death of their father in 1904.

“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

“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

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:

Please use the form below to secure your place with an initial registration deposit of £20.00. Once you have registered we will then send you details for payment of the balance owing (£500) to complete your booking (N.B. bank details may be different from those you have used on previous occasions).

Facilitated by Toby Brothers

Our meetings will take place in the fabulous Porthmeor Studios

29 September to 2 October 2024

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

Cost £520, includes 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).

Recommended places to stay include No 4 St Ives, 3 Porthminster Terrace, Blue Sky, The Olive Branch, Rivendell and the Harbour View Hotel, but PLEASE check web details and review sites before booking to make sure they meet your needs.

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 which is a great read:

“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.

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Toby Brothers

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September 29 (Sunday) 5:00 pm - October 2 (Wednesday) 1:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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St Ives, Cornwall

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October 2024

fri04oct(oct 4)5:00 pmmon07(oct 7)1:00 pmVirginia Woolf’s Jacob's Room – four day study in St Ives5:00 pm - 1:00 pm (7)(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized ByToby Brothers & Sarah SnoxallType of studyLiterature,TravelDurationFour daysSt Ives, Cornwall

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As one of the key members of the celebrated Bloomsbury Group, Woolf is often seen as a London writer, but 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.

In 1922, Jacob’s Room, Virginia Woolf’s third novel, was the first book to be published by the Woolfs’ own imprint, the Hogarth Press. This book is the linchpin between the more traditional novel form and Woolf’s leap forward into the modernist mode. She lets go of event and character development to make room for the intensity of living — that incredible burning that may look from one angle like inconsequence, but from another angle the very heart of being.

This was also the form she chose to address the unimaginable moment of war — ripping into the heat of life and leaving only gaping space where a beloved son had been. Her decision not to narrate the war and the resultant deaths directly, but to use her art to demonstrate the gashed web of connection that is left behind, was controversial for her contemporary audience. How do we narrate the unliveable events that circumscribe our identity in the historical moment? This is in part what Woolf responds to – not philosophically, but aesthetically.

Woolf is also engaging the question she will pursue through all of her literature: how do we know each other? How do the various planes of personality, the glimpses of each other’s interior, add up to an authentic being?

“. . . having this afternoon arrived at some idea of a new form for a new novel. Suppose one thing should open out of another . . . only not for 10 pages but 200 or so–doesn’t that give the looseness and lightness I want; doesn’t that get closer and yet keep form and speed, and enclose everything, everything? My doubt is how far it will enclose the human heart–Am I sufficiently mistress of my dialogue to net it there? For I figure that the approach will be entirely different this time: no scaffolding; scarcely a brick to be seen; all crepuscular, but the heart, the passion, humour, everything as bright as fire in the mist. Then I’ll find room for so much—a gaiety–an inconsequence – a light spirited stepping at my sweet will. Whether I’m sufficiently mistress of things – that’s the doubt; but conceive ‘Mark on the Wall ‘, ‘Kew Gardens’ and Unwritten Novel taking hands and dancing in unity. What the unity shall be I have yet to discover; the theme is a blank to me . . .”

Virginia Woolf, A Writer’s Diary, 26 January 1920

“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

Feedback from participants in previous St Ives studies:

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

SALON DETAILS:

Please use the form below to secure your place with an initial registration deposit of £20.00. 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

4 to 7 October 2024

Recommended edition: Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf, Vintage Classics, ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1784877958

Cost £560, includes 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).

Recommended places to stay include No 4 St Ives, 3 Porthminster Terrace, Blue Sky, The Olive Branch, Rivendell and the Harbour View Hotel, but PLEASE check web details and review sites before booking to make sure they meet your needs.

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Toby Brothers & Sarah Snoxall

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Time

4 (Friday) 5:00 pm - 7 (Monday) 1:00 pm(GMT+01:00)

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St Ives, Cornwall

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wed30oct5:30 pmwed7:30 pmReflective Journalling: 'What type of journal should I like mine to be?' - October, November & December 2024A monthly journalling workshop5:30 pm - 7:30 pm(GMT+00:00) View in my time Event Organized ByAlison CableType of studyReading & Writing for WellbeingDurationTwelve meetings,Two hoursVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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‘What sort of diary should I like mine to be? Something loose knit and not slovenly, so elastic it will embrace anything, solemn, slight or beautiful that comes into my mind. I would like it to resemble some deep old desk, or capacious hold-all, in which one flings a mass of odds and ends without looking them through.’

Virginia Woolf, A Writer’s Diary: Being Extracts from the Diary of Virginia Woolf

We are offering the workshops in quarterly blocks of three (or two in the case of February and March following the ‘taster’ session in January).

Alison will also send each participant a weekly self-guided prompt to keep their practice going between workshop sessions!

STUDY DETAILS:

A series of workshops on Zoom, each on the last Wednesday of the month, 5.30-7.30 pm (UK) led by Alison Cable.

Offered in blocks: February/March (following the free ‘taster’ session in January); April/May/June; July/August/September; October/November/December.

Three two-hour workshops on 30 October, 27 November and a date in December to be confirmed 2024, £75 (including notes, resources and weekly writing prompts).

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Alison Cable

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Time

(Wednesday) 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm(GMT+00:00)

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VIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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Tobias Wolff’s Liar

Short Stories by Alice Munro and Eudora Welty

Short Stories by Alice Munro and Joyce Carol Oates

Short Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Alice Munro

Short Stories by John Cheever and Raymond Carver

Vladimir Nabokov’s Terra Incognita and The Vane Sisters

James Joyce’s The Dead

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

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

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

—William Faulkner

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

—William Faulkner