August 2018 reflections

10 August 2018 by admin

August Reflections 2018

In the midst of summer’s heat, thoughts soften and grow fluid. One of the gifts of these long, slower days is mind-wandering time. Swimming thoughts seep into all parts of my day and connections—between people, the land, words—happen with greater ease. I think back on the incredible discussions of the year and start to feel hungry for more. I hope wherever you are: good reading and inspiring landscapes bathe your mind.

Below you will virtually meet new facilitator Basil in his thoughts On Reading—his Nabokov studies are filling up so register now if you are interested. Mark is offering two courses in South London—his Great Ideas study is a wonderful way to fill in some gaps in the wisdom writings from the ancient and contemporary giants of the mind. The Magic Mountain study currently has four spaces remaining in both the afternoon and evening studies: we commence this big work on the 11^th of September with what I know already to be a wonderfully lively gathering of minds.

To celebrate the use of Hygge Pygge Café this fall, we will offer a brief (and free!) one-night poetry study: we will have a poem or two ready to read and consider. The opening up of this distilled form of expression through discussion helps support our individual encounter with the complexity of the writing, allowing us access to the sharp beauty offered there. No preparation needed; the only cost is the purchase of a libation and/or meal or desert- we are meeting on September 12th at 37 Chalk Farm Road in the heart of Camden Town.

In the next newsletter I will offer details on the May 2019 Odyssey trip to Greece, Mark’s Iliad study & the October English Patient short study…other exciting news to come! In recent conversations with founding Salonistas from Paris, we were reflecting on the use of creative writing responses to the longer studies in the Salon. I am looking to re-integrate this optional writing to our work together: I find a bit of writing after an in-depth study helps ground the reading and our responses. As always, questions, ideas and requests most gratefully received.

See you in the pages….

On The Golden Booker prize– CNJ by Toby

31 July 2018 by admin

FOR two hours, I was entranced: literary greats introduced their choice of the best of the Bookers—with the shortlisted books brought to life by actors Chiwetel Ejiofor, Fiona Shaw, Geoffrey Streatfeild and Meera Syal.

And this celebration of narrative form reaches beyond literature nerds to remind us all why we need art. In this strange moment when national leadership seems bent towards its most narrow and xenophobic interests, when political leaders act and speak without a sense of integrity nor service to a wider community, books remind us of our common humanity – and that the struggles are not new.

The ceremony had advocates for each of the Booker’s five decades. Watching Lemn Sissay playfully express his passion for the weave of time, memory and the nature of evidence in Moon Tiger and then hearing the graceful and generous words of Penelope Lively herself almost ended the event for me: I leaned towards the exit, wanting to grab her book and shut myself away with it.

For the rest of the article, please visit the Camden New Journal website : http://camdennewjournal.com/article/booker-prize-page-against-the-machine

Toby will offer a short (three-week) course on The English Patient in October…check the website for details….

Keats Library: In Byron’s Wake book talk 13.9.18

31 July 2018 by admin

Thurs Sept 13th 7.30pm
Keats Community Library 10 Keats Grove NW3 2RR
Miranda Seymour will discuss her new book In Byron’s Wake about the careers of Bryon’s widow and daughter, Books will be available for signing.
Tickets £10 from the library on 0207 431 1266.

We are in beautiful Grade II listed building next to Keats House. Do come and visit.

On Reading from new facilitator Basil Lawrence

30 July 2018 by admin

On Reading

from Basil Lawrence, Salon facilitator

I arrange my shelves by publication date in an attempt to understand how each book relates to its neighbours. The spines remind me that Moby Dick, Bleak House and Madame Bovary appeared in that order in the 1850s. That The Trial, The Great Gatsby and Mrs Dalloway all debuted in 1925. Because in addition to reading books individually, I need them to remind me of their bigger story. That literature lives.

Even without doing the maths, I know that I won’t have enough time to get through everything I’d like to. So I keep my head down and get on with the greats. Sure, I suffer relapses. I stop altogether or am tempted by a hyped novel, but more often than not this leaves me dissatisfied and incomplete . . . and reminding myself not to waste time.

Reading, for me, is a preparation for the next ascent. And I climb because the views are breath-taking! I’ve not yet tackled War and Peace; I’m training with the The Red and the Black and Les Misérables.

Frustratingly, there are books I’d love to read, but that I haven’t feel confident enough to open . . . perhaps because I’m uncertain of how to start, or because I feel daunted by their weight. If I had an obol for every time I’d attempted to settle down with The Odyssey before I met Toby, I’d have enough money to buy myself a copy of The Iliad. Which is why I value the Salon: without it I wouldn’t have found my way into the poem; without her I’d have missed a friend.

Books are quiet, thoughtful companions, that scare easily. I value them because during especially difficult times of my life, my capacity to engage with stories is often the first things to vanish. And that’s not unlike losing a friend, or a lover. So when I’m able to, I read. I read. I read.

Feedback 2018

12 July 2018 by admin

The experience of the Salon is best described by the participants– here is a sampling from recent studies:

“Thank you so much for being such an inspiring teacher and facilitator. As you know I’ve hugely enjoyed the journey you have taken us on through Ellison’s masterpiece. I have gained an insight and appreciation that would have been impossible without your guidance. I’ve also learnt so much from the contribution of the other women in our group. I will unquestionably be back. It has been a joy.

I marvel at how someone as young as Ellison was when he wrote could have gained so much wisdom. I marvel at his humanity despite his suffering and that of his people. I had never imagined he would write an ending so full of hope.”

“Have been truly overwhelmed by this work in such a way (profound?) that I’m not sure even what to say. Perhaps there’s a lesson in that.
Thank you, as always,
for being an inspiring guide.”

“I didn’t get a chance to thank you for the Invisible Man….

But what a book. Probably partly because of being tired, but also I’m sure because of the section of the book we concentrated on, I felt really moved by it and quite emotional afterwards. Somehow the invisible man idea felt like it went beyond racism to an existential place, making me think last night about what it means to be ‘visible’ in life. Incidentally I am hugely confused by the ending and suspect I need to go back and re-read it, so really looking forward to listening to next week’s recording.

The group was great – I always find it fascinating how a group comes together over the weeks. At the beginning everyone is a bit cagey, cautious, sometimes unconfident/sometimes competitive. And somehow by the end, there is lovely respect, courtesy and openness to the different opinions in the room. And I love the way one’s own interpretation is stretched by listening to other different, clever people.

Anyway, enough of my gushing. Thank you again – have a great session next week. I look forward to something new in the Autumn, so let me know your plans as soon as you have made some!”

“A note to say how very much I enjoyed, appreciated and benefitted from the sessions. Unlike M.Swann, my desire was not at all attenuated by achievement.”

“Our session affected my dreams, and I woke up feeling quite drugged and almost hungover. I’m grateful for next week’s break — this novel requires a lot of thought and processing.”

“Thank you for facilitating Frankenstein; enjoyed every moment and each moment left me pleasantly surprised at how much more thinking came through since my not so distant undergraduate days …Unfortunately I will not be able to attend the last – but not ever least – discussion group on this inexhaustible book of exploratory thinking which actually had started to sound much like a Mahler symphony in the overwhelming enormity of its literary composition. Hope to see you soon in one of your future groups…”

“Thank you for this email, but also for the incredible literary and life experience that you created for us in Switzerland. It was an amazing experience and more inspiring that I could have ever imagined. I am so grateful for all of the work that you did to prepare and to make it so special. I feel in love with Housekeeping because of the work you did and the way you led us through it. Please let me know if you do any other retreats or come to Paris. I would sign up for that in a heartbeat!!”

“I loved the Ulysses study and I miss it, it opened doors for me that I thought were out of reach, the easy way you facilitate our discussion is a joy and a pleasure. I will probably do another Ulysses and will certainly continue to be a Salonista. Thank you to all for the enlightenment and patience.”

“I really enjoyed the salon – there’s no way I would’ve read Ulysses without it and it was great to use my brain in a different way. Also you were really good at navigating us through it making it feel like a shared discussion and not a lesson!”

Welcome to Basil Lawrence– facilitator for fall Nabokov studies

11 July 2018 by admin

It is my great pleasure to introduce Basil to the Salon community. Basil is a skilled facilitator with a deep appreciation for the power of language. For all who have been asking for a Nabokov study, here is your chance!

From Basil:
“Intro
I met Toby when we worked together at the Society of Analytical Psychology where I’ve been fortunate to attend her poetry and literary seminars. As an extroverted introvert, I’m drawn to the solitary pleasures of reading but I love exploring texts within a group. Everyone’s contribution expands my understanding of the work, and myself and my fellow companions.

As a reader I’m particularly attracted to patterns and aesthetics, and I’m fascinated with how the right word in the right place creates a world that reflects us back to ourselves. I love words and well-crafted sentences, and over the years I’ve become increasingly drawn to the similarities between therapeutic interpretation and close reading. I’ve come to believe that great writing increases our understanding of what it means to be human, and what it means to be alone in a crowd. ”

Coming Studies Autumn 2018 –draft…

2 July 2018 by admin

Hard to believe we wandered through Ulysses, Proust, Invisible Man, Mad Woman’s voice, Finnegans Wake The Waves, Frankenstein in last few months…along with magical retreats in Camber Sands, Valencia, Kandersteg & Dublin. I am still basking in the glow of these incredible studies and the lively minds that joined together to illuminate the books. We are putting together the next newsletter announcing the coming studies– but here briefly is what we are considering…as always, contact us with feedback, requests, questions….

Fall 2018 Salons proposed

To the Lighthouse – two sets: Weekend Sept 28-30^th (Monday 24^th); Weekend October 5-7 (Oct 1^st prep)
Proust Budding Grove (Salon Full) : 20^th– Dec. 6^th Thursdays 12-2 PM
Finnegan’s Wake: Sept 19- 24 October
Camus The Stranger: Short Intensive (details to follow)
Wordsworth’s Preludes (details to follow)
Magic Mountain: 13 week study starting Sept 12 – Dec. 12 – Tuesdays (day time/Eve)
A Heart So White — Valencia weekend study Nov. 16-18th

Other works?

Henry James
Marilynne Robinson 3-part study – Lila, Home
Moby Dick

Geoff’s Sanctuary/ Claire Denis

Mark—Iliad (November) &

Basel—Pale Fire

Faulkner series @ City Lit Mondays 12:30-2:30

Midnight’s Children @ SAP

Salon Retreat studies

To the Lighthouse (two weekends in fall 2018 are currently full) May 17th-19th 2019
Heart So White Valencia Spain Nov. 16-18 2018
The Odyssey in Greece– May 3rd- 10th 2019 with Carolynn Donnelly & Jane Wymark details to follow…
Reading the Body end of May 2019 details to follow…

Bowery Poetry Studios film at East End Film Festival

16 April 2018 by admin

Poetry Slam Documentary “Don’t Be Nice”

To World Premiere at East End Film Festival

First Film from Bowery Poetry Studios

Spotlights NYC Team at National Competition

Feature Documentary Debut from Director Max Powers

Explores Poetry as response to critical events in America today

New York, New York and London, UK – 16/04/18 –

The poetry slam documentary “Don’t Be Nice” will world premiere on the 20th of April, 2018 at 8.50 pm at the East End Film Festival at Rich Mix (35-47 Bethnal Green, London E1 6LA, UK). The first feature documentary from Bowery Poetry Studios spotlights New York City’s Bowery Slam poetry team as they prepare for a national competition during the summer of 2016. This feature documentary debut from director Max Powers explores poetry as a response to critical events in America today, such as the police killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.

“Bowery Poetry Club popularized the slam poetry form, and with the creation of Bowery Slam we saw a new generation of poets that had a radical message for the world, so we felt it was time for slam to transcend the bars, clubs and cafes and move into the larger world,” says the film’s producer Nikhil Melnechuk, who is also Bowery Poetry’s executive director.

“Don’t Be Nice” is the Bowery Slam team’s credo and call to action. For coach Lauren Whitehead, to “be nice” means to stay on the surface of things and conform to societal expectations. She pushes the team to dig deep and challenge the status quo in their poems, even if that risks the team losing the title. The film grants audiences rare and intimate access to the poetic process of five young New York artists, transporting viewers behind the scenes and onto the stages of this fiery, visceral art form.

“As filmmakers, our team had to use visual tools to convey the power, vulnerability, and urgency of the poets’ words,” says director Max Powers. “The film attempts to show how the intense creative process uncovers universal truths about the human condition, while asking the question: what can art do in the face of insurmountable real-world obstacles?”

Don’t Be Nice is a production of Bowery Poetry Studios and the Radio Drama Network, in association with the Emmy Award-winning Flatbush Pictures, HOWL! Arts, and Ideal Glass.

###

About Bowery Poetry Studios

Bowery Poetry Studios is the film arm of Bowery Arts+Science, a 501(c)3 non-profit that operates New York City’s historic Bowery Poetry Club. Founded by Bob Holman in 2002 and now run by Nikhil Melnechuk, Bowery Arts+Science’s mission is to discover and support emerging poets and artists, and to develop new poetic forms to promote the arts as a changemaking force in society.

The Jazz Collective at MAP cafe in Kentish Town featuring Sarah Quist

28 March 2018 by admin

THE JAZZ COLLECTIVE WITH SARAH QUIST AND PAUL KISSAUN

DATE: 31ST MARCH 2018
TIME: 20:30

A throwback evening to the good old days where Music took centre stage, where you played because you loved to jam. Join us for an evening of Jazz with friends. We’re not traditionalists so if you want to jam with a sitar, beat on a Cajon or vocalise come down and play, or just sit back and listen.

Sarah Quist Singer/songwriter:
Started with Herbie Flowers, Hazel O’Connor playing at Ronnie Scotts, The 100 Club and The Bass Clef. Since then her big soulful voice has taken her around the world. She’s recorded on several albums, including recording in Memphis with legendary soul producer Willie Mitchell, who produced Al Green and Tina Turner.

Paul Kissaun/ Piano/bass and vocals:
During the 80’s and 90’s (alias Bassman jaq) was a member of The Flying Pickets appearing alongside Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Nina Simone, Blur, The Pretenders, Art Garfunkle, The Gypsy Kings and Joan Baez. On leaving the group Paul concentrated on writing music for theatre and television.

With guests DJ Philco, who will be laying down his Vinyl vibes, and Paul Emile on Drums / percussion.

(I had the pleasure of getting to know Sarah in my work with TEDx– and she is AMAZING…this will be a heartening night of music!– Toby)

Sarah Quist website
Sarah Quist “Bang bang”
Sarah Quist soundcloud
Sarah Quist twitter

Paul Kissaun Soundcloud
Paul Kissaun Twitter

Doors 8pm Tickets £5
email: info@mapmusic.net
Or call for tickets– 0207 916 0545

Finishing In Search of Lost Time; starting In Search of Lost Time

22 February 2018 by admin

“The work of the artist, this struggle to discern beneath matter, beneath experience, beneath words, something that is different from them, is a process exactly the reverse of that which, in those everyday lives which we live with our gaze averted from ourselves, is at every moment being accomplished by vanity and passion and the intellect, and habit too, when they smother our true impressions, so as entirely to conceal them from us, beneath a whole heap of verbal concepts and practical goals which we falsely call life.” — Marcel Proust

I can’t believe I am about to finish another 2.5 year study of Lost Time– and then starting another journey in April. Perhaps by the end of the third study, I will have grasped Proust’s metaphysics. Then again, maybe not. I do feel my mind has grown.

Here is a perfect description of what it is to finish Time Regained: (thanks to GK–resource maestro)

A Visit to ‘the Desert of After-Proust’

https://themillions.com/2017/06/what-would-proust-make-of-social-media.html

The other source of melancholy I feel as I crawl towards the final moments of Time Re-gained is the loss of the company of this incredible journey– the current group has held the course through winter & summer, through the windings of jealousy and self-consideration, through moves to Sweden, art shows, work and family challenges, losses, swims and Brexit… we have gathered each Thursday and savoured the language, walked through the ideas and held the art in our imagination together. It is a beautiful moment–and I shall miss it.

Thank you for travelling this way with me.

+ More

May 2024

wed01may6:30 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

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, 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)

Organizer

Toby Brothers

Salon Director

Learn More

Time

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

View in my time

Location

VIRTUAL

Other Events

Future Event Times in this Repeating Event Series

29May 6:30:pm5June 6:30:pm12June 6:30:pm19June 6:30:pm

Book this Salon

Places are no longer available for this event

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

tue07may2:30 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ulysses Salon participant

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

Toby Brothers, Director, London Literary Salon

JOINING DETAILS:

This is the 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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28May 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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tue07may5:00 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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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

26May 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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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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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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tue14may11:00 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.

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

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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Future Event Times in this Repeating Event Series

21May 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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tue14may5:00 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

21May 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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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

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Time

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

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Location

Agistri, Greece

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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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mon20may5:30 pmmon7:30 pmThe English 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 objectsDurationFour weeksVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

Event Details

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

“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

A series of four meetings (which can also be booked individually). 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.

Session 1: Appearance x Essence

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?

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?

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:

Four meetings on Zoom led by Vivien Kogut

Mondays 5:30-7:30 pm (UK), 20, 27 May & 3, 10 June 2024

£120 for four sessions (or sessions can be booked individually at £35 each, see separate listings) to include opening notes and resources.

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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Future Event Times in this Repeating Event Series

27May 5:30:pm - 7:30:pm3June 5:30:pm - 7:30:pm10June 5:30:pm - 7:30:pm

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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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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

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

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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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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.”

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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VIRTUAL

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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:

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)

View in my time

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

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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Enquire before you buy

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:

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

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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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All places are booked

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

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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VIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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August 2024

wed14aug4:30 pmwed6:30 pmLooking at Pictures4:30 pm - 6:30 pm(GMT+01:00) View in my time Event Organized BySean ForesterType of studyVisual artsDurationNine meetingsVIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

Event Details

Engaging with literature in shared discussions gives us a deeper understanding of great authors such as Joyce, Proust and Shakespeare, and of ourselves. If you have ever wanted to do the same with great works of art, this study is for you.

Building on the success of our ‘Reading Great Paintings’ visits to London’s National and Tate Galleries led by Sean Forester, the LitSalon is pleased to offer an online visual art study. Using Looking at Pictures by Susan Woodford as our guiding text, we will look closely at masterpieces of portraiture, still life, landscape, religious and narrative painting.

We invite you to join us as we discuss the language of painting – composition, colour, light and shade, symbolism, visual narrative – as well as the cultural context in which artworks were created.

JOINING DETAILS:

Nine-week study on Zoom led by Sean Forester

Wednesdays, 4.30-6.30pm (UK)

14, 21, 28 August, 4, 11, 18, 25 September, 9, 16 October 2024

Reference text: Looking at Pictures by Susan Woodford, ISBN-13: 978-0500293218

£270 for nine meetings

Organizer

Sean Forester

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Time

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

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Location

VIRTUAL - VIA ZOOM

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Future Event Times in this Repeating Event Series

21August 4:30:pm - 6:30:pm28August 4:30:pm - 6:30:pm4September 4:30:pm - 6:30:pm11September 4:30:pm - 6:30:pm18September 4:30:pm - 6:30:pm25September 4:30:pm - 6:30:pm9October 4:30:pm - 6:30:pm16October 4:30:pm - 6:30: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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Location

St Ives, Cornwall

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On Reading

from Basil Lawrence, Salon facilitator

Fall 2018 Salons proposed

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-19631 alignleft" src="https://i0.wp.com/litsalon.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/DON_T-BE-NICE-300x169.jpg?resize=300%2C169" alt="" width="300" height="169" data-recalc-dims="1" />

THE JAZZ COLLECTIVE WITH SARAH QUIST AND PAUL KISSAUN

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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