The Years

During her lifetime The Years was one of Virginia Woolf's most popular books, and is considered to be one of the most powerful indictments of 'Victorianism' ever written. Less experimental in technique than her previous novels, it opens in 1880 and follows the fortunes of the Pargiters, a middle-class family living in London. Mrs Pargiter is very ill; her husband leads a double life. Against this background the children follow a daily ritual of meals, outings and good works. In the final section, the children have grown up into the 1930s. They are ostensibly independent, yet they reveal themselves to be spiritually bound to their past. A work of fluid and dazzling lucidity, The Years traces the shifts of time through the dialogues, thoughts and feelings of individual members of the family, at the same time interweaving themes of change and continuity.