num_pages: 435
description: One of Virginia Woolf's most ambitious and beautifully written novels, The Years offers a glimpse into the lives of an upper-class English family at the turn of the century. The story begins on a day in 1880 in the household of Colonel Abel Pargiter whose beloved wife lies still, gradually slipping into death before the eyes of their seven worried children. It becomes clear that each family member is uniquely affected by the deaths, births, marriages, and wars that happen in life; but it is through the commonplace moments, captured here in a sequence of perfectly drawn scenes, that the essence of each character is revealed. As the large cast of characters come and go, meet, talk, think, dream, and inevitably grow older, in a continuous ritual of life that eludes meaning, the eldest Pargiter asks, "Is there a pattern... a gigantic pattern, momentarily perceptible?"
language: English
title: The Years
titlecomplete: The Years
genres: Fiction, British Literature, Female Authors, Literature, Classics, Novels, Historical Fiction, 20th Century, Literary Fiction, Modern Classics
ratings_count: 5517
publisher: A Harvest Book / Harcourt, Inc.