The Years.

WOOLF, Virginia.

Item Number: 134540

London: Hogarth Press, 1937.

First edition of the most successful of Woolf’s later novels, often viewed as her masterpiece. Octavo, original cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author on front free endpaper to Clive Bell, “Clive from Virginia.” The recipient, English art critic Clive Bell married Virginia Woolf’s sister Vanessa Stephen in 1907, they were both associated with the Bloomsbury Group. Bell was educated at Marlborough College and at Trinity College, Cambridge, studying history. In 1902 he gained an Earl of Derby scholarship to study in Paris, where his interest in art began. On returning to London early in 1907, he met and married Vanessa Stephen, the artist sister of Virginia Woolf. They had two sons, Julian (1908–1937) and Quentin (1910–1996), who both became writers. Virginia must have inscribed this copy with some trepidation, having agonized for several years over the text of the novel, “I wonder if anyone has ever suffered so much from a book as I have from The Years” (Diary 5:31), and retaining, sometimes against her better judgement, a need to justify herself and her work to Bell, a friend (and brother-in-law) for thirty years by the time of the publication of The Years. In 1919 she wrote, “In a way that I can’t defend to Leonard, I do respect Clive’s judgement. It’s erratic, but always springs from a direct feeling”, and she maintained a close relationship with him throughout her life. The Years was by far Woolf’s most commercially successful novel and received favorable reviews and The Observer, to her great relief. Inscribed copies of The Years are rare, and this, sent to such a close friend, is a particularly remarkable find. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Jacket design by Vanessa Bell. An exceptionally important association copy.

Virginia Woolf struggled for years with this novel, hoping to incorporate into a fictional form deep and meaningful commentary on the English middle class. Her efforts to revise, rewrite and edit what would become her longest work led her to compare it to "a long childbirth." On publication, audiences and critics responded eagerly, making her truly wealthy for the first time in her life. Viewed as her masterpiece, here Woolf "triumphantly accomplished what she set out to achieve: 'a full, bustling live book'" (Bradshaw & Blyth, eds., The Years).