The Pargiters, the Novel-essay Portion of The Years (edited by Mitchell A. Leaska)

222 Pages·32.284 MB·English

by  Virginia Woolf

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With fact andfiction, the great novelist explores
sexual segregation in Victorian England, in this first publication
of the early version of the "1880" section of The Years.
$16.00
THE FUTURE of fiction depends very
much upon what extent men can be edu-
catedtostandfree speechin women, said
Virginia Woolf, speaking in 1931 to a
group of professional women in London.
"We have only got to wait fifty years or
so," her reason said to her imagination,
which had already explored the "dark
pool of extraordinary experience" to a
depth which "men" would be shocked at,
were she to reveal her wisdom in a novel.
"In fifty years I shall be able to use all
this very queer knowledge—. . . about
women's bodies for instance their pas-
—
sions ." "But not now ." Yet the day
. . .
before she was to deliver the speech, her
imagination took the plunge. "I have at
this moment, while having my bath," she
wrote in her Diary, "conceived an entire
new book . . . about the sexual life of
women: to be called Professions for
—
Women perhaps Lord how exciting!"
She would write a series of essays point-
ingtotheorigins ofthesocial conventions
that stifled women, and would illustrate
the essays with chapters of an imaginary
novel.
Her original Speech, printed here in
full for the first time, and the text of the
"Novel-Essay" which she entitled The
Pargiters, here first published from the
manuscript in the Berg Collection of The
New York Public Library, boldly express
and represent the view that both in the
nineteenth century andin the early twen-
tieth the social arrangement of the sexes
effectually smothered the aspirations of
women, corrupted humane values, and
eroded human relationships, whether
close or distant. Virginia Woolf depicts
a world in which the male represented
power, status, and authority andinwhich
everything he willed was potent with
consequence. It was also, we are asked
to see, the world in which the novelist
herself was born and grew up.
(continuedonbackflap)
Woolf, Virginia
The Pargiters
FICTION WOOLF
SAUSALITO PUBLIC LIBRARY

ERRATA
The Pargiters
Page 15, five lines from bottom: except as should read save as
Page 16, line 1: Well, <he said> should read Well, girls <he said>
Page 19, lines 5-6: disenchanted should read discontented
Page 22, line 14: to be buried should read going to be buried
Page 23, line 2: [Her hearts nothing hut wind fc? water.] was deleted (as
indicated in the transcription), but was restored by stet periods.
Page 28, after "them." in line 12, insert the following cancelled but signi-
ficant sentence: [Men of intellect disliked them very much.]
Page 69, line 5: [&] should read [&]
Page 91, sixth line from bottom: <not> should read <just>
Page 92, line 21: bells ever since should read bells ever since she
Page 159: The footnote is unclear; it should read:
* The next page (n 85) is dated January 31st 1933 and is headed
"The Pargiters (additions to Chapter One)." In the rest of Volume n
m
and in all of Volume Virginia Woolf begins recasting the preceding
matter, dropping the Essays ("interchapters") and revising these five
pseudo "Chapters" into a single "Chapter One," a unit that finally be-
came the "1880" section of The Years.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
2013
in
http://archive.org/details/pargitersnovelOOwool
THE
PARGITERS
WOOLF
VIRGINIA
by
The Novel-Essay Portion of THE YEARS
Editedwith an Introductionby
MITCHELL LEASKA
A.
New York
TheNewYorkPublicLibrary
Astor,LenoxandTildenFoundations
&ReadexBooks
ADivisionofReadexMicroprintCorporation
1977
SAUSAUTO PUBLIC LIBRARY
THIS VOLUME HAS BEEN PRODUCED WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE
JUDGE AND MRS SAMUEL D. LEVY MEMORIAL PUBLICATION FUND.
FIRST EDITION
©
TextofThePargiterscopyright 1977QuentinBellandAngelicaGarnett.
©
Introductory and editorial matter copyright 1977 Mitchell A. Leaska.
The first impression of two thousand copies, set in Caledonia type, with Centaur and
Arrighi display types, was printed on Curtis Rag paper at the Printing Office of
The New York Public Library. It was designed by Marilan Lund.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data:
Woolf, Virginia Stephen, 1882-1941.
The Pargiters, the novel-essay portion of The years.
A transcription of a previously unpublished ms. with an explanatory essay accom-
panying each chapter.
I. Woolf, Virginia Stephen, 1882-1941. The years. II. Title.
PR6045.072P3 1977 823'.9'12 77-2389
ISBN 0-87104-268-1
Distributed in the United States by Readex Books
Contents
Acknowledgments vi
Introduction vii
Explanation of Editorial Symbols and Procedures xxiii
Speech
Speech before the London/National Society for Women's Service,
January 21 1931 xxvii
The Pargiters
Genealogical Tree 2
First Essay: "The Pargiters A Novel-Essay based upon a paper
read to the London/National Society for Women's Service" 5
First Chapter: "Chapter Fifty-Six" 11
SecondEssay 28
Second Chapter 39
Third Essay 50
Third Chapter 59
FourthEssay 76
Fourth Chapter 85
Fifth Essay 106
FifthChapter 131
SixthEssay 150
Appendix
Manuscript Notes for the SpeechofJanuary21 1931 163
Illustrations
First page of the Novel-Essay, Holograph [i 5] following page 4
Ink blots between sections are reproduced from the author's own
ink drawings in the manuscript.
Acknowledgments
Iwouldliketo express my gratitude to QuentinBell andAngelica Garnett,
administrators of the Author's Literary Estate, for the opportunity to edit
this text; to Mrs Quentin Bell for her reading of my transcription and
offering valuable corrections; to Louise DeSalvo, Anderson Fellow, New
York University, and Mr Jay Redfield for the care with which they read
my original typescript of the Woolf text; and to the Henry W. and Albert
A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature of The New York
Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations, for access to the
eight manuscript volumes of The Pargiters.
Special thanks go to David V. Erdman, who not only meticulously
checked and improved the final version of my transcript but also located
and filled in the quoted matter indicated by Virginia Woolf.
Lola L. Szladits, Curator of the Berg Collection, long ago recognized
the importance of such an edition and suggested that I undertake the
task. To her I owe my greatest debt: first, for her good faith; second, for
having, herself, transcribed five of the six Essays (and the better part of
the ManuscriptNotesfortheSpeech) withthekindofaccuracythatwould
inspire the envy and admiration of the best Virginia Woolf scholars.
M.A.L.
NewYork University
November281975
vi