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The Years
- Narrated by: Finty Williams
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
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Summary
Written in 1937, The Years was the most popular of Virginia Woolf's novels during her lifetime. It explores a rich variety of themes such as sex, feminism, family life, education, and politics in English society from 1800 to the 1930s, as they affect one large upper-class London family.
The principal theme of this ambitious book is time, threading together three generations of the Pargiter family. The story begins on a day in 1880 in the household of Colonel Abel Pargiter, his dying wife, and their seven children, and it ends in the 1930s with a brilliantly depicted party at which the Pargiters, young and old, pass in review.
Important events - births, deaths, marriages, wars - occur in the wings; it is the commonplace moments that are captured here in a sequence of perfectly drawn scenes. As the Pargiters move from the oppressive confines of the Victorian home of the 1880s to the 1930s, they are weighed down by the pressures of war, capitalism, empire, and the rise of Fascism.
Finalist for the 2007 Audie Award for Classics.
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What listeners say about The Years
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Fothergill
- 14-08-18
Perhaps a different reader?
Virginia Woolf and her unique observations, does require a more ‘poetic’ voice, perhaps?
This voice too thin, lost some of the delicious timing, and humour, after all it is for listening,
Nice to have another VW though, more please, Juliet Stevenson ? Alex Jennings?
4 people found this helpful
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- ROSALIND BUCK
- 25-02-19
timeless insight
lovely as usual. such insight into people's thoughts. it doesn't age and gives us a window onto that time.
1 person found this helpful
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- Abusam
- 30-12-21
Unsuitable Narrator
Virginia Woolf is one author I found difficult to read, but marvellous to listen to.
However, this complex multi-generational story was impaired not aided by the choice of narrator.
She has a high-pitched voice and is poor at accents, so that all the characters merged into each other.
I'm sure I would have a better appreciation of this interesting story if someone with more range and gravity had been chosen.
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- Kdmd
- 07-06-18
Just Beautiful
I was so sorry when this book ended. I could have gone on listening for hours. Virginia Woolf...her story, her characters, her genius, lives on! I can’t say enough words to describe Finty Williams’ excellent narration...just beautiful. Finished listening to The Years on a beautiful day as I was gardening and the perfection of the moment will stay with me.
15 people found this helpful
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- JjM
- 20-10-21
Entertaining from beginning to end
Beautifully written,scenes so detailed I could smell the flowers and see the fine stitching in their wardrobe. Most of all I enjoyed the conversations, the banter, self reflection, clarity and confusion of these wonderful people. The narrator is top of the tree.
2 people found this helpful
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- M Kas
- 16-03-21
Not great
I really didn't enjoy this book.
I agree with other reviews that it's hard to follow as it jumps, so maybe reading it instead of listening to it might help, but aside from that I think it's just not an overly pleasing book to read. I didn't find the characters overly developed, there were holes in the story and very little closure about any of the family members. I can see how Woolf may have found herself to be very clever with this innuendo and that, but overall it's not a great story and the detail is in the wrong places. I've read Woolf before and enjoyed it, but this book is a pass. Three narrator did an excellent job for what she was asked to read, though, so two thumbs up there.
1 person found this helpful
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- Lori
- 28-10-20
Loved it!
Why has it taken me so long to read Virginia Wolff's work? This is my third of her books to read, one after the other. There are several uses of politically incorrect words in this volume. We must remember the period in which this book was written.
1 person found this helpful
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- Rebecca
- 19-05-22
A long story about nothing
I have absolutely no idea what this was supposed to be about. I am not sure why this is some fantastic novel I’m not sure why I continue to listen.
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- Ms.
- 27-03-22
Les temps perdus
A wonderful evocation of the years between the 1880s and the mid-1930s. The prose is remarkable for its ability to draw pictures of the inner lives of the members of the Pargiter family and to subtly point out the enormous changes in England during those decades. Superb narration.
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- OliviaL
- 16-11-21
Love it
I could and have listened to this over and over again. When I was in school I don’t think I would have enjoyed it, but now being older, and reading it for pleasure, I get it.
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- Anonymous User
- 09-05-21
everybody's a bit senile
every last character in the book is slightly senile, complaining that nobody else is interesting, while not bothering to actually listen to whatever someone else is saying.
nobody is given the right to think a thought from start to finish, the timeline jump and the focus constantly changes.
the reader does not have the time to actually see a character, only a confused mass of people, each thinking that the others are either too dull or too inteligent.
while it is supposed to be a book about changes through decades, the differences are not actually articulated, the struggles are not named ( what was Rose fighting for? nobody knows) and the outside of the characters existance is not present. only random thoughts of people who lost at life.
I finished listening to it only so I could review it ( and because I am stubborn).
verdict : don't bother.
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- Anonymous User
- 13-04-21
Audible is difficult to follow, please work at making it simpler
Dull uninteresting, Do not recommend this book! I also feel the Audible page is hard to manage.
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- Robert J. Del Mastro
- 05-02-21
Trouble Following Story
Did not enjoy. Jumped around so much trou
ble following characters and plot. Still not sure what this was about. Mostly rambling.