Vita Sackville-West, The Edwardians (1930)
Claire Davison on Vita Sackville-West andThe House of Fiction
‘The house of fiction has in short not one window, but a million’, announced Henry James in the preface to his 1908 novel, Portrait of a Lady. Knole, Vita Sackville-West’s beloved family home, may not have had one million windows, but it was renowned for having 365 rooms; it also provided the model for Chevron, the grandiose family home at the heart of her 1930 novel, The Edwardians.
This lecture will explore the importance of houses – the house of fiction, the house of fact and the family-house novel in what would prove to be one of the Hogarth Press’s greatest commercial successes. We’ll look at the very theatrical way in which she uses the home as setting, but we’ll also think about why, in 1930, she might have felt the need to revisit the glories of Knole, through the fictional portrait of Chevron. How does she use nostalgia and memory to revisit the Edwardian ‘house of fiction’ while also responding to contemporary social debates such as the housing crisis, land reform, and the role of the National Trust? And how might Virginia Woolf’s Orlando (1928) have awakened a sense of home, and what it implies to lose it – as a result of being a woman?
With Claire Davison, Professor of Modernist Studies at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
Saturday 22 November 2025
18.00-20.00 British Time (GMT)
19.00-21.00 Central European Time
Morning / lunchtime in the Americas
Prices
£32.00 full price
£27.00 students
£27.00 CAMcard holders
Live online via Zoom.
Claire Davison on Vita Sackville-West andThe House of Fiction
‘The house of fiction has in short not one window, but a million’, announced Henry James in the preface to his 1908 novel, Portrait of a Lady. Knole, Vita Sackville-West’s beloved family home, may not have had one million windows, but it was renowned for having 365 rooms; it also provided the model for Chevron, the grandiose family home at the heart of her 1930 novel, The Edwardians.
This lecture will explore the importance of houses – the house of fiction, the house of fact and the family-house novel in what would prove to be one of the Hogarth Press’s greatest commercial successes. We’ll look at the very theatrical way in which she uses the home as setting, but we’ll also think about why, in 1930, she might have felt the need to revisit the glories of Knole, through the fictional portrait of Chevron. How does she use nostalgia and memory to revisit the Edwardian ‘house of fiction’ while also responding to contemporary social debates such as the housing crisis, land reform, and the role of the National Trust? And how might Virginia Woolf’s Orlando (1928) have awakened a sense of home, and what it implies to lose it – as a result of being a woman?
With Claire Davison, Professor of Modernist Studies at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
Saturday 22 November 2025
18.00-20.00 British Time (GMT)
19.00-21.00 Central European Time
Morning / lunchtime in the Americas
Prices
£32.00 full price
£27.00 students
£27.00 CAMcard holders
Live online via Zoom.
Claire Davison on Vita Sackville-West andThe House of Fiction
‘The house of fiction has in short not one window, but a million’, announced Henry James in the preface to his 1908 novel, Portrait of a Lady. Knole, Vita Sackville-West’s beloved family home, may not have had one million windows, but it was renowned for having 365 rooms; it also provided the model for Chevron, the grandiose family home at the heart of her 1930 novel, The Edwardians.
This lecture will explore the importance of houses – the house of fiction, the house of fact and the family-house novel in what would prove to be one of the Hogarth Press’s greatest commercial successes. We’ll look at the very theatrical way in which she uses the home as setting, but we’ll also think about why, in 1930, she might have felt the need to revisit the glories of Knole, through the fictional portrait of Chevron. How does she use nostalgia and memory to revisit the Edwardian ‘house of fiction’ while also responding to contemporary social debates such as the housing crisis, land reform, and the role of the National Trust? And how might Virginia Woolf’s Orlando (1928) have awakened a sense of home, and what it implies to lose it – as a result of being a woman?
With Claire Davison, Professor of Modernist Studies at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
Saturday 22 November 2025
18.00-20.00 British Time (GMT)
19.00-21.00 Central European Time
Morning / lunchtime in the Americas
Prices
£32.00 full price
£27.00 students
£27.00 CAMcard holders
Live online via Zoom.