Join us on Tuesday, August 21, all day, as we chat about Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse, arguably one of the finest novels written in the twentieth century. Leading up to the chat, Bethanne will post her thoughts on Woolf’s novel, themes to discuss, etc. Whether you’ve read To The Lighthouse twenty years ago or you’ve only just discovered it, please join us!

More about Virginia Woolf’s novel & Bethanne’s thoughts after the jump!

To the Lighthouse is one of the greatest literary achievements of the twentieth century and the author’s most popular novel. The serene and maternal Mrs. Ramsay, the tragic yet absurd Mr. Ramsay, and their children and assorted guests are on holiday on the Isle of Skye. From the seemingly trivial postponement of a visit to a nearby lighthouse,Virginia Woolf constructs a remarkable, moving examination of the complex tensions and allegiances of family life and the conflict between male and female principles.

Links
Buy the Book
Read an excerpt
Spark Notes
On Wikipedia

Why I Chose This Book: Full disclosure: To the Lighthouse is probably my favorite novel. OK, To the Lighthouse, or Middlemarch by George Eliot… but I digress. I think Woolf’s masterpiece chose me as much as I chose it. When I first read it during a graduate course (what can I say, I’m a slow learner…), the tension between Mrs. Ramsay’s as Ur-homemaker and Lily Briscoe as conflicted woman artist spoke to me, loud and clear. How do any of us reconcile our personal lives (whether or not we’re married or partnered) with our deepest passions? Hint: Even Mrs. Ramsay has trouble, there. I look forward to discussing the psychological level of this book with you — but what I hope to be able to show, too, is my own personal passion for this novel’s style and structure.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 at 7:16 am and is filed under WR Classics, Fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.