This episode dissects and analyses the novel, To the Lighthouse (1927), by English author, Virginia Woolf. After reading this book together, host, Rorie Jane McCormack takes a retrospective look back at the novel's themes, characters and plot. Looking at the female characters, Mrs Ramsey represents the traditional values of the old world. In contrast, Lilly Briscoe represents the modern woman, carving out her own path in the early part of the twentieth century.
Was Mr Ramsey's intractability a personality quirk, or representative of the men of his class and time? Did Charles Tansley's disdain for women stem from the fact that he could not allow anyone else, regardless of gender, to enter his sphere of interest, and therefore have to compete against them for the respect he was so desperate to obtain? Did this experimental modernist novel succeed? Would it be published today, if Woolf was a new and emerging writer? These discussion points are all covered in this bonus analysis episode.
Rorie Reads a Classic is the podcast where we read classic literature together, one chapter at a time. I am your host, Rorie Jane McCormack: writer, podcaster, curator of dark curiosities, and host of Propensity: A True Crime Anthology Podcast. Join me as we read one chapter per day of a classic piece of literature, from literary fiction to gothic horror to good old-fashioned mystery. Subscribe to Rorie Reads a Classic. No music. No distractions. Just bare-bones storytelling.
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