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To the Lighthouse
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To The Lighthouse : Week Three
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Marie
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Mar 14, 2017 02:25AM
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'But what after all is one night?' Everything changes, everyone dispersed after just one night...clearly not just 'a short space..' or is it?
Part haunting part beautiful, she weaves the passage of time with the surroundings. Everything may fade yet remain, but the people that animated those now empty spaces are gone and their absence is reflected in her description of time and surroundings. Beautiful!
I loved the way she describes the invasion of time and nature, as well, with just a momentary glimpse of a different voice, as the old housekeeper's authentic voice peeps out for just a moment.And found myself wondering........not that Mrs R is gone, who is the redeeming character who will make us finish? Whom do we wish to follow to the end?
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Marie wrote: "I agree with both of you. This was the strongest part of the book for me, and I loved the use of nature to symbolize the changes in the characters' lives."Yes Marie, it was the strongest part of the book, but the next bit (I finished reading) to me as a woman of today hit a sensitive nerve and therefore stronger. I'll elaborate when you open the final thread :)
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It's up now, elaborate away. :) I do agree, the end has the most modern quality for a woman reading it now. I have to wonder if that was VW's intention, for Lily's character in the second half to speak to women reading her work in the future, regardless of how time may have changed society.
Marie wrote: "Piyumi wrote: "Yes Marie, it was the stro..."It's up now, elaborate away. :) I do agree, the end has the most modern quality for a woman reading it now. I have to wonder if that was VW's intentio..."
Does anyone know how long it took her to write it? Did she make steady progress on it, or was it completed piecemeal over the years?
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I couldn't find anything about how long it took her to write it. Mrs Dalloway was published about two years before, so it could be anywhere in that time, but I don't know if she worked only on one book at a time, or several at once over years.
Marie wrote: "Linda Abhors the New GR Design wrote: "Marie wrote: "Piyumi wrote: "Does anyone know how long..."I couldn't find anything about how long it took her to write it. Mrs Dalloway was published about ..."
In my copy there is a nice intro and there is a description of the novel's development. Apparently VW had been working on it alone and written about its progress in her diary...let me read it and get back to you the gist of this intro :)
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Thanks, Piyumi!
Hiiiii :( am down with the worst fever and haven't been able to lift my head up. will get back to you both soon as. so sorry for the wait.
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Take all the time you need, the discussions certainly aren't going anywhere. I hope you feel better soon!
Phew! that was one of the worst fevers I've had. But I'm recovered, thank you for the good wishes :).I see we have progressed to The Yellow Wallpaper. Still I'll finish this post since it’s still very interesting and especially with The Yellow Wallpaper’s gloom-filled madness, which echoes with the slight darkness I felt within the narrative of To the lighthouse.
As I said, in my copy of Wordsworth Classic of To The Lighthouse, an introduction has been done, by a Nicola Bradbury of the University of Reading. In it she quotes from Virginia Woolf, 'The Diary of Virginia Woolf', 5 vols (edited by Anne Oliver Bell), Hogarth, London 1977-84.
Bradbury quotes from the above and points out that the initial planning for the novel was begun by 14th May 1925, where Woolf jots down that '{its} going to be fairly short: to have the father's character done complete in it; & mother; & St.Ives; & childhood; & all the usual things I try to put in - life, death, & etc'. Even at the start she seems to have had a clear idea of the tone of this novel, for in as early as June 1923 her musings before she put thought to paper was of such a tone, 'a general sense of the poetry of existence that overcomes me. Often it is connected with the sea & St.Ives' (13 June, 1923, Diary, p246). And two months later, after starting to write the novel, in 1925, Bradbury notes that Woolf had come about to 'branches & roots which I do not perceive now' (Monday 20 July 1925).
By 1926 Woolf seems to be making headway with the novel, as Bradbury quotes further from the Diary, ‘I am writing as fast & freely as I have written in the whole of my life’ (23 February 1926, Diary, p59) and then stumbles, ‘I rush at it, & at once scatter out two pages. Is it nonsense, is it brilliance?’ (18 April 1926, Diary, p75).
Bradbury then goes on to quote from Woolf’s diary from end of November 1928. The writing has continued that long, with the last entry related to this particular novel coming in 1931, ‘What interests me in the last stage was the freedom & boldness with which my imagination picked up used & tossed aside all the images & symbols which I had prepared’ (7 February 1931, Diary, p10).
Bradbury moves on to the discussion of the content and there is no further mention of the progress of writing.
So can we conclude that it was written between 1925-1931??
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I see we have progressed to The Yellow Wallpaper. Still I'll finish this post since it’s still..."
Thank you, Piyumi, that's fantastic! And thanks for taking time to type it all out for us. I'm so glad you're feeling better. :)
