Oh, Virginia… Why did you have to write such wonderful books that can be so darn challenging to read? Just kidding—we're not complaining. This is actually part of what we love about Woolf: She was a woman who wrote what she wanted, how she wanted, leaving the rest of us to either catch-up or resign to reading more traditional stories. That said, To the Lighthouse is a tangle of challenges and opportunities and it's often hard to differentiate between the two. We think Woolf would be pleased.

One of the biggest challenges you face teaching this text is that it's Modernist (be sure to click on that link for a quick and dirty rehash of the genre if you need a brush-up). Instead of being primarily concerned with plot and characters and moving things along, a major focus of this text is on characters' inner lives—you know, how they really are deep inside their minds. And to accomplish this, Woolf uses a whole lot of stream of consciousness writing (again, that link has your back).