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lectrixnoctis's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Virginia Woolf, born Stephen, became one of the most influential authors and London's literary scene at a very young age. She married Leonard Woolf, an author, with whom she founded the Hogarth Press in the year 1917. Although Woolf kept some Victorian traditions in her novels, she experimented with the medium writing and created a new novelistic form. Some of her books like "The Wave", "Mrs Dalloway", and "To The Lighthouse" are to this very day influential. Due to the early deaths of her parents and her sister, Woolf suffered nervous breakdowns throughout her whole life, and in 1941 of fearing another study, she drowned herself in the River Ouse.
"To The Lighthouse" is arguably one of her best works, and the writing genuinely shows this. In a summerhouse on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, Mrs Ramsay tells her guests that they will be able to travel to the nearby lighthouse the following day, but little does she know that this trip will only be completed by her elderly husband teen years later. In the meantime, there will be a guy of war, grief, loss and war as each character tries to adjust to their loss and try come over their grief time and reality shifts. The journey to the lighthouse will not only be a Vito to the tower o steel; it will also be a journey to self-discovery and fulfil their lives.
Lily Briscoe, a Chinese woman who loves to paint, does not fit into her time and tries to break up those old gender roles by becoming her own man in a sense. Although Mrs Ramsay wants Lily Briscoe and William Bankes to marry, they do not seem interested in the idea since Lily likes to paint. Lily paints the scenery of the Island and places a tree a bit off the centre. Throughout the novel, the tree and Lily's inability to paint symbolise Mrs Ramsay, who seems to overshadow everything. But in the end, Lily overcomes her doubts and can finally finish her painting.
The book is set in 1910 as well as in 1920 on the Isle of Skye. Throughout the book, the point of view differs, and you can see it in the minds of almost every character. The narrator views the story in the third person, and it is set in the past.
One of the symbols in this novel is the lighthouse. It symbolised human desire, a force that pulsates over the sea of the natural world and will guide people to their goal. James, Mrs Ramsy's son, seems frustrated with the desire to visit the lighthouse while Mrs Ramsay looks at it and dines her husband the profession of love he so desperately craves. Throughout the book, the lighthouse is an image desired from afar, especially by Mr Ramsay, who always tries to make his life more important for humankind. Like the title say, it is a journey, and it is all about overcoming insufficient and self-improvement. It is "To The Lighthouse", not "at".
Another symbol is the sea itself. It symbolises the natural world and its utter apathy toward human life. Although Mrs Ramsay feels safe at the sounds of the waves and quite soothing during Word War I, the sea turns into a brutal and senseless monster; however, in peacetime, it is stunning.
The writing is an absolute delight, and I lost all track of time during it. However, if you never read anything by Virginia Woolf, it may take some time to get used to since her style is extraordinary. Her style is elegant and full of symbols and nods to her time, for example, how James suffers from the Oedipus complex. The foreshadowing of death by referring to old Victorian suspicions was highly remarkable.
Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a well-written classic about self-discovery and fulfilment. I never thought this book would touch me so profoundly, and I would be able to create such a deep bond.
"To The Lighthouse" is arguably one of her best works, and the writing genuinely shows this. In a summerhouse on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, Mrs Ramsay tells her guests that they will be able to travel to the nearby lighthouse the following day, but little does she know that this trip will only be completed by her elderly husband teen years later. In the meantime, there will be a guy of war, grief, loss and war as each character tries to adjust to their loss and try come over their grief time and reality shifts. The journey to the lighthouse will not only be a Vito to the tower o steel; it will also be a journey to self-discovery and fulfil their lives.
Lily Briscoe, a Chinese woman who loves to paint, does not fit into her time and tries to break up those old gender roles by becoming her own man in a sense. Although Mrs Ramsay wants Lily Briscoe and William Bankes to marry, they do not seem interested in the idea since Lily likes to paint. Lily paints the scenery of the Island and places a tree a bit off the centre. Throughout the novel, the tree and Lily's inability to paint symbolise Mrs Ramsay, who seems to overshadow everything. But in the end, Lily overcomes her doubts and can finally finish her painting.
The book is set in 1910 as well as in 1920 on the Isle of Skye. Throughout the book, the point of view differs, and you can see it in the minds of almost every character. The narrator views the story in the third person, and it is set in the past.
One of the symbols in this novel is the lighthouse. It symbolised human desire, a force that pulsates over the sea of the natural world and will guide people to their goal. James, Mrs Ramsy's son, seems frustrated with the desire to visit the lighthouse while Mrs Ramsay looks at it and dines her husband the profession of love he so desperately craves. Throughout the book, the lighthouse is an image desired from afar, especially by Mr Ramsay, who always tries to make his life more important for humankind. Like the title say, it is a journey, and it is all about overcoming insufficient and self-improvement. It is "To The Lighthouse", not "at".
Another symbol is the sea itself. It symbolises the natural world and its utter apathy toward human life. Although Mrs Ramsay feels safe at the sounds of the waves and quite soothing during Word War I, the sea turns into a brutal and senseless monster; however, in peacetime, it is stunning.
The writing is an absolute delight, and I lost all track of time during it. However, if you never read anything by Virginia Woolf, it may take some time to get used to since her style is extraordinary. Her style is elegant and full of symbols and nods to her time, for example, how James suffers from the Oedipus complex. The foreshadowing of death by referring to old Victorian suspicions was highly remarkable.
Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a well-written classic about self-discovery and fulfilment. I never thought this book would touch me so profoundly, and I would be able to create such a deep bond.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and War
Moderate: Sexism
purplemind's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
After years on my "to read" list, and a few months on my "to read" shelf, I finally got round to this book, and to Virginia Woolf in general.
I tend to enjoy dialogue over monologue so, going into it, I fully expected to find this book a bit of a drag for my tastes; I guess, in some places, it nearly was, but never quite got there. The writing is just too damn good. Woolf tricks you into thinking you're only following the barely linear, often repetitive thoughts of kind of boring, painfully ordinary people and then, just like that, she slaps you in the face with stuff like:
I tend to enjoy dialogue over monologue so, going into it, I fully expected to find this book a bit of a drag for my tastes; I guess, in some places, it nearly was, but never quite got there. The writing is just too damn good. Woolf tricks you into thinking you're only following the barely linear, often repetitive thoughts of kind of boring, painfully ordinary people and then, just like that, she slaps you in the face with stuff like:
"[...] distant views seem to outlast by a million years (Lily thought) the gazer and to be communing already with a sky which beholds an earth entirely at rest.
or
"[...] and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself, a wedge-shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others."
(or the entirety of the "Time Passes" chapter, which I will not disclose because spoilers, but <i> man </i>.)
"To the Lighthouse" definitely isn't an easy book to get through, but it is easier to get through than I imagined it would be. Does that make sense? I think it helps if you keep a summary on hand (I used SparkNotes'), to help you decipher the trickier parts of the book, and to better understand the symbolism/context that might be lost on a contemporary reader.
There are some dated (at least in my opinion) ideas about class and the relationship between the sexes although, at the same time, Woolf challenges some notions that were, at the time, taken as a given (women must marry and they cannot create meaningful art, to name just two), as well as the "traditional" narrative structure of a novel. Very little happens in "To the Lighthouse", and also everything happens in it.
In summary, expect a very experimental, definitely slow, emotionally taxing but extraordinarily beautiful read, if you do decide to give it a go.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Death and War
elwirax's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Maybe some day I can write a proper review for this book, as it stands I cannot. However, it was quite exceptional.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Misogyny
debookgeek's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Death of parent
sherbertwells's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
“What a power was in the human soul! she thought. That woman sitting there writing under the rock resoled everything into simplicity; made these angers, irritations fall off like old rags; she brought together this and that and then this, and so made out of that miserable silliness and spite (she and Charles squabbling, sparring, had been silly and spiteful) something—this scene on the beach for example, this moment of friendship and liking—which survived, after all these years complete, so that she dipped into it to re-fashion her memory of him, and there it stayed in the mind affecting one almost like a work of art” (160)
New rule: no more modernism until college.
After reading Virginia Woolf’s 1927 novel To the Lighthouse, I can conclude that a) I love her writing and b) I will love it even more once I have developed that literary maturity which grows quietly beneath wisdom teeth, disappointment and a tolerance for alcohol. If I end up going to a place like Bryn Mawr, where the famous literary modernist is treated like a second Athena, I will probably meet her again anyways.
She deserves my full attention. Her prose is so full of little gems that, on a first reading, its collective gleam induces blindness. Picking through it requires commitment. But so, according to To the Lighthouse, does life.
“It didn’t matter, any of it, she thought. A great man, a great book, fame—who could tell?” (118)
The novel follows a middle-aged philosophy professor, his gentle and luminous wife, their eight children and a handful of guests two visits to their summer house in the Hebrides. The Ramsays are perfect embodiments of the prewar era: domestic and oh-so-British, which means they conceal their churning emotions beneath a foam of civility. When the First World War comes, it batters but does not destroy them, and a few of them are able to find glimmers of meaning through the haze of modern life (this is the fun kind of modernist novel; in the other kind there is no meaning whatsoever). But the real point of interest is their house, which narrates the most interesting part of the story.
Let me say that again: Virginia Woolf writes twenty pages from the perspective of a house! Ten years! Three (parenthetical) deaths! And it’s good! That section, “Time Passes,” is the best—or at least the most obviously-good—part of the whole story. After almost a century and a legion of literary imitators, the power of that house still stands.
If the rest of Virginia Woolf’s fiction is as beautiful—and as intelligent—as To the Lighthouse, then conserving her collection for my later years might be the right choice as well as the cautious one. Each book is a commitment, and I prefer monogamy. I will learn to love her.
Eventually.
“The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one” (161)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Animal death
Minor: Misogyny and Child death
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