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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
Exquisitely beautiful at times. Excruciatingly slow and dull at others. The good outweighs the bad, though.
Virginia Woolf's signature stream-of-consciousness style prose is uniquely elegant and captivating throughout 'To The Lighthouse'. Tenderly crafted characters bring you into an extremely intimate experience with Woolf's iconic Ramsey family and their summer-house guests. Reading 'To The Lighthouse' is like witnessing someone's memories as they play out in their mind. A wonderful and thought provoking reading experience.
Not what I would call an 'easy read', in fact, quite the opposite!! Especially if you're new to Woolf - or Modernist novels in general, like myself - but if you're willing to delve in with an open mind, a lot of patience and your undivided attention, you will most certainly reap the rewards that this beautiful piece-of-art-novel has to offer.
Not what I would call an 'easy read', in fact, quite the opposite!! Especially if you're new to Woolf - or Modernist novels in general, like myself - but if you're willing to delve in with an open mind, a lot of patience and your undivided attention, you will most certainly reap the rewards that this beautiful piece-of-art-novel has to offer.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
slow-paced
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm using this as my classic written by a woman for the Back to the Classics Challenge. I guess it's about time that I start going back and deciding which of the classics I've read so far this year are going to count for this challenge, and start reviewing them.)
I read this during my great springtime resurgence of interest in Virginia Woolf. I had a passing acquaintance and admiration for her thanks to college, but I had never quite gotten around to revisiting her and reading more than a couple of her books. But after rereading A Room of One's Own, I was desperate to get my hands on anything she wrote.
Other than the aforementioned Room, To the Lighthouse is my favorite of the Woolf books I've read so far. It follows the interior lives of various well-to-do English people enjoying the kind of seaside holidays that Woolf herself experienced in childhood. And by enjoying, of course I mean languishing amid doubts and fears and being profoundly alienated from one another.
Woolf does beautiful and adventurous things with language in this novel, perhaps to the greatest effect in the central interlude. She takes us rapidly through the passing of years, demonstrating their effect on the characters and the house that united them.
I love to read disgruntled reviews of Modern novels that complain about the lack of plot. That, of course, is sort of the point. Woolf isn't writing a fast-paced thriller here; she's interested in the power of language to convey characters' thoughts. It's like one great big, neurotic, Impressionist painting. And one that I, at least, think is pretty great fun to read. I like to see what boldness Woolf will attempt, and what she'll get away with doing.
Now I just want to go read more Virginia Woolf.
I read this during my great springtime resurgence of interest in Virginia Woolf. I had a passing acquaintance and admiration for her thanks to college, but I had never quite gotten around to revisiting her and reading more than a couple of her books. But after rereading A Room of One's Own, I was desperate to get my hands on anything she wrote.
Other than the aforementioned Room, To the Lighthouse is my favorite of the Woolf books I've read so far. It follows the interior lives of various well-to-do English people enjoying the kind of seaside holidays that Woolf herself experienced in childhood. And by enjoying, of course I mean languishing amid doubts and fears and being profoundly alienated from one another.
Woolf does beautiful and adventurous things with language in this novel, perhaps to the greatest effect in the central interlude. She takes us rapidly through the passing of years, demonstrating their effect on the characters and the house that united them.
I love to read disgruntled reviews of Modern novels that complain about the lack of plot. That, of course, is sort of the point. Woolf isn't writing a fast-paced thriller here; she's interested in the power of language to convey characters' thoughts. It's like one great big, neurotic, Impressionist painting. And one that I, at least, think is pretty great fun to read. I like to see what boldness Woolf will attempt, and what she'll get away with doing.
Now I just want to go read more Virginia Woolf.