Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by kristykay22
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
4.0
This was my second read of one of Virginia Woolf's most celebrated novels. In three parts, we meet the Ramsay's -- a large family with eight children led by their philosopher father and beautiful and essential mother -- along with a group of house guests at their summer vacation home in Scotland, in view of a much talked about, but seldom visited lighthouse. The perspective flows among the characters but the first section focuses on Mrs. Ramsay as she takes care of kids, manages a house, and soothes the ego of her somewhat temperamental husband, and Lilly Briscoe, an unmarried visitor who is working on a painting outside of the house. Mrs. Ramsay is lovingly described, both through her internal monologues and other character's observations. There is a lot of humor in this section, particularly pointed at one of the penniless scholars invited to vacation with the great Mr. Ramsay. Liaisons between house guests and the dramas of the Ramsay teenagers are touched on, but in a distanced way through Mrs. Ramsay's perspective.
In the second, short, section time passes and we very quickly learn that Mrs. Ramsay has died suddenly, the oldest son has been killed in the war, the oldest daughter has died in childbirth. We linger in the empty house and follow around the elderly housekeeper who is trying to hold it together for the Ramsay's and largely failing against the infiltration of the natural world.
And then, ten years later, Mr. Ramsay returns with his youngest children and the same house guests from the past, including Lilly. Mrs. Ramsay's absence is its own character in the third section of the book, and much of the narrative comes from the still-unmarried Lilly as she reflects on Mrs. Ramsay, her still-temperamental husband, the ghosts of the past, and the perfect way to structure the painting that she is once again trying to complete.
While the barbs poked at Mr. Ramsay and the men-vs-women stuff is sometimes a little more obvious than needed, this is generally a beautiful and subtle book. Very much based on Woolf's parents and childhood, the reflections on both life and death should ring true with anyone who has ever lost a loved one or tried to revisit a beloved location of the past. It is admittedly a little weird to read something that is so much about death at the same time that I received a stage iv cancer diagnosis, but Virginia Woolf makes it all right. <3
In the second, short, section time passes and we very quickly learn that Mrs. Ramsay has died suddenly, the oldest son has been killed in the war, the oldest daughter has died in childbirth. We linger in the empty house and follow around the elderly housekeeper who is trying to hold it together for the Ramsay's and largely failing against the infiltration of the natural world.
And then, ten years later, Mr. Ramsay returns with his youngest children and the same house guests from the past, including Lilly. Mrs. Ramsay's absence is its own character in the third section of the book, and much of the narrative comes from the still-unmarried Lilly as she reflects on Mrs. Ramsay, her still-temperamental husband, the ghosts of the past, and the perfect way to structure the painting that she is once again trying to complete.
While the barbs poked at Mr. Ramsay and the men-vs-women stuff is sometimes a little more obvious than needed, this is generally a beautiful and subtle book. Very much based on Woolf's parents and childhood, the reflections on both life and death should ring true with anyone who has ever lost a loved one or tried to revisit a beloved location of the past. It is admittedly a little weird to read something that is so much about death at the same time that I received a stage iv cancer diagnosis, but Virginia Woolf makes it all right. <3