To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Published 1927
For my first review I wanted to do a book that I enjoyed, one that was considered a classic, and also one that was fairly accessible to the average reader. Thus, I settled upon To The Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf. Published in 1927, this book was a landmark of the Modernist novel movement.
What it’s About: This novel revolves around the Ramsay family (Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay, and their eight children) and their family friends (most notably Lily Briscoe and Charles Tansley) and the time they spend at their summer home on an island off the coast of Scotland. The majority of the book is set on one rather gloomy summer day, where the family had been planning to visit the lighthouse off the coast of the Island and had to postpone the trip due to the weather.
During the course of the day you are introduced to various characters through their thoughts and observations of the events of the day. To me the most prominent characters are Mrs. Ramsay who is a hopeful woman, determined to get the most out of life, and Mr. Ramsay who is a philosopher, a man given to fits of depression and who relies heavily on his wife to lift him up out of it.
The book reads beautifully, Virginia Woolf lives up to her hype here. This book is written in a “stream of consciousness” way, which means that it rides along with the way the character is thinking. Because of this, the book may not read as smoothly as something written merely from one point of view. The themes of the book are the passage of time, the transience of life, and to some extent gender roles.
Why It’s Important: This novel is considered an excellent example of the Modernist movement. Woolf’s experiments with the stream of consciousness and non-linear plot were a breakthrough. To The Lighthouse is considered by many to be her best work.
What I liked: This book is wonderfully written and (unlike many modernist novels) not super hard to follow. It’s also really short, most editions are less than 200 pages. I also like to read this book as a tribute to mothers, they are in many ways the soul of a family and I think Woolf agrees.
What I didn’t like: If you are looking for a page turning plot that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the last page, this is probably not it. In fact, for a book so highly regarded, the plot is very simple. Sometimes with books like this, I have a hard time keeping focused. Because the book was so short, I didn’t have those issue, but I see how it can be daunting.
