To the Lighthouse (Annotated)
by Virginia Woolf
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Read in May, 2005
Yesterday, on the subway to work, I finally finished Virginia Woolf's "To the Lighthouse." It took me longer to read than such a short book probably should have, but it's such dense writing that, in a way, I'm surprised it didn't take me longer. This has been said before by people much smarter than I, but I'll say it again: Virginia Woolf was a genius. As I closed the book, I said to myself I want to write. Like. That.
Synopsis (from the Webster Encyclopedia of Literature):
"...more
Synopsis (from the Webster Encyclopedia of Literature):
"...more
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recommends it for:
People who like the unordinary
This is a review in progress as I am currently reading this book. I picked it up yesterday and am now on page 79. After a summer of very difficult reading (<i>The Idiot, Faust and The Federalist<i>)I wanted to read a novel that I could relate to. So far I am relating. It seems like sometimes she has climbed up into my mind with the character of Mrs. Ramsay.
There are some things I don't like about this novel. I don't like the way she always says, "Mrs. Ramsay did this....more
There are some things I don't like about this novel. I don't like the way she always says, "Mrs. Ramsay did this....more
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recommends it for:
The commacly inclined
"It seemed to her such nonsense--inventing differences, when people, heaven knows, were different enough without that."
"Under the influence of that extraordinary emotion which had been growing all the walk, had begun in the garden when he had wanted to take her bag, had increased in the town when he had wanted to tell her everything about himself, he was coming to see himself, and everything he had ever known gone crooked a little. It was awfully strange."
"And, ...more
"Under the influence of that extraordinary emotion which had been growing all the walk, had begun in the garden when he had wanted to take her bag, had increased in the town when he had wanted to tell her everything about himself, he was coming to see himself, and everything he had ever known gone crooked a little. It was awfully strange."
"And, ...more
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Read in September, 2007
This is sumptuous and compelling writing that's hard to stop reading. The rhythm of one sentence flows into the rhythm of a paragraph and off into the rhythm of a page and a chapter. Woolf's stream of consciousness masks her other skills. The work is tight--for instance intrusions of past-tense narratives (Mr. Ramsay's consciousness allowing in of the particular memory of Mrs. Ramsay's death, now past) are all handled in almost a format (parens, short stuttered sentences set off in style from th...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommended to Evan by:
a newstand on Jalan Jaksa, Jakartarecommends it for: absolutely anybody
Rather than talk about the well-picked-over critical points-- Lily Briscoe as cipher for VW, the autobiographical mother and father figures, the symbolism of the lighthouse, etc., let me recall why this beautiful novel holds a special place in my library.
This was the book that first got me going on my plan to read all of VW chronologically. I found a weather-beaten copy in a tourist bookstand on Jalan Jaksa in Jakarta in 1999 and read it on the plane to Australia. The sheer craft of it too...more
This was the book that first got me going on my plan to read all of VW chronologically. I found a weather-beaten copy in a tourist bookstand on Jalan Jaksa in Jakarta in 1999 and read it on the plane to Australia. The sheer craft of it too...more
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i'm not really sure what value there is in offering a review for To the Lighthouse; if you get drawn into Virginia Woolf and you're able to participate in the language project she has going, then you'll eventually find this book. but if i had a "FAVORITE BOOK" i guess this would be one of them. er, one of two or three. and so i think i want to write about what it means to me, because i love SAYING that, how this book is a bullet to my heart, in the best way.
this is the book that ta...more
this is the book that ta...more
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Read in February, 2007
This was number 15 on the modern library list, and the top book by the underrepresented group of women on the list. This was maybe my favorite so far on the list after Nabakov's Lolita. I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if half of it wasn't partially or completely over my head. The novel, described by Woolf is shaped like an H. The first and third parts, "The Window" and "The Lighthouse" respectively, (the collumns of the H) are written in stream of consciousness ...more
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Read in March, 2003
My favorite Woolf.
This is a very challenging read, not the type of novel you breeze through on the bus or at the beach. Here Woolf perfects her innovative "free indirect discourse." It's stream of consciousness on steroids. The narrative jumps around not only from time to time and from place to place, but also from narrator to narrator. At times it is difficult to understand who is speaking, but you eventually come to recognize who's mind you are in without being told. Very fu...more
This is a very challenging read, not the type of novel you breeze through on the bus or at the beach. Here Woolf perfects her innovative "free indirect discourse." It's stream of consciousness on steroids. The narrative jumps around not only from time to time and from place to place, but also from narrator to narrator. At times it is difficult to understand who is speaking, but you eventually come to recognize who's mind you are in without being told. Very fu...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
tough guys who need to loosen up...
Writing a review of "To the Lighthouse" is a pointless endeavor. A class I took of on Greek Classicism and its influence on German Thought yielded the professor making comparisions of the importance of Death in Venice by Mann to germans as similar to the importance of Woolf's "To the Lighthouse" to english literature. I have no arguement against this. However, I think it is important that while this book is of great importance, it is utterly and wholly bourgeois. Such seems t...more
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Read in February, 2001
My first Virginia Woolf book! Maybe Virginia Woolf books are like Christopher Guest movies in that the first one you read/see is forever afterwards your favorite.
I'm not used to "identifying" with characters in books, even though that's how a lot of people (high school students) talk about what they read. As in: "This book is, like, all about tragedy and loss, and I can TOTALLY IDENTIFY with that because my parents just took my convertible keys away and I'm really sad about ...more
I'm not used to "identifying" with characters in books, even though that's how a lot of people (high school students) talk about what they read. As in: "This book is, like, all about tragedy and loss, and I can TOTALLY IDENTIFY with that because my parents just took my convertible keys away and I'm really sad about ...more
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Read in May, 2007
An excellent book. The book unrolls much like Mrs. Dalloway an average day filled with the push and pull of emotional tides of an array of characters. On page 125 "a downpouring of immense darkness" turns the house that formly buzzed with life into "a swaying mantle of silence," where the astoundingly good 20 page interlude between the two sections begins. The seasons change, and the house hovers on the edge, poised to "plunge to the depths to lie upon the sands of obl...more
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Read in February, 2008
Lily Briscoe has her vision.
My thoughts tended to drift in this novel of ideas, causing a bit of a problem with the frequent perspective shifts--sometimes within sentences, even. Still though, Woolf's writing quakes and dares and proves that yes, those feelings--a shadow of impending loss, the heat of shifting desires and hatreds for the same person, are shared, and again yes, they can be captured.
The parentheticals, largely in the second part--Time Passes, excited me more than I should ...more
My thoughts tended to drift in this novel of ideas, causing a bit of a problem with the frequent perspective shifts--sometimes within sentences, even. Still though, Woolf's writing quakes and dares and proves that yes, those feelings--a shadow of impending loss, the heat of shifting desires and hatreds for the same person, are shared, and again yes, they can be captured.
The parentheticals, largely in the second part--Time Passes, excited me more than I should ...more
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Read in August, 2007
My first foray in Woolf fiction. At first I struggled with the complex and confusing style, which, much like James Baldwin in <i> Go Tell It On the Mountain <I>, switches between characters internal monologues with few to no indicators. Actually the Baldwin book is a good primer for this one in many ways.
Once I got into the rythym of Woolf's style (about halfway through part one), I began to enjoy the book and Woolf's exquiste understanding of human nature. Plot is not the issue...more
Once I got into the rythym of Woolf's style (about halfway through part one), I began to enjoy the book and Woolf's exquiste understanding of human nature. Plot is not the issue...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
every one
To the light house is one of those famous books by Virginia Woolf. The book starts with the window being opens just before the start of World War I. Mr. Ramsay and Mrs. Ramsay the main characters bring their eight children to their summer home in the Hebrides. Across the bay from their house stands a large lighthouse. Six-year-old James Ramsay wants desperately to go to the lighthouse, and Mrs. Ramsay tells him that they will go the next day if the weather permits. James reacts gleefully,...more
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Read in July, 2007
I just finished this book. I think I need a little time for it to digest and to do some outside research, because I'm not sure if I appropriately grasped all the symbols and meaning of the book.
Prior to opening the book, I wikipedia'ed Virginia Woolf to get a better appreciation of her acclaim. It said that she wrote in same stream of consciousness manner that Faust and Joyce wrote. Naturally I was a little skeptical.
"To The Lighthouse" contained very little plot line or ...more
Prior to opening the book, I wikipedia'ed Virginia Woolf to get a better appreciation of her acclaim. It said that she wrote in same stream of consciousness manner that Faust and Joyce wrote. Naturally I was a little skeptical.
"To The Lighthouse" contained very little plot line or ...more
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Read in October, 2007
how can see, of course, woolf's love of the act of creation expressed through lily briscoe's character.
but this last reading, i found myself thinking about the dream separation. how we move through the house, after mrs. ramsey has died, punctuated first by mrs. mcnab, the stand-in of the mother-light, and then anchored through lily briscoe, who was chosen by mrs. ramsey, in one of her last conscious acts at the dinner scene, to assist mrs. ramsey--be the literal force of mrs. ramsey's stunted...more
but this last reading, i found myself thinking about the dream separation. how we move through the house, after mrs. ramsey has died, punctuated first by mrs. mcnab, the stand-in of the mother-light, and then anchored through lily briscoe, who was chosen by mrs. ramsey, in one of her last conscious acts at the dinner scene, to assist mrs. ramsey--be the literal force of mrs. ramsey's stunted...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
modernists
the 1st and unfortunately largest section of this book ruined it for me, because it was the epitome of what I hate in literature: bland white people sitting around and worrying about domestic relations. Woolf puts in a striking metaphor or insight every now and then, but honestly my concerns could not be more antithetical to these people. From my Deleuzian perspective (reading a book of his at the same time prolly exacerbated this), Mrs. Ramsey was a negative character trying to control and orga...more
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Read in July, 2007
I don't just throw 5-star ratings around like nothing...this book was great..extremely satisfying. When describing the book, it sounds like it would be horrible- wealthy family with a vacation home on an island, plus wealthy house guests and dinner parties (usually) equals boring pretentious tripe. To The Lighthouse, however, tells its story through the thoughts of the various characters...however neurotic that may be sometimes. The men are all intelligent, but emotionally reserved. The women ar...more
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recommends it for:
the conflicted
I'm conflcited about my feelings for Virginia Woolf. One one hand I adore her and think her work created breathing room for countless women writers and artists. I appreciate the depth of her characters, the struggles through which those characters were born, and the creativity of her often subtle language. At the same time, sometimes she just BORES me.
My feelings about Woolf as basically my feelings about "To the Lighthouse." In one sense I treasure it, but have to admit to s...more
My feelings about Woolf as basically my feelings about "To the Lighthouse." In one sense I treasure it, but have to admit to s...more
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Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
Satan
I recognize that I will probably get a nasty response from this rating, but c'est la vie. It seems to me that Virginia Woolf is either someone you love with an intensity verging on religious fanaticism, or causes you to nod knowingly at the moans of agony emanating from the AP English classroom; I fall into the latter group. There is not much I can say to justify my opinion to those that disagree. I felt that Woolf, in her pseudo-intellectual ramblings, attempted to form a cohesive view of th...more
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.93 (5075 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 4.07 (14 ratings) number of reviews: 401popular shelves
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"About here, she thought, dabbling her fingers in the water, a ship had sunk, and she muttered, dreamily half asleep, how we perished, each alone."
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