My rating:

add to my books

read book

To the Lighthouse

by Virginia Woolf

3.72 · rating details · 25,494 ratings · 1,573 reviews

Mrs Woolf first became known to the wider reading public with the publication of A Room of One's Own in 1929. But the year before that, her novel To the Lighthouse had been awarded the Northcliffe and Femina Vie Heureuse prizes. It has since been translated into many languages, including French, German, Spanish, and Italian. Virginia Woolf's technique was all her own. In t...more

Paperback, 209 pages

Published by Pomona Press (first published 1927)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Best Books of the 20th Century

98th out of 3,794 books — 20,618 voters

Jezebel's Books All Women Should Read

26th out of 309 books — 617 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 42,398)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Jun 01, 2010

Choupette rated it

Recommended to Choupette by: Lit

Shelves: own-or-access, studied, ab-fav, 2009, 2010

My grandmother died last Monday, peacefully in her sleep. Yesterday at the funeral my dad read a tribute to her, which was very interesting. I remember at my grandfather's funeral, almost two years ago now, Dad's tribute was all about Pa's achievements as an industrial chemist, his OBE, the results of his important work on water purification. This tribute, though, was about Nana's pioneering work as a founding member of the Blackburn Tree Preservation Society, the visits she made to new migrants...moreMy grandmother died last Monday, peacefully in her sleep. Yesterday at the funeral my dad read a tribute to her, which was very interesting. I remember at my grandfather's funeral, almost two years ago now, Dad's tribute was all about Pa's achievements as an industrial chemist, his OBE, the results of his important work on water purification. This tribute, though, was about Nana's pioneering work as a founding member of the Blackburn Tree Preservation Society, the visits she made to new migrants in the Carlton housing estates, the volunteer work she did with the Citizen's Advice Board.

One of the many things that Woolf does superlatively well is to show the value of lives like these. Mrs Ramsay reminds me a lot of my grandmother. I always used to dismiss women who settled down to become housewives, raise the children while their husbands went off to work and do the things that were really important. Getting to know my grandmother as I got older did a lot to stop me thinking that way.

Virginia Woolf knows there is more to Mrs Ramsay than her beauty, even though the only other person who realises this is Lily Briscoe. There was "the faint touch of irony that made Mrs Ramsay slip through one's fingers." There is the strange complexity of character that emerges from a personality that seems otherwise commonplace. There are the mysterious shadows behind the perfect exterior. One can't help but think that the impact Mrs Ramsay had on lives would last years and years longer than the impact of Mr Ramsay, the philosopher who only made it to S.

Poor Mrs Ramsay is a product of her times, just as my grandma was a product of hers. That her life is just as interesting and worthwhile and literature-worthy as her husband's is everywhere in this book, and when I first read it I had seen it nowhere before. There is nothing else like this in all of literature.

__________________________________

This is the most amazing thing I've ever read.

"How did he know? she asked. The wind often changed.
The extraordinary irrationality of her remark, the folly of women's minds enraged him. He had ridden through the valley of death, been shattered and shivered; and now she flew in the face of facts, made his children hope what was utterly out of the question, in effect, told lies. He stamped his foot on the stone step. 'Damn you,' he said. But what had she said? Simply that it might be fine tomorrow. So it might.
Not with the barometer falling and the wind due west.
To pursue truth with such astonishing lack of consideration for other people's feelings, to rend the thin veils of civilisation so wantonly, so brutally, was to her so horrible an outrage of human decency that, without replying, dazed and blinded, she bent her head as if to let the pelt of jagged hail, the drench of dirty water, bespatter her unrebuked. There was nothing to be said."(less)

like 31 likes

· see review

Aug 15, 2011

Eric rated it

Shelves: favorites, ficciones, malick-should-film-it, shouldreread

I think that in certain scenes of To the Lighthouse Woolf’s method—introspective exhaustiveness—disclosure of the vistas within our gestures, the little worlds that flare and die in the time it takes to pass the salt—approaches its own parody. Sometimes reading this was like watching a movie frame by frame. And I found the texture less evenly lyrical than that of Mrs. Dalloway. But cavils aside, it is amazing. Last year I got far enough in Hermione Lee’s biography to know that this novel is Wool...more

like 21 likes

· see review

May 10, 2010

Caris rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Caris by: Elizabeth

Shelves: 2010

We perished, each alone.

Mr. Ramsay is on the boat with James and Cam. The two are united in their disdain for their father, and their coldness toward him almost another member of the family. Their resolve, like everything else that has ever existed, cracks and breaks, betraying their determination. A feeling of fondness for the old man permeates the scene, as if it were the very wind in the sails. Or the mutilated fish discarded, alive, into the water.

Because what does it...moreWe perished, each alone.

Mr. Ramsay is on the boat with James and Cam. The two are united in their disdain for their father, and their coldness toward him almost another member of the family. Their resolve, like everything else that has ever existed, cracks and breaks, betraying their determination. A feeling of fondness for the old man permeates the scene, as if it were the very wind in the sails. Or the mutilated fish discarded, alive, into the water.

Because what does it matter, this fondness? What is an eventual acceptance of Mr. Ramsay going to do for anyone?

I’m not going to pretend that I understand this novel. I don’t know how many times I would have to read it before I grasped half of what it has to offer. It was fantastic. The words- oh, the words- were so lovingly laid down that the scenes just sort of haunted my mind even after I had put the book down. To be honest, though, I don’t know that I will ever come back to it. Not for a long time, anyway. For the last few days, I have set the book on my nightstand, turned out the light, and have been trapped in that house. Trapped with the Ramsays. And I didn’t like it any more than they did.

That line hit me, each and every time it was repeated. We perished. Us. The entire family. Is Ramsay talking about the real deaths? Figurative deaths? I suppose that part is unimportant. It is the we that matters. He seems to identify the family as a single entity, but acknowledges its fragmentation. Each alone. It’s how we live; it’s how we die. Even when we’re heading for the destination, we’re too late. It’s the we that perished. It’s the family that disintegrated. It does not matter how anyone feels now. The family is gone.

This book was difficult to read. I never seemed to have enough time to dedicate to the task. But even when I did, even when I had hours ahead of me (like in the middle of the night), I just wanted to stop. I spent most of my time trying to tap into the feeling in the book, but each time I finally accessed it, I wanted to stop. The heaviness was too great, the loss too profound. I wished that something catastrophic would have happened to the house as time passed so that no one would have been able to return: Mr. Ramsay with his untied boots, Lily with her unfinished painting. So much unfinished business, like ghosts returning to the living. But everything was already dead.

But I didn't like it, bitch.
(less)

like 28 likes

· see review

Jul 09, 2010

Miriam rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: writers

Recommended to Miriam by: Elizabeth

Shelves: gender

You know how you secretly fear that if anyone really knew you, knew all your pettinesses and fears and insecurities and unkindnesses, they wouldn't, couldn't, like you? I'm sure Virginia Woolf was familiar with that feeling. I suspect she went back and forth on the question of whether it were true or not. At times she seems to love her characters; at other moments, to despise them. The characters display the same shifting extremes of emotion for one another, moving from an almost idolizing devot...more

like 37 likes

· see review

May 07, 2010

Elizabeth rated it

Shelves: in-by-of-england, virginia-woolf-hogarth-bloomsbury, fairy-tales, reviewed, scottish

I feel like a child. This may have everything to do with the fact that regardless of what my job title is or that I have the livelihoods of more than a dozen people dependent on my decisions (oh, god, I really just realized that), I feel like an impostor there. How can anyone think I'm capable of that? (It's also a fairly common feeling among women in software development, IT generally; there have been studies, which don't help, but I know them anyway). The feeling has everything to do with the ...more

like 54 likes

· see review

Aug 11, 2007

Teresa Jusino rated it

Shelves: readandreviewed

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 Literat...moreYesterday, 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):
"The novel is one of Woolf's most successful and accessible experiments in the stream-of-consciousness style. The three sections of the book take place
between 1910 and 1920 and revolve around various members of the Ramsay family during visits to their summer residence on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. A central motif of the novel is the conflict between the feminine and masculine principles at work in the universe.

With her emotional, poetic frame of mind, Mrs. Ramsay represents the female principle, while Mr. Ramsay, a self-centered philosopher, expresses the male principle in his rational point of view. Both are flawed by their limited
perspectives. A painter and friend of the family, Lily Briscoe, is Woolf's vision of the androgynous artist who personifies the ideal blending of male and female qualities. Her successful completion of a painting that she has been working on since the beginning of the novel is symbolic of this
unification."

It's funny, but until I read that, I had trouble rationalizing the need for Lily Briscoe - but now it makes perfect sense...I did notice the comparison between male and female principles in Mr. & Mrs. Ramsay, and Woolf captured them so well. I loved that she captured the weaknesses in both positions - that neither one of them was completely right or completely wrong. Because while Mrs. Ramsay did much good, was extremely nurturing, and saw the value in talking about something for its own sake and not to make oneself look superior; she also did good deeds for the acclaim it would bring her, and was vain about her own beauty. Meanwhile, Mr. Ramsay was a great thinker, but he also sucked the energy out of a room when he got depressed, was never affectionate with his children, and thought his wife stupid. Strangely (or maybe not so strangely) enough, I felt a lot of love between the two.
The only part of this book that I didn't particularly enjoy was the middle section, "Time Passes." While I understand why it was important to the novel it was, quite simply, boring. Lots of description of the house falling apart, of the elderly caretakers...time passes, but very slowly. ;)

The rest of the book, though, was brilliant! I related to so much of it - more than I probably would've liked to. Mrs. Ramsay's "good deeds", Mr. Ramsay's ambition...But I particularly identified with Cam and James' (two of the Ramsay children) relationship with their father, with James' objection to "tyranny", and Cam's indecision. They each seemed to personify the fluctuating views I have of my own father... :) What I love so much about Virginia Woolf's writing is that she manages to capture all the intricacies of a single moment and make it grand, epic. A person sitting down to dinner becomes a major, interesting event. Yet, as epic as these moments become, they are also extremely familiar. I was surprised that within this fictional family of English people at the turn of the century, I found so many versions of myself.
I'm going to stop here, because I can't write about this novel more intelligently than it itself was written. The book should speak for itself in this case.

(less)

like 20 likes

· see review

Feb 16, 2011

Jennifer (aka EM) rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Jennifer (aka EM) by: The Woolfians here on GR

All I know right now is that:

a) I liked it better than Mrs. Dalloway (purely subjectively/emotionally, which would seem to be the best way to take in and then respond to this work), and
b) my trick of using Atwood as a lever to catapult me into the depths of Woolf seems to have worked, at least partially, for some strange reason.

In trying to come up with points of comparison (see comments below) between Woolf and Atwood while reading this, I first of all could onl...more

like 9 likes

· see review

Aug 03, 2010

Justin rated it

Shelves: 2010-reads, favorites, classics

When Harold Bloom urged us to pursue difficult pleasure, he must have been talking about this book. Although short, it requires patience. The prose is tear-inducing beautiful, the plot simple, the relationships complex. I read the short chapter on Mrs. Ramsay's death aloud, over and over again. To say I loved this book is a gross understatement. The themes of passing time and family relationships really moved me.

Indulge me here for a moment...this book is difficult, probably boring...more

like 12 likes

· see review

Jun 10, 2009

Bram rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Bram by: Choupette

Shelves: 2009, favorites

1
Within the first 20 pages of To the Lighthouse, I fell head over heels in love. Gorgeous, fluid writing…the kind that gives me that buzz. You know that buzz. It was pure joy. There are passages here that unlock memories and past smells; sounds; feels; the summation of which reaches a crucial liminal stage that, when crossed, offers that pinnacle of reading: the buzz, the click, whatever you want to call it. At least, that was my experience from rea...more

like 26 likes

· see review

Feb 24, 2007

amy rated it

Shelves: favorites

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 sa...more

like 7 likes

· see review

Jan 06, 2012

William rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 20-ce, fiction, uk

Notes on second reading, mostly on structure.

The first section, "The Window," is the longest and its action spans a single twenty-four hour period. Fifteen people, mostly the Ramsay Family but also several guests, are going about their activities at this great house on the beach in Skye (Hebrides). It is the end of the season, September already, and their holiday will soon be over. They will all return to their home in the city. Woolf's nifty technique here is to take this...moreNotes on second reading, mostly on structure.

The first section, "The Window," is the longest and its action spans a single twenty-four hour period. Fifteen people, mostly the Ramsay Family but also several guests, are going about their activities at this great house on the beach in Skye (Hebrides). It is the end of the season, September already, and their holiday will soon be over. They will all return to their home in the city. Woolf's nifty technique here is to take this relatively limited story, that day at the house, and to wring from it the most enormous depths of insight and feeling, always keeping the actual scope of the events narrow. Otherwise events would swamp story. Some quoted dialog here but the narrative mostly proceeds by way of free indirect speech (a style of third-person narration which uses some characteristics of third-person along with the essence of first-person direct speech).

Switching swiftly from one character to another, Woolf avoids jarring disconnections by keeping these sections tightly linked thematically. The writing, which goes very deep into internal mullings of the characters, means to suggest the individual stream of conciousness. This can only be an approximation, of course, for as postmodernism has shown us, if it's shown us anything, is that all texts are constructs, fabrications. Yet the simulation of the thought process is very intriguingly done. I also liked the way we can watch the characters's mood swings. Perfectly reasonable people become irrational and angry and then the mood swings back again and they find themselves reasonable or apologetic (to themselves) or remorseful or delighted or flummoxed--what have you. There are also untoward thoughts. Such as when Mrs. Ramsay thinks 'We are all in the Lord's hands', and at once upbraids herself for she believes no such thing. So there's a mercurial quality: tempers rise and fall and we see their entire arc.

The second section, "Time Passing," which is much shorter than the first, stays with the house and the old housekeeper, Mrs. McNab, who shows up weekly to dust. The house is ramshackle and sits empty. We follow the sea winds as they sneak in here or there, tossing up bits of dust, pushing an unlatched door to and fro, tugging at the shawl Mrs. Ramsay has hung up. The housekeeper comes and goes. We watch the house deteriorate over time. It's the period immediately before and after World War I and so the normal cycle of the Ramsay Family's life has been interrupted. We stay with the house, which falls to pieces. Leaks develop, etc. Starlings and rats and every manner of insect gets in to make their various depredations. We learn of various family casualties in a matter of fact way that suggests stage directions. Then after ten years Mrs. McNab gets a letter in which she is told to make the house ready for habitation. She arrives with a friend and the cleaning begins. The carpenters arrive. The doors are locked. (This is just an overview. Believe me, nothing can prepare you for the vividness of the storytelling here. Throughout the book is a dazzler.)

In the last section, "To The Lighthouse," set ten years after the action of the first section. The original lodgers, those that remain among us, return. Woolf goes a little further here with her experiment. Now, not only do we quickly zip from one character to the next, but within the mentality of a single character we may slide from setting to setting in a manner suggesting one's endlessly divagating thoughts. This last section is more reflective, whereas the first is not at all. There is a relentlessness about the present-day setting in part one. We get very little backstory about the chatacters other than their professions and immediate relationships. But in the last section we are carried ever further into the thoughts of the characters, and there is less delineation between past and present.

As my GR friend Reese put it, she was glad to finish this book and put it aside at last. She is right. The reading here is work. The characters, because we get such an in-depth view of their mental processes, can strike one as selfish. But it is the technique that, to my mind, makes it all worthwhile. To The Lighthouse does not flow like, say, Mrs. Dalloway or Orlando. Let the reader be warned that he must earn his passage.(less)

like 4 likes

· see review

Jun 20, 2009

Dan Porter rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, classics

Mrs. Dalloway and Jacob's Room are the only other Woolf I've read thus far, so my opinions on her writing are based on them and To the Lighthouse. Some of the sentences she puts together make Cervantes and Pynchon look like Dr. Seuss. Parthentical phrases and stream of consciousness bits and pieces nested three or four deep make for some very long and often incomprehensible sentences. Although her stream of consciousness segments have a tendency to ramble, they seem to relate to what's going on ...moreMrs. Dalloway and Jacob's Room are the only other Woolf I've read thus far, so my opinions on her writing are based on them and To the Lighthouse. Some of the sentences she puts together make Cervantes and Pynchon look like Dr. Seuss. Parthentical phrases and stream of consciousness bits and pieces nested three or four deep make for some very long and often incomprehensible sentences. Although her stream of consciousness segments have a tendency to ramble, they seem to relate to what's going on better than those of other practioners of the form. Reading Woolf well requires a higher level of focus than do other authors but I think the effort is worthwhile. Once you get used to her style, you catch a lyrical quality or flow that somehow helps with understanding those convoluted sentences. Once you catch that, you start seeing some amazing insights into human nature.

The first thing to note about To the Lighthouse is that it's more a character study than a story. The story is two days in the life of a family, separated by ten years. The ten years account for only about 10% of the story and the two days that make up the other 90% are pretty boring from a plot perspective. From the perspective of human nature, individual personality, relationships, and social interaction this is an exceptional book. The symbiotic relationship of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay despite their seemingly incompatible individual personalities is both beautiful and frustratingly painful...the old how-did-they-end-up-together syndrome. Mr. Ramsay's personality desparately needs attention and affirmation and, despite her strenghth, Mrs. Ramsay's personality needs to provide that. The interesting thing about the relationship is the way she selectively withholds that from him in order to keep him from being a whiny little child all the time. It's interesting also to note the similarity, in the first section, between Mr. Ramsay's behavior and that of six-year-old James. The depiction of the various ways a strong personality such as Mrs. Ramsay's can impact others is startling. In the second section, the metaphor of the decline and restoration of the house for the effect on the other characters of the loss of Mrs. Ramsay is brilliant. I loved the "dinner" chapter for the fun it poked at the inane conversation to which we subject ourselves in the name of being sociable at such gatherings. A theme that recurs throughout the book is Mrs. Ramsay's beauty. I think that she retains the physical beauty of a 50-year-old woman who has always been physically beautiful but that everyone considers her beautiful primarily as the outward expression of her strong and beautiful character. Finally, I think Lily Briscoe's finishing her painting is a superb way of showing the importance for each of us of finding our own "self" in spite of the influence of others on our lives. (less)

like 5 likes

· see review

Apr 05, 2010

RandomAnthony rated it

He read, she thought, as if he were guiding something, or wheedling a large flock of sheep, or pushing his way up and up a single narrow path; and sometimes he went fast and straight, and broke his way through a bramble, and sometimes it seemed a branch struck at him, a bramble blinded him, but he was not going to let himself be beaten by that; on he went, tossing over page after page.

(p. 193)

Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse is an amazing book, evidence of raw ta...moreHe read, she thought, as if he were guiding something, or wheedling a large flock of sheep, or pushing his way up and up a single narrow path; and sometimes he went fast and straight, and broke his way through a bramble, and sometimes it seemed a branch struck at him, a bramble blinded him, but he was not going to let himself be beaten by that; on he went, tossing over page after page.

(p. 193)

Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse is an amazing book, evidence of raw talent, the type that causes one to wonder why you would ever bother trying your hand at fiction because only a few writers over the course of a century could touch this quality. The novel’s stream of consciousness style is nothing short of amazing. Even when the stream of consciousness addresses place instead of people Woolf’s genius is apparent; the “Time Passes” section alone is awe-inspiring in its compacting of nuanced, telling details over the years of an empty summer house. Her characterizations, second by second, mirror thought in startling ways. I could feel myself falling in the same patterns as the characters. Woolf’s descriptions of how one could detest and admire someone within the length of a dinner party are astounding.

This novel challenges the reader. I swear, I felt like I should stretch, maybe do a couple jumping jacks, and put on a headband before I started. Reading To The Lighthouse is work, make no mistake, but rewarding work. I read ten, twenty pages at a time before putting down the text and walking around the block before I could concentrate enough to dive in again. I found myself reading the expansive passages over and over half to bathe in the language and half to make sure I understood what in goddamn hell was happening. I was, I think, about 80% successful.

Woolf’s shooting at the literary and psychological stars are not completely successful; I don't mean to say she's perfect. Some generalizations early in the novel concerning the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey were simplistic, I thought, and the novel’s last twenty pages lost me. I didn’t expect to understand everything.

Sidebar: My wife’s family has a summer home and I’ve had experiences that while not entirely similar to the Ramseys’ were close enough to lead me to consider my summers in a new light. There is a paradoxically frenzied desire for calm and the oppressive expectation to perceive the summer home opportunity as perfection. Framing this summer, after reading Woolf, will be interesting.

I highly recommend To The Lighthouse. I’ve never read anything like it, and I can’t help but wonder why Woolf isn’t more popular. She was a flat-out fucking genius, a first ballot hall of famer, if you will, the type of writer who exhausts the reader and leaves him/her feeling better for time spent with her work. How can you put a price on that, you know? To The Lighthouse is a classic, and when you’re ready, give her a shot. Prevail, like Mr. Ramsey in the passage above, up the “single narrow path”; Woolf’s work is worth it.
(less)

like 25 likes

· see review

Jul 18, 2009

K.D. rated it

On the first two pages, I thought of dropping the book or thinking that this classic is bound to get a one star (I don't like it). However, when I finally finished reading the entire novel, I decided to give this a five-star rating (It's Amazing!)

Really, this one is AMAZING! It's like reading a deep moving poem in prose. The dialogue is minimized as most of the narratives are thoughts of the main protagonist, Mrs. Ramsay. It's mesmerizing as for me, the storytelling style is one of a...moreOn the first two pages, I thought of dropping the book or thinking that this classic is bound to get a one star (I don't like it). However, when I finally finished reading the entire novel, I decided to give this a five-star rating (It's Amazing!)

Really, this one is AMAZING! It's like reading a deep moving poem in prose. The dialogue is minimized as most of the narratives are thoughts of the main protagonist, Mrs. Ramsay. It's mesmerizing as for me, the storytelling style is one of a kind . Among the masters, I am putting Virginia Woolf in the same league as John Steinbeck in GRAPES OF WRATH, Gabriel Garcia Marquez in ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE and Sebastian Faulks in BIRDSONG. They are all those classic novels that I really like and in some ways, life-changing. However, I am not recommending this to people who are not trained to read classics or who do not like classics as it could be downright boring.

This is a story with lots of meanings which anybody can relate to. It's about moving on as Virginal Woolf wrote this story to finally end her grief over the death of his mother and father. It's about a father and son relationship as James, the youngest son, finally got the approval of Mr. Ramsay when the trip to the lighthouse happened in Part 3 (The Lighthouse). It's about women's liberation ("women can't write, women can't paint") as Lily Briscoe finally completed her paiting at the end of the novel. It's about the circle of life as several characters died in Part 2 (Time Passes) that connects Part I (Windows) to Part 3 (The Lighthouse) signifying the mortality of men.

I picked this book because I would like to know more about Virginia Woolf after knowing that she was one literary master who committed suicide. They say that reading is connecting with the author's mind and I am glad to have just glimpsed into the mind of great novelist like Virginia Woolf. I have already lined up MRS. DALLOWAY - Time Magazine's one of the 100 Best Novels of the 20TH Century.

Bravo, Mrs. Ramsay! Bravo, Mrs. Woolf!(less)

like 4 likes

· see review

Apr 26, 2007

Cheryl Tipp rated it

· review of another edition

This was my first foray into the works of Virginia Woolf and I have to say that it was one of the most boring books I've ever read. 'To the Lighthouse' kept cropping up on all the literary lists as a "must-read", so I diligently got my copy and prepared for something meaningful and thought provoking, worthy of somebody as iconic as Virginia. Despite a fairly dull beginning I perserved and was sure something brilliant was just over the page - then I got to the last page and realised tha...more

like 8 likes

· see review

May 12, 2008

Mat rated it

Recommends it for: writers

I just re-read this book a few months ago, thinking it was time to give Virginia another go. Her writing style is as original as they come, but this story is still as pointless as it was when I was forced to read it in highschool.

I am fascinated with her prose, but that can only sustain me through about 50 pages or so before I start to require more substance. Now, some surely argue that there is substance here - but I find it to be a rather redundant message, unaccompanied by a plot...more

like 9 likes

· see review

May 21, 2010

Ceridwen rated it

Shelves: rule-britannia, fiction, capital-m-modern, grandparental-overshare, the-housewife

I saw five lighthouses today, and at each one, I told my children that "We shall not be going to the lighthouse today", and every single time, they almost started crying. I've been laughing about this, in an extremely immature fashion, but I'm also sad about how I can't seem to stop joking about this thing that hurts them, even if it's transitory and easily remedied by the fact of real lighthouses blow over by a clear, cold wind. Ah.

-----

We're walking back on ...more

like 29 likes

· see review

Jun 03, 2010

Tatiana rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 1001, classics

Oh well, life is too short to force myself through this...

like 4 likes

· see review

Nov 08, 2011

Erik rated it

Shelves: classics, bepretentious, has-good-review

To the Lighthouse is a book best read in relaxing, desultory circumstances - perhaps on the beach, while the waves gently nibble on your toes, or atop some mountain veranda, whilst seated before a cozy fire, or perhaps on a bench in some hidden garden, surrounded by lillies and roses and the scents of spring. But then what activity is not enjoyable in all of those circumstances? Baking cookies or writing a dissertation or being stabbed to death, which of these is not superior in exotic, relaxi...moreTo the Lighthouse is a book best read in relaxing, desultory circumstances - perhaps on the beach, while the waves gently nibble on your toes, or atop some mountain veranda, whilst seated before a cozy fire, or perhaps on a bench in some hidden garden, surrounded by lillies and roses and the scents of spring. But then what activity is not enjoyable in all of those circumstances? Baking cookies or writing a dissertation or being stabbed to death, which of these is not superior in exotic, relaxing climes?

In plainer language, I mean that To the Lighthouse is a book heavy on thought and light on plot. The conflicts, though sometimes hard to find, are certainly there, but the plot is almost nil: it exists almost entirely in subjectivity, in the thoughts of the characters.

As such, this is a book that is for the philosophers, the literati, the professors, the erudites, the pretentious, and the poets. This is a book which functions primarily as a catalyst for your own thoughts, as a mirror into your own self - you read it and consider your own life so if there's not much there, if you are not gifted (or cursed) with introspection, then you may very well find nothing of worth in these pages. There is no vicarious adventure here, there is only meditation and contemplation.

This presents a conundrum for me. I opened this book, saw immediately what type of book it was, put it down, then picked it up, suddenly fearful that my mind had regressed, that I was no longer capable of handling what might be called "sophisticated books," that I had somehow devolved into a story-fiend, searching only for the quick fix of a thriller. After finishing the book (and, I must admit, glad that I did - the stylistic elements of the writing are fabulous), I realized that this wasn't the case. Rather it was this conundrum: if the book's depth must ultimately come from me, from harmonies and echoes of my own philosophical musings, then why need I bother with the book? The simple truth is that I needn't; that, if so desired, I could just as easily watch a cardinal in flight and have as deep and profitable (which is to say completely profitless) meditations as when I read this book. Not everyone is able to set aside such driftless, frivolous time for simple thought. But I can, so I ask: What then, is the point of reading this book?

I could write of Woolf’s lyrical style, the way her metaphors flow like sunflowers perking up in a gentle summer breeze, how they do not make strict logical sense, how you will read them and might recall distantly how, once, you saw something entirely mundane, like a child chasing a rabbit through tall stalks of golden grain, and felt a vague sense of importance, of connectedness, of some greater meaning of it all. I might mention the incredible complexity of her scenes -- for this 200+ page book covers a mere two days (albeit separated by ten years) -- and how deep and realistic are the thoughts of her characters. I might mention how pertinent are her portrayals of gender imbalances, of man’s seemingly inexhaustible thirst for feminine sympathy, how men need their women to give meaning to their lives. I might speak of how this novel so accurately portrays the impossible emotional and cognitive distances that separate people and the ways in which family and lovers try to bridge them.

But to delve more deeply into these admirable qualities of the book would be to suggest something which is not true: that the book does have a point. Because for all of the immense writing prowess that Woolf displays here, this story, so unnecessarily dense, accomplishes no more than solidifying beliefs already held. If you believe in the ideas portrayed here (perhaps you’ve simply been unable to find the language with which to express them) then you will now accept them as divine truth. But if you do not, and in many cases I did not, then what? What is it that I have gained? I have not been instructed in any new knowledge or philosophy -- I have not, to use the language of the book, been given a boost to move from a philosophical comprehension level of Q to a level of R. I have only been slightly entertained. I have not been transported by the richly detailed, but ultimately mundane, life presented here. My imagination has not been whetted, has not been stoked. What then, I ask?

--

I must also add that Virginia Woolf’s use of pronouns was exceedingly irritating; they’re like cars driven by Italians. They come swerving, out of nowhere, bash into you, and then speed away, their drivers cursing heartily and unintelligbly. You feel vaguely that there was something you ought to have known or done differently, but the truth is that, nope, they're just crazy. ‘He,’ and ‘she,’ and ‘it’ will abound, with an antecedent that can often only be located by irksome sleuthing.(less)

like 4 likes

· see review

Jun 03, 2008

Jeff added it

My only experience with Woolf, this is still my favorite novel, or at least among the top few. I read it again last year after more than 10 yrs, when I had read it repeatedly, and now, especially after 4+ volumes of Proust's "In search of lost time", and dozens of other novels and novellas, I finds Woolf's sentence flow uncomfortable, really I thought of a train or bus with a new driver that doesn't have the stop and go rhythm down yet. I was surprised, I kept thinking I just need to...more

like 2 likes

· see review

Dec 13, 2007

Dianna rated it

Recommends it for: People who like the unordinary

Shelves: classic-literature

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 (The Idiot, Faust and The Federalist)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...Mr. Rams...moreThis 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 (The Idiot, Faust and The Federalist)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...Mr. Ramsay did that..." Why can't she just say, "he or she did this or that?" I don't like the way the book flips from one person's mind to another without any warning. I don't like the sense of foreboding I get. (Is Nancy going to die?)

But I do think Virginia Woolf definitely had the ability to probe into the human condition. Has anyone noticed the obvious Oedipal complex between Mrs. Ramsay and her son James? Anyway, those are my thoughts as I am a little over one-third through the book.

...As I read I realize even more that she really did understand the human condition, at least as I see it. I love the dinner table scene where every adult thinks their own thoughts, some pretending to be civil, saying things they don't mean...

There is a real conflict between masculine and feminine that I can relate to. Not only is it the conflict between the masculine and feminine sex at the table but the masculine and feminine in each individual.

Ok I am finished with the book... I did like it. I have 2 more points to make.

first, I believe one of the most important sentences in the book is this: "For whatever reason she could not achieve that razor edge of balance between two opposite forces..." (P 193). I can sense that so much from Virginia Woolf herself in her writing, and with that I do indeed relate.
I saw the movie "The Hours" and have wondered more than once if Woolf was bi-polar.

The other thing is that I see Mrs. Ramsay herself as a type of lighthouse. I saw this when I read about the lighthouse, "there it loomed up, stark and straight..." (p 203). More than once Mrs. Ramsay was painted as "straight." I see her as the entity that everyone found shelter in. But really, the lighthouse is nothing without people to shelter, so the lighthouse (Mrs. Ramsay) did not really have a life apart from the people that needed it/her. That is kind of sad, don't you think?(less)

like 2 likes

· see review

Mar 25, 2008

Emily rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: the conflicted

Shelves: booksofthepast

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 ad...more

like 3 likes

· see review

Jul 27, 2007

Katie Bierach rated it

Thus far my only Virginia Woolf experience, To the Lighthouse impressed me by placing a heavy emphasis on the fact that characters only exist in their interactions with others ... a character is terrible, then forgivable, until another character reads and acts on his expression, at which point you get angry and lose yourself in this web of sympathy and fear and insecurity, scrutinizing the characters and shrinking as they scrutinize each other. There's a love that falls apart and acts untorn, o...more

like 2 likes

· see review

Jun 13, 2007

Leigh rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: for-honors-seminar, novels, five-stars

Aside from all its other merits--which I can't do justice to extemporaneously, here--this book contains the best justification for creating art that I've ever read. The warm secrecy of it, the sense of having something inviolable all to yourself:

Then her eye caught the salt cellar, which she had placed there to remind
her, and she remembered that next morning she would move the tree
further towards the middle, and her spirits rose so high at the thought
of painting to...more

like 3 likes

· see review

Jan 22, 2010

Carol jinx rated it

Shelves: classic

I learned that i could never write like Virginia Woolf. She's amazing.
The book is about the common struggle that each of the characters faces to bring meaning to their lives.
All young James wants is to go to the lighthouse. Mr Ramsay just wants his wife to tell him she loves him and give him sympathy. Lily wants to complete a painting and Charles Tansley insists that women can't paint or write. Woolf tells this story in deep "stream of consciousness" and gives us so much i...more

like 1 like

· see review

Dec 14, 2009

Tim rated it

Shelves: favorite

Unbelievable. I'm listening to this now. If the audiobook wasn't so good, I'd rush to finish it in print. I've never read Virginia Woolf, and I don't know whether to kick myself for waiting so long, or pat myself on the back for still having her to read.

The mixture of insight, style, beautiful words, character is a true delight. More when I finish the book. But if it keeps going as it is now, this will be on my "top ten" list. A "must read."

like 2 likes

· see review

Jun 13, 2008

Pocket rated it

ok, so i actually havent finished this one. i got bored or confused or something... i tried to read it on vacation, and it was great for putting me to sleep on the plane, but not much else. sad.

like 5 likes

· see review

Dec 25, 2007

W.B. rated it

It doesn't really get any better than this. It's that simple.

like 4 likes

· see review

Jan 08, 2012

Anne Nikoline rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: fans or strong female leads

Recommended to Anne Nikoline by: book club

Shelves: adult, book-club, classics, british-literature, read-in-2012, library-books

No, I did not happen to like To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. The reason therefore is the plot; from the very beginning and until the very end, I did not felt captured by it at any moment. Instead it was like being in a boring lesson in school where you are only seconds away from falling asleep. Even so, I really did happen to like the authors writing style, as i also wrote in a status update earlier. So, believe it or not, I actually got a great hunger to read more of her wroks, even though...more

like 1 like

· see review

Feb 25, 2011

Julia Boechat Machado rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 1920s, british-literature, tingle-of-the-spine, books-i-own

Talvez o livro mais perfeito de Virginia Woolf.
"He has landed," she said aloud. "It is finished." Then, surging up, puffing slightly, old Mr Carmichael stood beside her, looking like an old pagan god, shaggy, with weeds in his hair and the trident (it was only a French novel) in his hand. He stood by her on the edge of the lawn, swaying a little in his bulk and said, shading his eyes with his hand: "They will have landed," and she felt that she had been right....more

like 1 like

· see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 1413 1414 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Challenge: 50 Books: Reid's 2012 Goal: (?) pages, 50 Books ytd, 61 by 12'12	19	24	Feb 07, 2012 01:12pm
just joining	3	24	Nov 30, 2011 01:52pm
just joining	1	5	Nov 24, 2011 09:15pm
Bókaklúbburinn Bl...: Endurvirkja	1	6	Nov 16, 2011 07:00am
The Novel 100: Miranda's review	1	2	Nov 04, 2011 11:56am

combine
Other Editions (134)

More editions...

Genres

Classics

722 users

Literature

155 users

Novels

92 users

European Literature > British Literature

63 users

Literature > 20th Century

40 users

Literary Fiction

38 users

Academic > College

38 users

Feminism

31 users

Classics > Modern Classics

29 users

Academic > School

29 users

See top shelves...

Readers Also Enjoyed

About Virginia Woolf

(Adeline) Virginia Woolf was an English novelist and essayist regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.

During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the bo...more

More about Virginia Woolf...

Books by Virginia Woolf

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Pin It

Trivia About To the Lighthouse

15 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from To the Lighthouse

“What is the meaning of life? That was all- a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, 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.” — 136 people liked it

“He smiled the most exquisite smile, veiled by memory, tinged by dreams.” — 47 people liked it

More quotes…

Groups That Shelved Naar de vuurtoren

Boxall's 1001 Books You ...

11001 members

last activity 2 hours, 47 min ago

shelf: read

The Next Best Book Club

8324 members

last activity 0 minutes ago

shelf: read

Around the World in 80 Books

323 members

last activity 5 minutes ago

shelf: read

title link	preview: To the Lighthouse
avg rating	preview: To the Lighthouse Goodreads rating: 3.72 (25494 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59716.To_the_Lighthouse?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1287335828m/59716.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59716.To_the_Lighthouse?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf[/url]

To the Lighthouse

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Readers Also Enjoyed

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website