To the Lighthouse (Oxford World’s Classics)

Virginia Woolf is, of course, one of the finest composers of sentences in the English language, and her virtuosity, lyricism and precision are no better showcased than in this novel, To The Lighthouse.In some ways, in my opinion, the slightness of the plot of this novel offers Woolf the opportunity to play to her strengths: a wonderful eye for character and psychology, both physical and mental detail, and a hugely poetic sensibility. Something spiritual too -not a whimscal, idealist hope or faith, rather a grounded, concentrated poise; fixing things exactly how they are, or appear to be, yet acknowledging, all the same, their ephemeral, unfixable nature. A truth seeker of the highest integrity and articulacy.I'm clearly fumbling for words here to convey my admiration - suffice it to say I am hugely impressed with Virginia Woolf's skills as a writer. However, in minor criticism: I did feel that the novel falls off a little in the last section, "The Lighthouse". The remaining characters now shadows of their former selves, in my view. So many years past and the central character deceased, the story felt already over. We had, after all, only spent a day with them, back in their pomp.A quibble really. A highly satisfying and accomplished performance!

I really liked this. If a reader is having issues with stream of consciousness, I would recommend the advice I was given reading James Joyce's Ulysses...just let it flow (although this is nowhere near comparable to that).I have read Woolf really loved Marcel Proust and to me, it's very evident here. So anyone who enjoys philosophical musings on reading, painting, nature, relationships and fifteen people around the dinner table paranoid about what the others think of them...give it a try.

I struggled with Virginia Woolf at university, and used to compare her unfavourably against her contemporary, and my favourite writer at the time, Katherine Mansfield. But lately I find that the tables are being turned: I'm getting to grips with Woolf's fluid style - though she can still leave me trailing in her wake - and am beginning to find Mansfield less sincere and real - she beguiles ya, and is very good at it, while Woolf seems to be genuinely trying to get at the truth. I read The Lighthouse at uni, liked it, but found it a bit opaque; now I find it more visual, and involving, and I don't care how many people accuse Woolf and the rest of the Bloomsbury lot of being elitist snobs....This is some of the best writing ever, and her Woolf's agenda seems to be to HAVE no agenda other than tellin' it like it is. She rocks! (No pun intended.)

This was the first V.W. book I had ever read so it was a very new experience. I enjoyed the book but it is not an easy on the beach read. Woolf's writing is very descriptive but I found it took me some time to get used to her style; once I had I began to really appreciate it. Basically it is a story of two halves, about a family and their friends who stay in a holiday home on Shetland, separated by a ten year period during which time WW1 happens. There is an interesting shortish middle part which explains the changes that happen to the house and some of the characters during the ten year period.

A haunting and beautiful tale, gorgeously written and engrossing. Don’t come for the plot, come for the writing, for the use of language, for the beauty.

I purchased and read 'To the Lighthouse' because Virginia Woolf is a novelist of renown and having read and enjoyed many books by writers of great standing such as Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Joyce and others, I felt that I should read one of her books. To speak negatively of such a famous writer is, I realise, to invite criticism, but frankly I did not enjoy this book. The story consists of an account of two visits by a family to a holiday home in the Hebrides with a short linking section in between. I found the style of writing winding and hard to follow and had to continually re-read whole sections in order to follow the narrative at all. It includes almost no action and little dialogue; consisting mainly of descriptions of thoughts and observations - sometimes it is even difficult to work out whose. Without the introduction by David Bradshaw the book would have been all but unintelligible. Judging solely by this single one hundred and seventy page story I cannot see how Woolf can be classified as a great writer; 'To the Lighthouse' took me a long time to read and when I finally finished it and put it down I felt that it was an example of the public being sold `the emperors suit of clothes'.

It's taken 50 years to read this book after struggling with The Waves at school. It is wonderful at capturing our minds being torn in different directions, especially women struggling between an instinct to support others and a deep desire for self expression that requires selfishness with one's time.Woolf's descriptive powers are breathtaking. There is a line about dawn breaking that so perfectly describes a tiny transluscence that appears inside a wave it is as if it is being observed by a mermaid.Gripping, tragic, hopeful.

Woolf certainly has produced an interesting work here, stated as being the most autobiographical of all her novels as many aspects of her own life are involved within the novel. Although a warning should really be issued as if you are looking for something with a storyline then you should really look elsewhere. This is a very experamentative and modernist work and an extreme change from the plot-driven novels of the Victorian era and as such the novel involves itself more in explaining the moment than advancing the storyline.This is very much a required taste. Those who like a rich storyline will not enjoy this book, although those that revel in being wrapped up in intense descriptions of seeminly inconsequential events will LOVE this book.