To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
paperback 209 pages
published by Pomona Press in 2006 (originally published in 1927)
ISBN-13: 9781406792393
Type: {Impress Your Friends Read: notable; prize-winner or all around intelligent crowd conversation piece.}
Rating: {I am leaving this book unrated. I have no idea in the world how to rate this book. It’s like asking me to rate a relationship — was it good, was it bad? I don’t know — both? I’m sure I’m a little biased because it plays so heavily on your own emotions and experiences. (Am I sounding strange? Probably have been spending too much time with Woolf, then.)}
Why You’re Reading It:
- You enjoy Virginia Woolf, or you have always wanted to read one of her books.
- Stream of consciousness writing makes you happy.
- You like an intelligent character study.
What I Thought:
To the Lighthouse is a small but mighty book. It is to be read slowly and carefully – no speed reading will do here. Virginia Woolf is masterful at studying characters in this novel, one said to be closely autobiographical. It follows the lives of the Ramsey family and those who interact with them at their summer house off the coast of Scotland.
I’ve never read a book that more fully rides on my ability to feel rather than understand. You must be willing to give up the cerebral control that readers try so hard to maintain while reading and just go with the flow — literally, the flow. Woolf’s writing was accurately described as being like water (or waves) by readers who read this book along with me. One reader even remarked that reading Woolf was like getting a blanket thrown over your head while someone spins you around and around. So true. But, we like it anyway. Why? Because if you can just give yourself up to her writing you will find that every few sentences you want to declare, “Yes! Rightly so, Virginia, you have captured humanness precisely!”
You will notice that her prose feels a lot like your own thoughts, before you are able to slow them down so that they can be articulated to come out of your mouth as words. There can be no rushing, because you will miss the parts that make sense - absolutely this is a rule. No rushing.
If I had to summarize this book into how it made me feel (because, I really don’t know how else to summarize this book), I would say that it is a tremendous achievement in getting a reader to feel the great contrast between the vitality of life and the loneliness of emptiness. Like some of her most remarkable characters, her prose is not meant to be captured, but rather to be experienced. Try too hard, and you will miss the point entirely (maybe like life itself?).
And if you have no idea what I just said because it was a bit abstract, just wait until you read this book. I dare you.
I loved love loved reading this book with you all! My final thoughts are here:
http://armchairarchives.blogspot.com/2011/07/virginia-woolfs-to-lighthouse-read_29.html
Within my post, I’ve included a great conversation with an NPR commentator and a lit professor on To the Ligthhouse. It’s a bit long, but if you have a moment, I highly recommend giving it a listen.
Happy continued reading to all! and here’s to more adventures with Ms. Woolf!
Very cool, I’ll check out your post and that link. Thanks!
I love the photograph of Woolf you included with your blog post!
Wallace, Thanks so much for hosting this read-a-long. I’ve really enjoyed the reading, enhanced by the variety of insights and comments every week. I thought folks might enjoy this excerpt from a teasing letter Virginia Woolf wrote to her sister, Vanessa, after To the Lighthouse was published:
“Dearest,
No letter from you—But I see how it is—
Scene: after dinner: Nessa sewing: Duncan doing absolutely nothing.
Nessa: (throwing down her work) …There’s the Lighthouse! I’ve only got to page 86 and I see there are 320. Now I can’t write to Virginia because she’ll expect me to tell her what I think of it.
Duncan: Well, I should just tell her that you think it’s a masterpiece.
Nessa: But she’s sure to find out—They always do. She’ll want to know why I think it’s a masterpiece.
Duncan: Well Nessa, I’m afraid I can’t help you, because I’ve only read 5 pages so far, and really I don’t see much prospect of doing much reading this month, or next month, or indeed before Christmas.
Nessa: Oh it’s all very well for you. But I shall have to say something: And I don’t know who in the name of Jupiter all these people are (turns over some pages desperately) I think I shall make a timetable: it’s the only way: ten pages a day for 20 days is—
Duncan: But you’ll never be able to keep up ten pages a day.
Nessa: (rather dashed) No—I suppose I shan’t. Well then, one may as well be hung for a sheep as for a goat—though what’s the sense of saying that I never could see….
Now isn’t this word for word the truth?”
Bahaha love this SO much!
Haha! So I’m not the only one who was bogged down by all the names! I love that — must read her diaries soon. So glad you read along with us, Susan!
Thanks so much for hosting this read-along, Wallace. I’m relatively certain that I never would have finished this book without it. In the end, I fell a bit out of love with Virginia Woolf after last week’s swoonfest, but I’m definitely glad I stuck it out. I feel like I really accomplished something by reading it! Thoughts here: http://wp.me/p1qvhM-5V
Jill, You’re like the kid in church who won’t stop squirming. (That’s a COMPLIMENT btw) That you made it THROUGH THE LIGHTHOUSE is a FEAT and you should wear it like a medal!
Isn’t it funny how feelings can change from week to week with this book? I had that happen too (obviously). I’m glad you stuck in there with us – at least now you can say you’ve read it!
I have a leeeetle more to read! I will be back this weekend to post my thoughts and read all of yours.
Sounds good – looking forward to it!
I have weekend guests (my daughters–think two young Lily Briscoes on
Amp or Red Bull!!) and will post again in the weeee hours tonight or tomorrow morning…but for now…I HAVE to share with you this picture of the beautiful, stately abandoned Edwardian farmhouse, around the corner and down the road from ours. It became the Ramseys’ summer home in my mind the minute I began reading “Time Passes”… http://twitpic.com/5xudv3
Hahaha! I love that description of your daughters — very vivid. It’s funny because I kept imagining them in Martha’s Vineyard or the sort instead of Scotland. That house is perfect for the Ramseys… it also kind of makes me think of the house that the Dashwoods rent in Sense and Sensibility after being cast out of their home by the brother and sister–in-law.
You may have just persuaded me to read Virginia Woolf for my first author of the Novella Reading Challenge. Intriguing. I’ve never read anything by her.
So, so, so very moved by this book! It is amazing to me how Woolf was able to articulate so many difficult…emotions, concepts…how she was able to communicate subjectivity for example! And time…how she was able to show how the ten years and war passing altered memory and emotion. How even with huge wounds it is possible to go on and live (that fish with a chunk taken out for bait, but still living, thrown back into the sea. OMG holy fresh metaphor Virginia!!!).
My most meaningful and heartrending interaction with this book was with Lily. With all his emotional terrorism and intellectualism, Mr. Ramsay did not succeed in “getting to Z.” With all her beauty and social mechanizations, Mrs. Ramsay was not able to ensure? force? the life she wanted for the next generation. Only Lily was able to make something. Woolf’s belief in the power of art is so moving to me, so sustaining. War, death – creative acts still have meaning. Even if it winds up in the attic. If we all take only one thing away from this book, I hope it is this.
“Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I have had my vision.”
(I find it interesting that this book and the other great Modernist work Ulysses have Yes in their last sentences! Despite the modern loneliness and disconnection, still, yes.)
You’ve just made me like this book even more as you’ve pointed out that Lily, one who other characters maybe even felt sorry for throughout the book, ended up being the most satisfied. I love that!
I’m not so sure Mr. R didn’t “get to Z” when he got to the Lighthouse. It’s where he praised James–where he kindly warned Cam not to waste and gave her a gingerbread nut as he sat “shabby, and simple, eating bread and cheese”–where he “sprang lightly, like a young man, on to the rock” and “looking back at the island with his long-sighted eyes” “he might be thinking, We perished, each alone, or he might be thinking, I have reached it. I have found it…” I like to think he found it–waiting for him back on that dwindled leaf-like shape that was all a blur” –and what he found, was Lily.
(It totally took me by surprise that he was 71 years old at the end!)
Book finished today ! There will be a review in French on GR and I’ll try to write some thoughts in English. It’s a great piece of work and I’m so happy to have been able to read it (thanks to your read-a-long because even if I always was a week late, the deadlines were motivating !) that I’ve already get “The Waves” and my library has “Orlando” in English. I’m quite sure I won’t read another Woolf in English in 2011 but now that I’ve learned I was able to appreciate this author, I want to read more of her works !
Thanks again and great review as I told you on GR !
I have to say that I had to put the book down. I’m not saying that I will not pick it up again. Like you said, It needs to be read slowly and I haven’t had the time lately to read anything slowly. I would like to come back to it with a mind that is more clear and some time to spend really absorbing the words. So…I’ve failed yet another of your read-a-longs.
I hope you’re not going to ban me. I have The Midwife’s Tale and I’m determined to keep up this time.
I also wanted to let you know that I nominated Unputdownables for best literary blog for BBAW.
I hope you make the final cut!
Oh gosh, don’t worry at all! I’m not a fan of pushing myself (or anybody) through books they don’t like. So, by all means put a book down if you are wasting time with it. I know you’ll make it through a read-a-long as soon as it’s a book that fully interests you. I’m finding the Intro to Midwife’s Tale dry, but I think it picks up at chapter one, so you might have to give it a week or two.
That’s so sweet of you! Thank you for the nomination — regardless of what happens with the award, that means the world to me to know that you like my blog that much!