To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

...wasn't particularly straightforward. I chose to read To the Lighthouse simply because I have recently been to the Isle of Skye and the story described in this book is based on Skye. However, if I hadn't read this on the back cover, I would not have known where the book was set - apart from the fact that it was set on an island. I was certainly not expecting the writing style that I was faced with and was tempted to put it down after just a few pages. ...
...focuses on a potential trip to a nearby lighthouse to which her young son James is looking forward. He is deeply upset that his father and Charles Tansley insist that the trip will be impossible because of the weather. Despite this, other members of the party are having a marvellous holiday. The second part of the book sees the return of the Ramsays to Skye after a period of ten years, during which the First World War took place and certain members ...

sunmeilan 19.07.2006 · Read full review
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Review of To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

...female voice and writing style to stand against the male-dominated literary canon. Like 'Mrs. Dalloway' before it, which is more well known and less cerebral, the book is written entirely in a stream-of-consciousness style, the long-winded sentences striving to evoke each character's thought process as their minds flit from one topic to another, and back and forth through their lives. Despite being her preferred means to find the feminine voice, ...
...wife as she drifts off to sleep, masturbates, and comes onto her period. It's a highly creative and revealing insight into a woman's mind that is, of course, written by a man. 'To the Lighthouse' is similarly a celebration of the feminine against male oppression, as well as a very effective and chilling observation of the generation gap carved by the First World War, particularly in the changing attitudes of women. Woolf's novel is divided into ...

Frankingsteins 07.03.2008 · Read full review
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Review of To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

...was a little over-ambitious trying to read him in the original language), I guess this must be my first experience with stream of consciousness writing. At first I found it intolerable, having to re-read every sentence and search for beginnings and ends of clauses, but I got used to it after a while and started to enjoy the flitting between different characters' viewpoints. (I even did my own stream of consciousness piece as an exercise which was ...
...I still found Woolf's writing to be a little peculiar, with words and turns of phrases that sometimes seemed inappropriately over-elaborate, as though she were writing with a thesaurus at hand (I'm sure she didn't do this, in fact I probably only think this because it's something I've been known to do!). The lack of action which I was warned about didn't bother me at all, in fact rather a lot seemed to happen - most importantly, in any case, time ...

sparklya 06.01.2006 · Read full review
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Review of To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

...shifts from one character's perspective to another, creating a contiually changing, sometimes contradictory narrative which leaves a lasting impression and a deeper, if more confused, idea of the human mind and also of the conventions of society, especially those sutrrounding male and female roles. If you are familiar with Woolf's novel 'Mrs Dalloway', you will see many similarities here, both in terms of writing style and themes, and I found this ...

SMAL 17.12.2003 · Read full review
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Review of To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf