Product Description

This novel is an extraordinarily poignant evocation of a lost happiness that lives on in the memory. For years now the Ramsays have spent every summer in their holiday home in Scotland, and they expect these summers will go on forever.

In this, her most autobiographical novel, Virginia Woolf captures the intensity of childhood longing and delight, and the shifting complexity of adult relationships. From an acute awareness of transcience, she creates an enduring work of art.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1859 in Books
• Published on: 1994-02-07
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Synopsis
This book is with an introduction and notes by Dr Nicola Bradbury, University of Reading. "To the Lighthouse" is the most autobiographical of Virginia Woolf's novels. It is based on her own early experiences, and while it touches on childhood and children's perceptions and desires, it is at its most trenchant when exploring adult relationships, marriage and the changing class-structure in the period spanning the Great War.

From the Publisher
With introductions by Eavan Boland and Maud Ellmann

About the Author
Virginia Woolf was born in London in 1882, the daughter of Sir Leslie Stephen, first editor of The Dictionary of National Biography. From 1915, when she published her first novel, The Voyage Out, Virginia Woolf maintained an astonishing output of fiction, literary criticism, essays and biography. In 1912 she married Leonard Woolf, and in 1917 they founded The Hogarth Press. Virginia Woolf suffered a series of mental breakdowns throughout her life, and on 28 March 1941 she committed suicide.

Customer Reviews

An extraordinary edition of a classic
Woolf's mastery of the stream of consciousness technique certainly is something to be admired, but that being said, I still find the novel rather boring and written (deliberately, I believe) in a way not particularly easy to read. Just like this sentence, actually.

I really wanted to write this review, however, to praise this particular edition (Oxforld World's Classics) for including the most ingenious notes I have ever seen. They are obviously very painstakingly researched, incredibly detailed and astonishingly pointless. When a character looks at a picture of Vesuvius exploding, an asterisk encourages the reader to read the appropriate note which is a comprehensive list of all Vesuvius eruptions from 1850 to 1920 (pointing out the most likely one). Upon Mr Ramsey being likened to a walrus, the note helpfully identifies (by name!) a walrus Virginia Woolf could have seen in the London Zoo, complete with his dates of birth and death. Sometimes the note directs you to a relevant passage elsewhere in the book; in one case, this relevant passage (quoted in full in the note, by the way) is as far as three lines away. And the list could go on and on.

Either the notes are an elaborate joke or a clear proof that Oxford professors are rather curious people. Either way, they are hilarious. I never thought I would laugh out loud reading a Woolf novel.

Great minds against themselves conspire
Why anybody talks about a storyline when reviewing Woolf is beyond me. TTL doesn't dress up its themes in a storyline. The book is a reflection on those things in life (both tragic and miraculous) which are on the lowest plain of being yet on a higher plane of detection (if that makes any sense to anyone else!).

The middle section is amazingly beautiful. Her insight into life was like reading what I had been trying to put into words for so long. She gives life to those things I couldn't pin down before.

I really can't praise this book enough. It was my first venture into Woolf and it's not as difficult to read as people make out; just plow on through it and everything will come together as you go.

This is also a good edition as the notes are very concise and give a better overall feel for the background of the novel.

Just read it.

Not easy reading*
This is not a review about the novel written by Woolf. *It's about this edition being very hard reading, because the book has been shortened down to just 154 pages (other editions have as much as up to 300 pages). This means that the typing used are very small, there are almost no air between the lines, and A LOT of text printed on each page. I think this might be for consideration for students, like myself. On the other hand, this edition is cheaper than other versions. Now knowing the reason.