TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by VIRGINIA WOOLF

TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

BY VIRGINIA WOOLF

THE BLURB:-

This simple and haunting story captures the transience of life life and its surrounding emotions.

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.

THE REALITY:-

I bought this as I saw the Godrevy Lighthouse, in St Ives Bay, Cornwall, when I visited there in May. Virginia Woolf's family had a summer house in the area, which she used to visit as a child, and the lighthouse inspired this novel (even though she set her story in Scotland).

In that respect, I was disappointed. The lighthouse does not seem to feature in any extreme detail- rather as a backdrop for the events which take place. And not a lot of events do take place- this wasn't a story as such, as it seemed to centre around a couple of days of activities involving a house filled with a large family and its intellectual and artistic guests, followed by a bleak period which we don't really read about, and in which there are three significant deaths and then- FINALLY!- a trip to the lighthouse. But again, it's more about the journey than the destination.

Virginia Woolf was considered groundbreaking in that she writes with a style known as 'stream of consciousness'- where she gets into the heart and soul of individual's emotions and writes from more than one person's perspective. I found it an interesting way to write and the jist of the novel certainly moved me. We also learned about the life and times of most of these characters and got into the nitty-gritty of their feelings. It's an effective way to write, but I did find that the story ran on a bit because of this. This book was a bit like a drug in that I kind of didn't want to like it as it was too over-emotional and psychological but I couldn't help but want to find out what the conclusion was. And the conclusion was- nothing much but, at the same time, a very lot. Confused? As I said before, there wasn't much of a story here- more a turn of events- but the feelings some of the characters have to deal with (and with love and loss, that is somewhat dark) all kind of came to an ending which felt rather sad to me. This is not a novel that seems to have a lot of winners. Maybe we can leave that to the only hopeful duo; the next generation: James and Cam.

This was only 154 pages long but it did take me some time to read- partially because I've been busy, partially because it required concentration (it wasn't a 'light' read) as it flip-flopped between characters a lot and partially as I kind of dreaded picking it up- yet at the same time wanted to finish it. Largely autobiographical (another reason why I wanted to give it a go) this was certainly a breathtaking piece of work. But I kind of found it hard work at the same time; albeit of the compelling sort.

I'd give this author another go as I'm curious as to whether she adopts this style of prose for all her novels, but ideally I'd like to read something with more of a storyline.