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To the Lighthouse
Sign in to save1927 novel by Virginia Woolf
Book · Open Library
- Author
- Virginia Woolf
- First published
- 1927
- Editions
- 521
- Subjects
- Fiction, Married people, Death, Mothers, Summer resorts, Loss (Psychology), English, Lighthouses
via Open Library
Key facts
- Author
- Virginia Woolf
- Cover artist
- Vanessa Bell
- Language
- English
- Genre
- Modernism
- Publisher
- Hogarth Press
- Publication date
- 5 May 1927
- Publication place
- United Kingdom
- Preceded by
- Mrs Dalloway
- Followed by
- Orlando: A Biography
- Text
- To the Lighthouse at Wikisource
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- literary work
- Author
- Virginia Woolf
- Genre
- modernist literature
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Followed by
- Orlando: A Biography
- Follows
- Mrs Dalloway
- Image
- Al faro. Virginia Woolf, 1927.jpg
Show 8 more facts
- language of work or name
- British English
- title
- To the Lighthouse
- form of creative work
- novel
- publication date
- 1927-00-00
- Commons category
- To the Lighthouse
- first line
- “Yes, of course, if it’s fine tomorrow,” said Mrs. Ramsay. “But you’ll have to be up with the lark,” she added. To her son these words conveyed an extraordinary joy, as if it were settled, the expedition were bound to take place, and the wonder to which he had looked forward, for years and years it seemed, was, after a night’s darkness and a day's sail, within touch.
- last line
- Quickly, as if she were recalled by something over there, she turned toher canvas. There it was—her picture. Yes, with all its greens and blues, its lines running up and across, its attempt at something. It would be hung in the attics, she thought; it would be destroyed. But what did that matter? she asked herself, taking up her brush again. She looked at the steps; they were empty; she looked at her canvas; it was blurred. With a sudden intensity, as if she saw it clear for asecond, she drew a line there, in the centre. It was done; it was finished. Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I have had my vision.
- public domain date
- 2023-01-01
via Wikidata · CC0
~15 min read
Encyclopedic overview
To the Lighthouse is a 1927 novel by Virginia Woolf. The novel centres on the Ramsay family and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland between 1910 and 1920.
Following and extending the tradition of modernist novelists like Marcel Proust and James Joyce, the plot of To the Lighthouse is secondary to its philosophical introspection. Cited as a key example of the literary technique of multiple focalisation, the novel includes little dialogue and almost no direct action; most of it is written as thoughts and observations. To the Lighthouse is made of three powerfully charged visions into the life of the Ramsay family—maternal Mrs. Ramsay, highbrow Mr. Ramsay, and their eight children—who live in a summer house off the rocky coast of Scotland. From Mr. Ramsay's seemingly trivial postponement of a visit to a nearby lighthouse, Virginia Woolf examines tensions and allegiances and shows that the small joys and quiet tragedies of everyday life could go on forever. The novel recalls childhood emotions and highlights adult relationships. Among the book's many tropes and themes are those of loss, subjectivity, the nature of art, and the problem of perception.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “To the Lighthouse” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.