Review of to the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
I've been slacking on book related content and for that I heartily apologise. Between work trips that were at least literature related in some chapters (I promise I've non but been sipping sangrias past the shore), writer's retreats and catching up with pals back in the civic, actually reviewing books has definitely been on the dorsum-burner. However, nada quite beats coming home to a pile of fresh books waiting to exist read.
While I don my comfiest fix of pyjamas and get to work, I idea I'd share i of my favourite reads from my degree so far. Similar the swell John Mulaney, I, also, am an English major. Why? Because I love 19th century broody Byronic heroes more than I practice the sweet, sweet prospect of being employed. Today'due south volume may lack a Rochester or Heathcliff, only I assure you that it's just as engrossing.
Read as function of my Critical Issues studies, and the subject of many an essay on gender roles which has essentially become my speciality in academia, I slowly roughshod in love with Virginia Woolf'due south To the Lighthouse.
Inspired past the lost bliss of her babyhood summers in Cornwall, Virginia Woolf produced 1 of the masterworks of English language literature in To the Lighthouse.
It concerns the Ramsay family and their summer guests on the Isle of Skye before and later on the Showtime World War. As children play and adults pigment, talk, muse and explore, relationships shift and mutate.
A captivating fusion of elegy, autobiography, sociopolitical critique and visionary thrust, information technology is the most accomplished of all Woolf's novels. On completing it, she thought she had exorcised the ghosts of her imposing parents, but she had also brought form to a volume every flake equally vivid and intense every bit the piece of work of Lily Briscoe, the indomitable creative person at the centre of the novel.
WHAT IS THE Pregnant OF LIFE? THAT WAS ALL- A SIMPLE QUESTION; ONE THAT TENDED TO CLOSE IN ON 1 WITH YEARS, THE GREAT REVELATION HAD NEVER Come up. THE Swell REVELATION Perchance NEVER DID Come. INSTEAD, THERE WERE Footling DAILY MIRACLES, ILLUMINATIONS, MATCHES STRUCK UNEXPECTEDLY IN THE Night; Hither WAS ONE.
Initially, I'll acknowledge that I foundTo the Lighthouse quite daunting. Woolf's writing style tin can be challenging, a constant stream-of-consciousness that results in lengthy descriptions where you're non entirely sure who is leading the point-of-view. Information technology takes a while to adjust to, merely once you're in the swing of things it flows and so beautifully, reading well-nigh similar verse.
To the Lighthouse is undoubtedly one of the nearly spectacular pieces of literature I've read for bookish purposes. I'm still in awe at how Woolf managed to pull off the grandiose chore of bouncing back and forth between philosophy, psychology and the fictionalised story so effortlessly, interweaving narrative and personal reflection.
It takes on a life of its own with Woolf'due south brilliant writing, magnifying the fixations and preoccupations of each individual character. The sights are blindingly bright, the sounds are a cacophony, and the emotions the characters feel are so intense, they are virtually about to flare-up at the seams whether it exist from hatred or enthralling love. It'south a melding together of past, present and hereafter in a blur of colour and meaning. Information technology's an acknowledgement of both the pain and joy that comes as function of our beingness on this ugly and beautiful globe of ours.
Information technology's a book that requires your devout attending. It is not ane of those easy reads to pass the fourth dimension, simply allowing you to escape reality and finish your mental churr for a moment or 2. It's a piece of work of art and Woolf demands it be treated every bit such. To the Lighthouse is the literary equivalent, or the closest you lot'll get, to peering into someone else's mind and sifting through their loves and losses.
The ghosts of her parents tortured Virginia Woolf for many years until finally, she reincarnated her parents in the forms of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay in this very novel and she was free of them. From the opening, Woolf shows u.s. the dichotomy between male and female person. Mr and Mrs Ramsay. He is cold, testing, rational. She is gentle, doting and beautiful. They are the yin to the other's yang. Ii halves of one whole. Where one is weak, the other is stiff.
And so there'due south Lily Briscoe, the perfect counterpoint to Mrs Ramsay. Woolf shows her fighting for women's independence, exploring problems of feminism and artful. To Lily, art promises more than marriage. She refuses to succumb to male demands, constructive renouncing her nature for art itself.
I found myself unable to put information technology down, each page promises a new thought or topic to ponder over. One can't help but immerse themselves in Woolf'south writing, it'southward exhilarant.
Reading To the Lighthouse is such a unique experience and without wanting to spoil also much, I will just end it here past saying that every chapter, every judgement, every word is a work of art. It's not an easy read by whatever means, simply I call up it'south the books that force united states of america to go beyond its pages and think that are the all-time.
Earlier I forget, I besides wholeheartedly recommend this random Virginia Woolf inspired playlist that I stumbled upon on Spotify when looking for something to listen to while writing papers and studying for exams that wasn't Blackpink and wouldn't distract me. It's mostly a bunch of instrumentals, but I think it captures the beauty and tone of Woolf's work really well! Plus, information technology'south super relaxing.
RATING
★★★★★
Source: https://www.samanthakilford.com/2019/06/book-review-to-the-lighthouse.html