Cover of To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

To the Lighthouse

3.8 · 29 ratings on Open Library

Over the course of a day—and again another day ten years later—the Ramsays and their friends plan a boating trip to the nearby lighthouse.

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Length
70,000 words
Reading time
About 4 hours
Format
EPUB, DRM-free

About the book

Set on an island off the Scottish coast, To the Lighthouse minutely examines the fleeting impressions of a large cast of family, friends, lovers, and hangers-on. Who can we be, Virginia Woolf invites us to ask, if no one can ever know our hearts—if they’re unknowable even to ourselves? To the Lighthouse remains one of the most important Modernist novels, exquisitely composed by one of the most gifted writers of the Modernist movement.

The opening section follows the passage of a day with a thwarted objective: to go to the nearby lighthouse. The concluding section revisits this expedition a decade later, when so much is irrevocably changed, as a chance to glimpse interpersonal understandings and connections. The novel provides a brilliant example of stream-of-consciousness writing, and raises questions that provoke us still: questions about whether children are the fullest realization of one’s posterity, how women artists are regarded socially, and how money and status enable—or close off—networks, relationships, and the dreams we hold most dear.

This is the Standard Ebooks edition, carefully proofread and typeset, with a table of contents and linked footnotes.

What readers think

3.8 out of 5

29 ratings of To the Lighthouse from Open Library readers, as of 10th Nov.

  • 5 stars31%
  • 4 stars38%
  • 3 stars17%
  • 2 stars3%
  • 1 star10%