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djkwm's review against another edition
challenging
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
ainryy's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
wordcommando's review against another edition
4.0
Courageously incoherent, this novel has so much rage and anger between the lines. Many famous writers claim to re-read it regularly. A homicidal and understandable indictment of chauvinism smothered in suicidal ennui. Made me want to eat my eyeballs.
katie_is_dreaming's review against another edition
2.0
Virginia Woolf is a great writer. She's clever and thoughtful, and writes about important things, but I just can't engage with her style, and I come away not really caring about her characters or her story.
Her style is very difficult to get to grips with for me. Her particular stream-of-consciousness style is like random, fleeting thoughts, often, so much so that I find myself forgetting what happened two pages previously. And I'm not invested enough to go back and remind myself.
Woolf does write about important topics and themes, and she writes intelligently. I just wish I found her style more engaging. I'd like to like her work more, because it is important: I just don't.
Her style is very difficult to get to grips with for me. Her particular stream-of-consciousness style is like random, fleeting thoughts, often, so much so that I find myself forgetting what happened two pages previously. And I'm not invested enough to go back and remind myself.
Woolf does write about important topics and themes, and she writes intelligently. I just wish I found her style more engaging. I'd like to like her work more, because it is important: I just don't.
lloydloom's review against another edition
5.0
A remarkably rich book about life, death and the quotidian wonders and horrors of human relationships. The rich, dense and allusive language conveys the simultaneity of the eternal and the momentary with equal assurance.
ellzell's review against another edition
5.0
i've never been lovingly stabbed before, but if i had, i think it would feel like reading this book
lori_goshert's review against another edition
5.0
I didn't like it at first. It's not precise; you can't tell dialogue from thoughts or actions from imagination much of the time.
I got used to it. The prose is beautiful, full of thoughts we are afraid to say out loud.
I'm so glad I read it.
I got used to it. The prose is beautiful, full of thoughts we are afraid to say out loud.
I'm so glad I read it.
ephemera8's review against another edition
4.0
This was baby's first stream of consciousness, modernist novel for me. It was a real struggle getting used to the density and complexity of Woolf's prose, and I didn't really get into a good groove until I finished the first 6 or 7 chapters. Let's not even talk about her use of pronouns. However, once I become adjusted to the reflective, meandering quality of the text, To the Lighthouse proved itself to be a very enjoyable read.
Woolf follows a family and a group of their friends staying at a vacation home on the Isle of Sky. The novel isn't too concerned with it's plot, but with the inner thoughts of characters and the exploration of philosophical and existential puzzles. The novel is complex and multifaceted, but I will outline some specific themes it explores. Lily's perspective, a friend of the family, illustrates fundamental flaws in human relationships, the intensity of grief, and the struggles of an artist. Woolf was also influenced by Freud; an Oedipal complex is established within the first chapter and (spoiler) left unresolved at the end of the novel. The book also treats the passage of time as something perhaps uncertain and subject to human perception. The bulk of the novel takes place within the span of a single afternoon, and single morning, with ~20 detailing the 10 years between the two. This middle section, Time Passes, was my favorite part of the text.
Overall, it was a tough start but an extremely enjoyable read. Would recommend to anyone with a passing interest in modernist literature.
Woolf follows a family and a group of their friends staying at a vacation home on the Isle of Sky. The novel isn't too concerned with it's plot, but with the inner thoughts of characters and the exploration of philosophical and existential puzzles. The novel is complex and multifaceted, but I will outline some specific themes it explores. Lily's perspective, a friend of the family, illustrates fundamental flaws in human relationships, the intensity of grief, and the struggles of an artist. Woolf was also influenced by Freud; an Oedipal complex is established within the first chapter and (spoiler) left unresolved at the end of the novel. The book also treats the passage of time as something perhaps uncertain and subject to human perception. The bulk of the novel takes place within the span of a single afternoon, and single morning, with ~20 detailing the 10 years between the two. This middle section, Time Passes, was my favorite part of the text.
Overall, it was a tough start but an extremely enjoyable read. Would recommend to anyone with a passing interest in modernist literature.
holly937's review against another edition
3.0
honestly I don’t really think this was my thing. it was interesting, though.
thedispossesed's review against another edition
5.0
I'm going to be digesting this one for a while...