A review by ed_moore
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.75

I don’t think Woolf and I really get along. To the Lighthouse is a slowly paced novel that offers a window for the reader to look into the lives of the Ramsay family, their 8 children and the friends that the family surround themselves with. There is a continuous focus throughout the book of the children asking when they will go to the lighthouse, and Mrs Ramsay putting it off, reading to me as one long metaphor across the novel of growing up. Whilst, as often the case with Woolf, there were moments of beautiful prose and bounties of clever imagery, especially in the second part ‘time passes’, the book was exceptionally slow paced. So little happens, and the few key plot events were brushed over in just a sentence, almost dismissed within a set of square brackets. I really struggled with this absence of plot, and therefore didn’t really enjoy the book despite its moments of beauty. Woolf just hasn’t hit the mark with me yet.