To The Lighthouse

In TO THE LIGHTHOUSE (1927) Virginia Woolf chooses a three-part structure and an elegiac, ode-like form to reveal the complexities of family politics. The autobiographical plot--which Woolf claimed finally "laid to rest" her conflicted feelings about her parents--begins in St. Ives, where Woolf's family, the Stephens, spent summers when she was a child. ("The sea is to be heard all through it," she wrote in her diary.) It then follows Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay, their children, and a small cast of characters over the course of many years as their lives converge, change, and shatter. The novel is notable for the fact that it doesn't deal in large events--an important death happens offstage, almost offhandedly, and World War I never makes an appearance--but concentrates on the characters' internal, subjective reactions, which are revealed in multiple points of view. Woolf herself questioned whether TO THE LIGHTHOUSE should be called a novel or some entirely new form of literature. However, it is widely considered to be one of Woolf's finest achievements, notable for its elegant, nuanced language and its insight into the human condition as it is affected by time, death, and the bonds of family.