Title: To the Lighthouse
Author: Virginia Woolf
Year: 1927

Usually, some sort of summary is a good way to introduce a novel, but in the case of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, that would be meaningless. Even though there is a story about the Ramsay family and some of their close friends on the Hebrides, it is very clear that what actually happens is not the focus of Virginia Woolf’s writing. Instead, the emphasis is put on emotional and philosophical introspection, and experiment with form and language.

Generally speaking, I demand fairly much from authors in that I like their novels to have qualities in several areas. I have been known to give books very good grades because of one single determining factor, such as language (see The Old Man and the Sea and Our Man in Havana for two excellent examples of this). I point this out merely to show that I can appreciate novels for many reasons, and that, potentially, I could have liked To the Lighthouse. Sadly, however I do not. In fact, I dislike it quite intensely. Even though the slim volume spans only about 150 pages, it took me almost a month to finish. I only managed to read about five pages every sitting and I was never truly absorbed by the novel.

Since the focus of To the Lighthouse is what it is, i think it is necessary to like either the language, the atmosphere or the form. Let me expand these three separately. The language is complicated and, in my opinion, ugly. Sentences are too long, too complex and rife with disruptive parentheses. I am a minimalist, so reading language like this feels a little bit like rubbing a piece of polystyrene on a windowpane. Not very pleasant. However, there are sections that are beautifully written to create a marvellous atmosphere, especially in the second chapter. These sections are often descriptions of places and environments, rather than people or their thoughts. What about the form then? It is interesting to see how the author switches perspective between characters, sometimes very quickly and without conventional paragraph breaks. Although this it interesting, I do not think it adds very much to the reading experience.

The problem with this novel is that since the story is soporific to say the least, it really needs some other quality. I think most people who like Woolf appreciates the language and the introspective aspects of To The Lighthouse. Well, I do not, as I have already said. This novel has almost nothing to offer me and I enjoyed perhaps five percent of the text. The language might be well-constructed, I do not know, but I am absolutely certain it is not my cup of tea. The introspection completely fails to connect with either my emotions or intellect. Taken together, the few, short instances of To the Lighthouse that I like, saves it from an ever more horrible grade. Frankly, I think one and a half snail is pretty generous.

Update: I have now read the novel again as part of literature course and I must say that I appreciated the book a little bit more this time. Some of the themes discussed in the novel, such as the transcendent nature of life, are quite interesting. I also find the short, middle part quite well-written. However, I think this quote from Herbert sums things up pretty well: “Hence even the lovely style — dipping, sparkling, rippling, at any given moment a marvel of expressiveness — ultimately palls. The constant flutter and glimmer becomes monotonous; at the end it suggests preciosity or mere fussiness.”