To the Lighthouse

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) is one of the most famous modernist authors of the twentieth century. She is best known for such iconic novels as Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and the semi-autobiographical To the Lighthouse (1927). Her fifth novel, To the Lighthouse, remains one of her most revered works. It is inspired by memories of her childhood spent on the coast of Cornwall and tells the story of the fictional Ramsey family and their guests vacationing in the Hebrides, on the Isle of Skye.

The novel is set in impressionistic technique. The narrative here is centered not on traditional plot composition, not on events, but on the experiences of the characters. The text follows the rhythms of human consciousness: momentary impressions and memories, flowing into each other, a mixture of thoughts, shades of different sensations and impressions. The text is divided into episodes that reproduce the individual stages of the characters' lives, like fragments of memories. Three episodes describe just two days in the lives of the characters, two days separated by a decade.

One of the most interesting aspects of the novel is Wolfe's work with symbols. Symbolism is one of her main artistic devices. It brings together the separate, seemingly unrelated thoughts and feelings of the various characters into a coherent whole. The light and hope-giving beacon, something reliable, unchangeable, a sign of confidence, stability in a changeable stormy world. It is opposed by a restless and destructive sea, whose waves are a reminder of the fragility, weakness of man, the impermanence of his life. Even the moods of the characters the writer often conveys through the behavior of the waves. Significant and symbolic are the household and interior objects surrounding the characters, such as the protecting hen, a symbol of motherhood and family, taking the memories of one of the characters far into the past. Another powerful metaphor is the boar's head on the wall of the children's room, frightening and alluring at the same time, Memento Mori. Wolfe's symbolism makes the characters' emotions realistic, their images three-dimensional, alive. Each word, insignificant in isolation, in context acquires depth and new meanings. This is what it is, stream-of-consciousness literature. Great and beautiful.

In 1998, the Modern Library named To the Lighthouse No. 15 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 2005, the novel was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the one hundred best English-language novels since 1923.