Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse Reviews

“'One sees a fin passing far out. What image can I...”

Written on: 04/08/2009 by Janet Lewison (43 reviews written)

'One sees a fin passing far out. What image can I reach to convey what I mean? Really there is none, I think.'

Woolf writing in her diary of 1925 reveals her life long concern with the problematic representation of experience. Her sense of reality's ineffability haunted all her major novels and in To the Lighthouse perhaps her art found its greatest expression.

The novel begins with a promise, a promise made by a mother to her small child that he can go and visit the lighthouse near where... (read more)