TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by VIRGINIA WOOLF

"Beauty was not everything. Beauty had this penalty — it came too readily, came too completely. It stilled life — froze it."

PR: 9.7/10

I think this book is probably, no definitely the best book I've read this year and why not?

The story is about a family who decide or rather would want to visit a Lighthouse and somehow this "visit to the lighthouse" keeps on getting postponed and they never visit it (they do in the end when everything is over).

First of all I absolutely loved the way the story is written. Woolf uses the Stream of Consciousness technique to write this piece of work. Its accounted as one of her best works and it definitely lives up to its reputation.

Virginia Woolf was suffering from mild depression as ever since her childhood she kept losing her family members, very much what she writes on about in this novel. One can say this is almost a semi-biography based upon Woolf's family and childhood. The Ramsays very well portray the little tittle-tattle of the daily family life.

Woolf was a part of the 20th century literary group Modernists and formed her own community with other influential writers including Leonard Woolf ( whom she marries later) called The Bloomsbury, they specialised in the stream of Consciousness writing. Woolf also used to follow Joyce who is another master in the stream of consciousness.

Woolf dwelves deeper into the psyche and inside of a family live and the lives surrounding them; her narrative is almost like God's eye, it goes very smoothly declining every little detail.

In the second part of the book, "Time Passes" she shows her skills in time lapse, and finally ends it with her third and final part, "The Lighthouse".

The character insight of Mrs. Ramsay was a portrait of brilliance. Not only did she successfully sketched this character who very well might be based on her own mother, but also composed it. Its a masterpiece must-read!

Below is an extract of her brilliance portraying Mrs. Ramsay.

Thank you for reading!