To the Lighthouse

When I cannot see words curling like rings of smoke round me I am in darkness - I am nothing. - Virginia Woolf

First published in 1927, Virginia Woolf's loosely autobiographical novel features the Ramsay family and their visits to the Isle of Skye between 1910 and 1920, a period which spans World War I. Six-year old James wants to visit the lighthouse they can see from their window and his mother tells him they'll go the next day if the weather permits...

Following in the footsteps of Marcel Proust and James Joyce, To the Lighthouse is a modernist novel that uses a stream-of-consciousness technique to deal with the complexities of who and what we are and how we perceive the world as we trudge through the shifting sands of time. While the reader awaits the long-delayed trip to the lighthouse, the themes of the text are the transience of life, absence and the inevitability of death. Everything will pass but not the enduring power of art. This is a subtle, psychological masterpiece from a great writer.