To the Lighthouse (Annotated) - (Virginia Woolf Library) by Virginia Woolf (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The annotated, authorized edition of one of the great literary masterpieces of the twentieth century with commentary by leading Virginia Woolf scholar Mark Hussey.

From the seemingly trivial postponement of a visit to a nearby lighthouse, Woolf constructs a remarkable, moving examination of the complex tensions and allegiances of family life and conflict between men and women.

To the Lighthouse is made up of three powerfully charged visions into the life of the Ramsay family living in a summer house off the rocky coast of Scotland. Told through Woolf's pioneering stream of consciousness technique, there's the serene and maternal Mrs. Ramsay, the tragic yet absurd Mr. Ramsay, their eight children, and assorted holiday guests. With the lighthouse excursion postponed, Woolf shows the small joys and quiet tragedies of everyday life that seemingly could go on forever.

But as time winds its way through their lives, the Ramsays face, alone and together, the greatest of human challenges and its greatest triumph--the human capacity for change.

A moving portrait in miniature of family life, this work of philosophical fiction also has profoundly universal implications, giving language to the silent space that separates people and the space that they transgress to reach each other.

This authorized edition from the Virginia Woolf library features:

• Biographical Preface
• Chronology
• Introduction to the text
• Extensive notes
• Suggestions for further reading

This annotated edition is the perfect companion to more fully understand To the Lighthouse, its importance in twentieth century literature, and the world of Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.

Review Quotes

"I reread this book every once in a while, and every time I do I find it more capacious and startling. It's so revolutionary and so exquisitely wrought that it keeps evolving on its own somehow, as if it's alive." - Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home
"A classic for a reason. My mind was warped into a new shape by her prose and it will never be the same again." - Greta Gerwig, director of Lady Bird and Little Women
"To the Lighthouse is one of the greatest elegies in the English language, a book which transcends time." - Margaret Drabble, author of The Witch of Exmoor
"Without question one of the two or three finest novels of the twentieth century. If you're like me you'll come back to this book often, always astounded, always moved, always refreshed." - Rick Moody, author of The Ice Storm
"Radiant as [To the Lighthouse] is in its beauty, there could never be a mistake about it: here is a novel to the last degree severe and uncompromising. I think that beyond being about the very nature of reality, it is itself a vision of reality." - Eudora Welty