To the Lighthouse

Adeline Virginia Woolf ( 1882 – 28th March 1941) is one of Britain's leading literary talents and a pioneer of modernist writing especially 'stream of consciousness' which provides the reader with the flow of thoughts from the naked inner voice without any filter, order or arrangement. She overcame sexual abuse from her brothers, the death of her mother and then sister in her childhood but it was the death of her father as a young adult that institutionalised her. These dark emotional episodes were to reappear at different times throughout her life but did not prevent her prolific output of some of the most poignant and poetic prose ever written. This is undoubtedly evident in To the Lighthouse a vivid narrative of the Ramsey family and their holiday to the Scottish Isle of Skye where they dream of reaching the remote, inaccessible but ever present lighthouse that stands the same in an ever changing world. The novel minutely details a portrait of each family member that reveals truths on childhood, parenthood and marriage together with the meaning of time and memory.