To the Lighthouse

Virginia Woolf, 1927

Modernist novels

A child's hope for a lighthouse visit opens a novel of family feeling and shifting perception.

Read the book Contents

Listen free: the LibriVox audiobook, read by WendyKatzHiller.

Length: 42 chapters
Reading time: About 4 hr 51 min
Words: 69,323

About the book

Mrs Ramsay offers her son James the possibility of a trip to the lighthouse if the weather allows it. His father's contrary judgement turns that small prospect into an intense emotional event, revealing how differently the members of a household experience the same exchange.

Woolf follows the movements of thought around outwardly ordinary actions. A sentence or a glance can carry memories, private wishes and misunderstandings that remain unspoken. The novel asks readers to notice those inward changes, giving relationships their shape through the gap between what people feel and what others can perceive.

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Modernist novels

This edition

Text from Standard Ebooks, who proofread and typeset it and dedicate their edition to the public domain. Virginia Woolf died more than 70 years ago, so the work is out of copyright in the UK.