Tuesday 8 January 2013

'To The Lighthouse' by Virginia Woolf



There aren’t enough simple stories that focus less on dramatic storylines and more on the characters and their relationships with each other. Most of the time I much prefer the simple stories over the ones packed with action and drama, this was one of those times. Woolf manages to keep the story from falling into drudgery through her wonderful descriptions of her characters. Despite there being quite a few of them, each are developed so you have an overall sense of who they are and you can form your own opinions of them.

Her constant mentions of water really brought the story alive. Waves are like fire to me; both hypnotise and draw me in. None of it seemed forced or overreaching; it was all perfectly natural to the story.

The repetitions of “we perished, each alone” were timed perfectly. The words were more moving every time I read them until each time I saw them I had to stop reading for a minute or two to collect myself. Which seems a bit of a dramatic reaction to four words but they were so well done within the story.

Would read many times.

9/10

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