| To the Lighthouse (Annotated) | 
 enlarge | Author: Virginia Woolf
Creator: Mark Hussey
Publisher: Harvest Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $4.06
You Save: $10.94 (73%)
New (42) Used (31) from $4.06
Avg. Customer Rating:  168 reviews
Sales Rank: 22749
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 312
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 0156030470
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780156030472
ASIN: 0156030470
Publication Date: August 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Book is new and unread, shows some shelf wear
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| Customer Reviews:
 Blown away by the audio version October 5, 2006
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is my first full-blown experience with Virginia Woolfe. I was always a bit too impatient, skimming over paragraphs of internal dialog to get to the plot. What a difference an amazing narrator makes! Yes, it is slow going at times, but the beauty of Woolfe's sentences make the focus on every word worthwhile. Leishman treats Woolfe's words as poetry, and I started thinking of them as that. For that reason, I disagree with the reviewer counseled against ten minute spurts -- at least in the audio version, the prose seemed so rich that it was hard to absorb more than a few minutes at a time. It was only when I began to savor each paragraph on its own that I could truly enjoy this work.
This book is truly profound. It has caused me to become more aware of my own inner life, and has changed the way I think about what it means to "know" another person. Highly, highly recommended -- and this is from someone who spends a lot of time reading trashy chick lit and thrillers!
Inability to understand vs. bad literature September 5, 2006
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
I must say that I was amazed when I saw that a novel such as To the Lighthouse has averaged only four out of five stars. That a classic of excellent literature that has proven the test of time would score only four stars, when many poorly written contemporary novels receive five stars is truly an irony of our age. As I looked over the reviews, I noted that there were some that gave the novel only one star! Usually these were the individuals that had a difficult time comprehending the book and could not make a distinction between that lack of comprehension and a piece of world class literature. Although one reviewer did acknowledge that she knew this was a piece of fine twentieth century work, she still went on to give it one star. I think that this type of review is necessary in order to let other readers know that it will be a difficult reading; however, I also think that it misleads in implying that the book is worth very little, and this might discourage others from making the effort and perhaps getting much more out of the novel than its one-star reviewers.
To the Lighthouse is worth the difficulty it takes to read and comprehend. It would be my recommendation to serious readers to go to outside sources - either through Amazon,online resources, or at the library - that would help in understanding the book. In this way a profound novel would get its due and readers would have the benefit of an enriching experience.
Quite simply my favorite book August 20, 2006
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
And I've read thousands in my lifetime. If I were to pick a contemporary writer in the same vein of vision and emotion and sheer genius, I would recommend Carole Maso.
Difficult but Worthwhile June 22, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Virginia Woolf was a true literary genius, with a gift for capturing the emotional lives of her characters that isn't often seen in modern writing. That said, To the Lighthouse is one of her more difficult works; it follows the character's internal lives in a very Joyce-ian way, and like all true stream of consciousness writing, can be hard to fully comprehend. But the depth of feeling she manages to encapsulate with her deft turn of phrase is remarkable, and well worth reading. I don't recommend this novel for those who have never read Woolf before. Start with Mrs. Dalloway, and when you read To the Lighthouse later, you'll appreciate it more.
 Unreadable blather June 9, 2006
5 out of 23 found this review helpful
I know this is supposed to be one of the best novels of the 20th century, but. to put it simply,I found it to be unreadable although I tried several times.
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