Chapter 12
Part 12 of Contemporary Reviews of To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. From a review of New Fiction by C.S. and M.A. in the bookshelf June 1927. Among the most distinguished novels of last year was the dazzling portrait of Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.
With its publication Mrs. Woolf stood forth as perhaps the cleverest and most successful exponent of that new school of fiction which builds a story out of the thought, the feeling, the reactions of the characters. In a word, out of their false dream of consciousness instead of by the author's objective treatment. Although any work from the pen of Mrs. Woolf merits attention because of its significance
to the trend of writing and its influence on young authors, she trips in her new book To the Lighthouse into the bog where so many of this modern school have floundered. She tries so hard for such fine shades of feeling, for such nice nuances of thought that her meaning grows blurred. Furthermore, To the Lighthouse does not concern a single character but the large heterogeneous
Mrs. Ramsey family, wife, husband, eight children and sundry visitors. In the first part all are seen at a house party at the Ramsey's summer home in the Hebrides. Then ten years pass during which the house stands empty. After these years are over and after Mrs. Ramsey's death the family returns to its
summer home where still the shadow of Mrs. Ramsey dominates her husband, her children and their friends. At times Mrs. Ramsey who is the central figure emerges as a real person but to keep alive a whole group by such delicate means as the play and interplay of thought and feeling is too difficult a task even for the expert Mrs. Woolf.
Yet her style remains exquisite and triumphant. End of part 12
