There will undoubtedly be many who disagree but I didnt acknowledge this book. In fact, the only justification I finished it was because I "pushed on by no other desire than just the puritanical craving to empty a smaller plate" as John Updike described it in his reading of Gunter Grass’ The Founder. I really should have gotten anything out of it when I read it in graduate studies, because I had a lot of passages circled.
In this novel, Woolf uses a torrent of shows the effect, which drove me insane at moments. She one line that goes on for 21 lines and another one that goes on for 26 lines in the first chapters of the novel.
There are more fairies in her writing than Father Christmas( subordinate sentences: get it?) I found myself wondering well for pity’s sake, anybody do anything, as most of the verbiage is a flow of stray thoughts with zero actions.
They discuss whether or not they will indeed be able to see the lighthouse the other day in the book’s seccond and longest chapter. Then there’s a little part that jumps ahead a month, but in the final section, a number of them make it to the beacon.
I’ll admit that such sequence in the early half of the novel, concerning an evening meal, peaked my interest to the point wherein I looked up the entree they served. But other from it, I often found myself asking, "get on with it, will you?"
Conclusion: This is a complete zero-star candidate. There is too much form and not enough content. Insufferable jumble of pointless nonsense. Writing in a stream of consciousness style is incredibly tough, and it is not something that should be attempted unless you have a genuine talent for it. Nonetheless, this work is regarded as a full and unrivalled masterpiece. There are no stars.