To the Lighthouse cover art

To the Lighthouse

Penguin Classics

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To the Lighthouse

By: Virginia Woolf, Hermione Lee
Narrated by: Ruth Wilson
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by Ruth Wilson, star of Luther, Mrs Wilson and His Dark Materials. This definitive recording includes an introduction by Hermione Lee.

To the Lighthouse is at once a vivid impressionistic depiction of a family holiday, and a meditation on marriage, on parenthood and childhood, on grief, tyranny and bitterness. For years now the Ramsays have spent every summer in their holiday home in Scotland, and they expect these summers will go on forever; but as the First World War looms, the integrity of family and society will be fatally challenged. The novel's use of stream of consciousness, reminiscence and shifting perspectives gives it an intimate, poetic essence, and at the time of publication in 1927 it represented an utter rejection of Victorian and Edwardian literary values.

Public Domain (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Classics

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Most relevant  
I have to admit I had never read anything like ‘To The Lighthouse’ before but I must say I really rather enjoyed it.
In the beginning I feared that the slow pace of the storyline was going to bore me, but I quickly became attached to Woolfs’ writing style and the characters intrigued me, always leaving me wanting more.
As for the narration, I cannot fault it. Ruth is a master of performances and knows how to narrate a story with the right amount of pauses, perfect speed, and incredibly accurate and believable character voices.
Her tone and manner of storytelling is simply soothing and enchanting and everything just seems right with the world when Ruth is narrating.
Her voice is music to one’s ears, a lullaby. She left me eager for more. Ruth is a precious gift to the world and must be protected at all costs.
I sincerely hope that Ruth will narrate more stories in her future, because I for one will always listen.

Ruth Wilson Should Narrate Everything - The World Would Be A Better Place For It

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I have read this book twice: once 40 years ago and again earlier this year. I got more from this reading than either time before. Having the notes read after the story was interesting too.

Superbly read by Ruth Wilson

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Being a newcomer to the world of Virginia Woolf. I found the beginning of "To The Lighthouse" a difficult read, but the
perseverance was worth it. The novel is in three parts, which not only reflects the passage of time from pre 1914, to post 1918, but also the changes that occur to the group of people we encounter at the start of the story. Written mainly
in a stream of consciousness, the "plotline" is developed more through the thoughts of various characters then an actual narrative. Infact, part 2 of the book has no dialogue at all and brilliantly depicts the changes that not only happen to characters of the novel ,but also the house and landscape they occupied just before, during and after The Great War.
A novel about endings and new beginnings, death and the ghosts we all need to exorcise.
The placing of Hermione Lee's excellent introduction to the end of the book, allows the reader/listener to form their own opinions about the novel and Ruth Wilson's narration is faultless.

A Ghostly Stream Of Consciousness

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