Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

John Mepham (Kingston University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Birmingham Newman University), Louise McDonald (Birmingham Newman University), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow)

Dates

First circulation or publication May 1927

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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To the Lighthouse

was published in 1927 when Virginia Woolf was 45 years old. This novel, which consolidated her reputation as a major modernist writer, also proved more popular and commercially successful than her earlier works. It was the third in the series of innovative, modernist novels, after

Jacob's Room

(1922) and

Mrs Dalloway

(1925). It was immediately recognised as a major achievement, in which she developed her experimental techniques to new levels of subtlety and effectiveness. Ever since publication it has been her most universally acclaimed work and is now probably her most popular and widely read novel.

There is a great deal of information about the writing of To the Lighthouse in Woolf's diary for 1926-27 and in her later autobiographical writings. Of all her novels, To

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3284 words

Citation: Mepham, John. "To the Lighthouse". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 October 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8388, accessed 26 April 2024.]

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