Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) is now generally recognized as the author of two of the twentieth century's greatest literary works, To the Lighthouseand Mrs. Dalloway, both of which employ a style of narration that has come to be known as "stream of consciousness" because it focuses on the interior--and not always logical--movement of thought that make up the better part of most people's psyches.

The Ramsays are holidaying in the Hebrides, and young James Ramsay is keen to visit a lighthouse; his father and mother respond quite differently to the idea, but his father prevails. Through this and a variety of other incidents a portrait of the family and their friends comes into focus; most clearly of all, at the family's centre, the consciousness of Mrs. Ramsay emerges. In the book's final section, Mrs. Ramsay has died, as have two of the Ramsay children--Andrew in the war, Prue in childbirth. In this sombre context, James and his father finally make the trip to the lighthouse.

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