Book excerpt︱"To the Lighthouse"

I read the reading notes and diary selections of British female writer Virginia Woolf, and read the story about women from three different eras and one of her masterpieces, "Mrs. Dalloway". After the movie "The Hours" with which I was connected, I watched another of her masterpieces - "To the Lighthouse".

This work is a novel written by Woolf in 1927. It is a quasi-autobiographical stream-of-consciousness novel that was devoted to her life. The novel takes a trip to the lighthouse as the central clue throughout the book and describes the life experiences of the Ramsay family and several guests before and after the First World War.

Book excerpt:

Part One: Window

P48 She was so proud of her ability to surround and protect others that she almost didn’t leave a single one for herself. It can make her understand her own body; everything is given away and used up without hesitation.

P63 They must all get married, because in this whole world, no matter what kind of honorary crown she gets, or what kind of victory she wins, one thing that is indisputable is that no one who has never married A married woman loses the best part of her life.

However, Lily would say that she still has a father; her home; and even her paintings. But all this seems so insignificant and childish compared to marriage. Then, as the night wore on, she would try to muster the courage to argue that she was outside the general rule; she would defend it; she liked the single life; she liked living according to nature; she was not suited to married life.

P66 It is too painful for anyone to see the remnants of her (Lily) thirty-three years of life, the accumulation of her daily life, mixed with the secrets that she has never revealed or revealed in her life. . But it's also extremely exciting.

P74Build a model dairy farm and a hospital here - two things she wanted to do herself. But how? With such a large group of children! Maybe she would have time when they were older; after they all went to school.

But she never wants James to grow up one day, and the same goes for Cam. She hoped that the two children would always remain as they were now, naughty little devils and happy angels. She never wanted to see them grow into long-legged monsters.

P76 Life is something real and private that she neither shares with her children nor her husband. There was a kind of transaction going on between them, in which she was on one side and life was on the other, and she always wanted to have the upper hand and life wanted to have the upper hand over her; sometimes they negotiated (when she sat alone); she remembered that there There were some remarkable scenes of reconciliation; but strangely, she had to admit, most of the time she felt that this thing she called life was scary, hostile, and quick to pounce on you at the first opportunity. And the eternal problems: pain, death, the poor. Even here, there is always a woman dying of cancer. But she said to all the children, you will experience this.

P79 They can only feel relaxed after going to bed. She didn't have to worry about anyone at this time. She can be alone and in her natural state. That was what she often felt needed now - to think; not even to think. Just be silent; be alone. All outward, splendid, verbal existence and behavior disappear; man shrinks back into himself with a sense of solemnity, a wedge-shaped hidden core that is invisible to others. Even though she sat upright and continued knitting stockings, it was in this way that she felt herself; and this self, free from all external attachments, was free to pursue the strangest adventures. When the activity of life is temporarily reduced, the realm of experience seems limitless. She imagined that everyone felt that we had this infinite inner resource, and that our physical appearance, the things by which people understood us, was simply childish.

P82 people always grab some scattered things to reluctantly get rid of themselves from loneliness, such as a certain sound or a certain sight.

P86 If Andrew gets the scholarship, he will be very proud of him, he said. She'd be just as proud of him if he couldn't get it, she replied.

P91 There are many paintings that she has not seen yet; however, maybe it is better not to see them: seeing them will only make you feel dissatisfied and despairing of your own works. Mr. Banks thinks this idea cannot be taken too far. It is impossible for all of us to be Titian, and it is impossible for everyone to be Darwin. If there were not all living beings like us, would there be your Darwin and Titian?

P140 One day you will be as happy as her. You will be much happier than she is, she added, because you are my daughter, that is what she means; her daughter must be happier than other people's daughters.

Part 2: The Passage of Time

P186 are separated from each other but seem to be closely related; one is high and the other is low, but they are mysteriously related to each other.

P188 Why not accept all this, be satisfied with all this, acquiesce and obey all this?

Part 3 The Lighthouse

P195 This is the tragedy - not the coffin, remains and shroud; but the child being forced and mentally suppressed.

P221 What is unbearable is his extreme blindness and tyranny, which destroyed her childhood and caused a storm of pain, so much so that she still wakes up in the middle of the night, angry all over. Remember with trembling some of his orders or unreasonable attitudes: "Do this", "Do that"; his mastery over everything: his "Obey me".

P228 You have to tell her that everything is developing against her wishes. They are happy like that; I am happy like that. Life has completely changed. She summarized the life of Mr. and Mrs. Lehler and felt that she was better than Mrs. Ramsay. She would never know how Paul came to the coffee shop and had a mistress; she would never know how he sat on the ground and Minta gave him Handed tools; wouldn't know how she stood there painting, not married to anyone, not even William Banks.

P259 Most of a person’s views on others are absurd. This is to serve your own personal purposes.

P268 But his father never praised him, James thought coldly.

P270 He was very happy and did not want anyone to take away a little bit of his joy. His father praised him.