A ROAD TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 461, 23 April 1948, Page 19

A ROAD TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

THE NOVELS OF VIRGINIA WOOLF, By R. L. Chambers, Oliver’ and Boyd, ys short critical scrutiny of the greatest woman novelist of our time is diligent and carefully weighed. Two chapters-on style and method-are exceptionally good. R. L. Chambers is at his (or her?) best when closest to the object of study. It is when he strays into more generalised considerations of Virginia Woolf and the relation of her work to society at large and its merits compared with that of other writers. that the reader becomes uneasy. Could not all that space have been better used making an even closer study of the novels themselves, Mr. Chambers bases this book largely on the study of three novels — Jacob’s Room (Virginia Woolf's first expedition into the stream of consciousness), Mrs. Dalloway, and To the Lighthouse. He does not greatly value The Waves and finds a grave structural fault in Between the Acts, I suspect that the standard by which the novels which followed To the Lighthouse (the critic’s choice as the greatest of Virginia Woolf’s writings) are judged is one of simple tidiness rather than their total effect: but a good pattern does not necessarily make a novel good, nor a bad — ruin a good novel. The predominating note in the criticism is caution if not restraint. An occasional aside is happy. I like this. one on Joyce’s Ulysses: "I cannot concede to any user of language the right to destroy language, which is what he seems to me, after due thought, to do." But it was perhaps worth the risk of appearing immoderate and dogmatic to proffer us, instead of the quotations from the rather second-rate. authorities he uses as texts, rather more frequently his own opinions. But, even as it is, this book should encourage us to read and re-read the works of a very great novelist.

David

Hall