![]() ![]() ![]() The passage I have quoted comes amidst a lyrical piece of experimental writing, ‘Time Passes’, set in an empty holiday cottage that had been home to the Ramsay family and their many guests for the first part of the novel. ![]() The grief becomes even more poignant when we remember that Woolf modelled Mr and Mrs Ramsay on her own parents Leslie and Julia Stephen. And now, she is dispatched suddenly and in square brackets with no explanation. Everyone had admired her beauty and loved her. Mrs Ramsay had been the central character of the first part of the novel, ‘The Window’ as a busy wife, mother of eight and a hostess, a friend, a philanthropist, a confidante, and a model for the aspiring artist Lily Briscoe. Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse includes the most beautiful and moving lines in English literature: “Mr Ramsay stumbling along a passage stretched his arms out one dark morning, but, Mrs Ramsay having died rather suddenly the night before, he stretched his arms out. There are many ways of choosing a favourite book, but for me, the acid test is to have language powerful enough to send tingles down the spine. ![]()
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