A Note On Virginia Woolf

[poliphilo]

When she's dealing with the vagaries of human consciousness- fugitive impressions, mood swings and all that sort of thing- she's masterly. When she moves away from the human- into descriptions of natural processes- she over-decorates and slips into the pathetic fallacy.  Parts 1 and 3 of To the Lighthouse are wise and lyrical and altogether wonderful. Part 2 is ghastly; if I hadn't known there was more of the good stuff coming I'd have stopped reading right there.