ABSTRACT

That something can seem, especially in Woolf, mercurial and evanescent. In a fine passage in section 4 of the first part of To the Lighthouse, Lily Briscoe is shown

considering the relative merits and demerits ofMr Ramsay and Mr Bankes. To put it this way, however, is to retreat from the challenge ofWoolfs writing. For the passage couples an agile responsiveness to the movements of consciousness (implying Woolf s ultimate artistic control) with awareness that the process of 'considering' feels more like being overwhelmed:

Suddenly, as if the movement of his hand had released it, the load of her accumulated impressions of [Mr Bankes] tilted up, and down poured in a ponderous avalanche all she felt about him. That was one sensation. Then rose up in a fume the essence of his being. That was another.4