Virginia Woolf’s 1927 novel To the Lighthouse receives a trigger warning from publishers over concerns about past attitudes and language
- Virginia Woolf’s 1927 novel To the Lighthouse is published with a disclaimer
- The publisher will warn readers that the book’s views reflect the “attitudes of the time.”
A novel by Virginia Woolf will now be published with a “trigger warning” due to concerns about the “attitudes” portrayed in the 1927 book.
The novel “To the Lighthouse” by the British author will contain a disclaimer for American readers warning them about the contents of the book.
Woolf’s semi-autobiographical novel tells the stories of the Ramsay family’s journeys to their summer home on the Isle of Skye in Scotland.
However, a new edition, published by Vintage, will be preceded by a statement explaining that the decision to print the novel in its original form is not an “approval” of the “cultural representations or language” used in Woolf’s book.
Instead, the publisher explains that the views in the novel – widely regarded as a classic of modernist literature – reflect the “attitudes of the time.”
Virginia Woolf’s 1927 novel To the Lighthouse (pictured) is now being published with a disclaimer about the contents of the book
“This book was published in 1927 and reflects the views of its time,” the new disclaimer says.
“The publisher’s decision to present it as originally published is not intended as an endorsement of any cultural representations or language contained herein,” it adds.
It remains unclear what “attitudes” expressed in Woolf’s novel led the publisher to include a disclaimer.
Professor Mark Husey, of Rice University, told The Telegraph that the idea of warning readers of possible transgressions in this novel [is] quite ridiculous’.
The novel is widely known for its use of modernist literary techniques in its depiction of the Ramsay family and their visits to the Inner Hebrides in the period preceding and immediately following the First World War.
The book is based on Woolf’s own childhood experiences when he visited St Ives in Cornwall and saw the nearby Godrevy Lighthouse upon which the events of her 1927 novel are based.
Vintage Books is a New York-based paperback publisher owned by British-American publisher Penguin Random House.
Virgina Woolf’s 1927 novel To the Lighthouse is based on her experiences visiting St Ives in Cornwall and seeing the nearby Godrevy Lighthouse around which the events of her book are based.
Recently published UK editions of Virgina Woolf’s (pictured) books contain no disclaimers or content warnings
The launch of the new edition of Vintage comes after the book entered the public domain in 2023.
There were no warnings or disclaimers included in the latest edition of ‘To the Lighthouse’ published in the UK in 2019.
Similarly, a recently reissued edition of Woolf’s 1931 novel The Waves was published in Britain without any warning about its contents.
The warning in Woolf’s book comes after Vintage last year published a new edition of Ernst Hemingway’s masterpiece “The Sun Also Rises” with a similar warning to readers about the contents of the Nobel Prize-winning author’s 1926 book.
Born in London in 1882, Woolf wrote nine novels between 1915 and 1941, prior to her death at age 59.
Vintage Books was contacted by MailOnline for comment.