At the lighthouse there is a 1927 novel by Virginia Woolf. The novel focuses on the Ramsay family and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland between 1910 and 1920.

Following and extending the tradition of modernist novelists such as Marcel Proust and James Joyce, Al Faro's argument is secondary to his philosophical introspection. Cited as a key example of the literary technique of multiple focalization, the novel includes little dialogue and almost no action; most of it is written as thoughts and observations. The novel recalls the emotions of childhood and highlights adult relationships. Among the many tropes and themes of the book are those of loss, subjectivity, the nature of art and the problem of perception.

In 1998, the Modern Library named To the Lighthouse No. 15 on its list of the 100 best novels in the English language of the twentieth century. In 2005, TIME magazine chose the novel as one of the hundred best novels in English since 1923.