The novel takes place at the Ramsays' summer home on the Isle of Skye and later returns to their house on the Hebrides. The story also references Talland House in St Ives, Cornwall, which served as the family retreat from 1882 for ten years.
Mrs Ramsay and Mr Ramsay lead the family while Lily Briscoe attempts to paint a portrait of them. James serves as the six-year-old son who wants to visit the lighthouse, and Charles Tansley interrupts her work by claiming women cannot paint or write.
The original edition appeared in May 1927 through Hogarth Press with light blue cloth covers and gold lettering. A second impression followed in June shortly after the initial release, and Harcourt Brace & Co released the American version that same month.
Virginia Woolf began writing the book partly to understand unresolved issues concerning her parents Leslie Stephen and Julia Stephen. Her visits to St Ives were perhaps the happiest times until her mother died when she was thirteen, and Leslie Stephen plunged into gloom similar to Mr Ramsay after his wife passed away.
A 1983 telefilm starred Rosemary Harris and Michael Gough, while BBC Radio 4 produced an audio drama in 2000 adapted by Eileen Atkins. Another radio drama aired from August 11th through the 15th of August 2014, and Zesses Seglias composed an opera premiered at the Bregenz Festival in 2017.