The Voyage Out
| The Voyage Out | |
|---|---|
 Cover of the first edition of 1915. |
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| Author(s) | Virginia Woolf |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Duckworth |
| Publication date | March 26, 1915 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | N/A |
The Voyage Out is the first novel by Virginia Woolf, published in 1915 by Duckworth; and published in the U.S. in 1920 by Doran.
Rachel Vinrace embarks for South America on her father's ship and is launched on a course of self-discovery in a kind of modern mythical voyage. The mismatched jumble of passengers provide Woolf with an opportunity to satirize Edwardian life. The novel introduces Clarissa Dalloway, the central character of Woolf's later novel, Mrs. Dalloway. Two of the other characters were modeled after important figures in Woolf's life. St John Hirst is a fictional portrayal of Lytton Strachey and Helen Ambrose is to some extent inspired by Woolf's sister, Vanessa Bell.[1] And Rachel's journey from a cloistered life in a London suburb to freedom, challenging intellectual discourse and discovery very likely reflects Woolf's own journey from a repressive household to the intellectual stimulation of the Bloomsbury Group.[2]
Writing in 1926, E. M. Forster described it as "... a strange, tragic, inspired book whose scene is a South America not found on any map and reached by a boat which would not float on any sea, an America whose spiritual boundaries touch Xanadu and Atlantis"[3] And, reviewing the book a decade earlier, he wrote this: "It is absolutely unafraid... Here at last is a book which attains unity as surely as Wuthering Heights, though by a different path."[4]
This book had a long and difficult gestation. It was written during a period in which Woolf was especially vulnerable.[5] She suffered from periods of depression and at one point attempted suicide.[6] The resultant work contained the seeds of all that would blossom in her later work: the innovative narrative style, the focus on feminine consciousness, sexuality and death.[7] And there is more. "No later novel of Woolf's," said one critic, "will capture so brilliantly the excitement of youth."[8] And also the excitement and challenge of life.[9] "It's not cowardly to wish to live," says one old man at the end of the book. "It's the very reverse of cowardly. Personally, I'd like to go on for a hundred years... Think of all the things that are bound to happen!"[10]
In 1981, Louise DeSalvo published an alternate, earlier version of The Voyage Out featuring its original title, Melymbrosia.[11] Professor DeSalvo worked for seven years on the immense project of reconstructing the text of novel as it might have appeared in 1912, before Woolf had begun serious revisions. She reviewed more than 1,000 manuscript pages from Woolf's private papers, sometimes relying on organizational clues as small as the color of ink used or where the pen or pencil last left off writing.[12] DeSalvo's Melymbrosia attempts to restore the text of the novel as Woolf had originally conceived it, which contained more candid political commentary on such issues as homosexuality, women's suffrage, and colonialism. According to Desalvo, Woolf was "warned by colleagues that publishing such an outspoken indictment of Britain could prove disastrous to her fledgling career". The work was heavily revised until it became the novel now known as The Voyage Out, which omits much of the political candor of the original.[13] DeSalvo's edition was rereleased by Cleis Press in 2002.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Phyllis Rose, A Woman of Letters: A Life of Virginia Woolf, p.58
- ^ Rose, op. cit., p. 57
- ^ Majumdar Virginia Woolf, p. 172
- ^ Majumdar, op. cit., p. 52-53
- ^ Warner, Virginia Woolf, The Waves, p. 17
- ^ Briggs, Virginia Woolf: an inner life, p. 42
- ^ Waller, Writers, Readers and Reputations, p. 1043
- ^ Phyllis Rose, Introduction to A Voyage Out, Bantam Books, 1991, p. xvi
- ^ cf. Forster, as quoted in Majumdar, op. cit., p. 54
- ^ The Voyage Out, chapter 27
- ^ http://www.jstor.org/pss/1208147
- ^ Louise Desalvo, Melymbrosia, Cleis Press, 2002
- ^ Louise Desalvo, Melymbrosia, Cleis Press, 2002
[edit] External links
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