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fionnualalirsdottir's review against another edition
I’m sitting in front of my computer screen wondering which of several angles to choose in order to make this review something more than just another account of the plot and characters of [b:The Voyage Out (1915)|551482|The Voyage Out|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347361012s/551482.jpg|1412170].
My copy of the book is on the desk beside me and I’m sorting through the various passages I’ve underlined looking for the slant that will please me most. The following line describing leading character Helen Ambrose catches my eye: She had her embroidery frame set up on deck, with a little table by her side on which lay open a black volume of philosophy.
Helen Ambrose’s fictional existence is happening one hundred years before my real-life one but in some respects we aren’t very different. Like me, Helen is a middle-aged woman who reads a lot. Unlike me, Helen can’t share thoughts about books with the world via a computer screen; her book thoughts are kept within the confines of her mind while her creative urges are directed instead towards her embroidery screen. But Helen, as we soon find out, likes to do things differently, even when it comes to embroidery: she chose a thread from the vari-coloured tangle that lay in her lap, and sewed red into the bark of a tree, or yellow into a river torrent.
I’d like to think that Helen and I are a little alike in how we see the world; tree bark isn’t always brown nor rivers always blue, just as book reviews don’t always have to follow a standard format and limit themselves to summaries of the plot and lists of the characters.
If this book were a painting instead of a novel, it would be focused entirely on Helen so intrinsic to everything is her role in Woolf’s composition.
Embroidery Frame, Mary Cassatt
At times, and Helen’s embroidery is just one example, the themes, and the treatment of them, harken back to the nineteenth century. At other times, the thoughts and speeches which Woolf gives her characters, and Helen in particular, would not be out of place in a novel of the twenty-first century.
Woolf deliberately recalls nineteenth century novels to our attention, those of Jane Austin and Charlotte Brontë in particular; I’ve noted several examples in the updates. She even has the characters discuss Austen and Brontë at one point:
'Wuthering Heights! said Clarissa, 'Ah---that’s more in my line. I really couldn’t exist without the Brontës! Don’t you love them? Still, on the whole, I’d rather live without them than without Jane Austin.’
‘Jane Austin? I don’t like Jane Austin,’ said Rachel.
‘You monster!’ Clarissa explained. ‘I can only just forgive you. Tell me why?’
‘She’s so---so---well, so like a tight plait,’ Rachel floundered.
Rachel is Helen Ambrose’s twenty-something year-old niece and is herself a typical nineteenth century heroine: young, passionate, eager to fall in love, a Marianne Dashwood from Austen’s [b:Sense and Sensibility|14935|Sense and Sensibility|Jane Austen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1397245675s/14935.jpg|2809709], or, on a less passionate day, a Lucy Snowe from Brontë’s [b:Villette|31173|Villette|Charlotte Brontë|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320412741s/31173.jpg|40852693]. If this were an Austen novel, Rachel would be the central character and her meeting with the man she might marry would be the main event of the book.
But this is a Woolf novel, perched astride two centuries. It is Woolf’s first novel in fact, the idea for which she developed as early as 1905 when she herself was Rachel’s age but already seeing the world not as Rachel does but rather as the older, more free-spirited and less anchored-in-time character, Helen might. And, like Helen, Woolf looks forward in this book, not only towards the freedoms that women will gain in the twentieth century, but to her own novels yet to come. The Clarissa in the quote above is Clarissa Dalloway who will feature in Woolf’s fourth book, [b:Mrs. Dalloway|14942|Mrs. Dalloway|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1479336522s/14942.jpg|841320], alongside her husband Richard, mercifully given a more mute role in the later work than he has here. The other male characters in [b:The Voyage Out|148905|The Voyage Out|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328874751s/148905.jpg|1412170] are prototypes of Jacob Flanders from [b:Jacob's Room|225396|Jacob's Room|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388466257s/225396.jpg|3272732], and Neville, Louis and Bernard from [b:The Waves|46114|The Waves|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1439492320s/46114.jpg|6057263]. There is also an artist character in [b:The Voyage Out|148905|The Voyage Out|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328874751s/148905.jpg|1412170], a foreshadowing of Lily Briscoe in [b:To the Lighthouse|59716|To the Lighthouse|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1346239665s/59716.jpg|1323448]. There are even hints of the exoticism of [b:Orlando|18839|Orlando|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1443118010s/18839.jpg|6057225] to be found here.
So [b:The Voyage Out|148905|The Voyage Out|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328874751s/148905.jpg|1412170] is a one-way voyage in several senses; not only is it a one-way journey for the quasi-heroine Rachel, it is also a one-way trip away from the nineteenth century novel, outward bound towards what will become the twentieth-century novel as Woolf will very soon imagine it.
My copy of the book is on the desk beside me and I’m sorting through the various passages I’ve underlined looking for the slant that will please me most. The following line describing leading character Helen Ambrose catches my eye: She had her embroidery frame set up on deck, with a little table by her side on which lay open a black volume of philosophy.
Helen Ambrose’s fictional existence is happening one hundred years before my real-life one but in some respects we aren’t very different. Like me, Helen is a middle-aged woman who reads a lot. Unlike me, Helen can’t share thoughts about books with the world via a computer screen; her book thoughts are kept within the confines of her mind while her creative urges are directed instead towards her embroidery screen. But Helen, as we soon find out, likes to do things differently, even when it comes to embroidery: she chose a thread from the vari-coloured tangle that lay in her lap, and sewed red into the bark of a tree, or yellow into a river torrent.
I’d like to think that Helen and I are a little alike in how we see the world; tree bark isn’t always brown nor rivers always blue, just as book reviews don’t always have to follow a standard format and limit themselves to summaries of the plot and lists of the characters.
If this book were a painting instead of a novel, it would be focused entirely on Helen so intrinsic to everything is her role in Woolf’s composition.
Spoiler
Embroidery Frame, Mary CassattAt times, and Helen’s embroidery is just one example, the themes, and the treatment of them, harken back to the nineteenth century. At other times, the thoughts and speeches which Woolf gives her characters, and Helen in particular, would not be out of place in a novel of the twenty-first century.
Woolf deliberately recalls nineteenth century novels to our attention, those of Jane Austin and Charlotte Brontë in particular; I’ve noted several examples in the updates. She even has the characters discuss Austen and Brontë at one point:
'Wuthering Heights! said Clarissa, 'Ah---that’s more in my line. I really couldn’t exist without the Brontës! Don’t you love them? Still, on the whole, I’d rather live without them than without Jane Austin.’
‘Jane Austin? I don’t like Jane Austin,’ said Rachel.
‘You monster!’ Clarissa explained. ‘I can only just forgive you. Tell me why?’
‘She’s so---so---well, so like a tight plait,’ Rachel floundered.
Rachel is Helen Ambrose’s twenty-something year-old niece and is herself a typical nineteenth century heroine: young, passionate, eager to fall in love, a Marianne Dashwood from Austen’s [b:Sense and Sensibility|14935|Sense and Sensibility|Jane Austen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1397245675s/14935.jpg|2809709], or, on a less passionate day, a Lucy Snowe from Brontë’s [b:Villette|31173|Villette|Charlotte Brontë|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320412741s/31173.jpg|40852693]. If this were an Austen novel, Rachel would be the central character and her meeting with the man she might marry would be the main event of the book.
But this is a Woolf novel, perched astride two centuries. It is Woolf’s first novel in fact, the idea for which she developed as early as 1905 when she herself was Rachel’s age but already seeing the world not as Rachel does but rather as the older, more free-spirited and less anchored-in-time character, Helen might. And, like Helen, Woolf looks forward in this book, not only towards the freedoms that women will gain in the twentieth century, but to her own novels yet to come. The Clarissa in the quote above is Clarissa Dalloway who will feature in Woolf’s fourth book, [b:Mrs. Dalloway|14942|Mrs. Dalloway|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1479336522s/14942.jpg|841320], alongside her husband Richard, mercifully given a more mute role in the later work than he has here. The other male characters in [b:The Voyage Out|148905|The Voyage Out|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328874751s/148905.jpg|1412170] are prototypes of Jacob Flanders from [b:Jacob's Room|225396|Jacob's Room|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388466257s/225396.jpg|3272732], and Neville, Louis and Bernard from [b:The Waves|46114|The Waves|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1439492320s/46114.jpg|6057263]. There is also an artist character in [b:The Voyage Out|148905|The Voyage Out|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328874751s/148905.jpg|1412170], a foreshadowing of Lily Briscoe in [b:To the Lighthouse|59716|To the Lighthouse|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1346239665s/59716.jpg|1323448]. There are even hints of the exoticism of [b:Orlando|18839|Orlando|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1443118010s/18839.jpg|6057225] to be found here.
So [b:The Voyage Out|148905|The Voyage Out|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328874751s/148905.jpg|1412170] is a one-way voyage in several senses; not only is it a one-way journey for the quasi-heroine Rachel, it is also a one-way trip away from the nineteenth century novel, outward bound towards what will become the twentieth-century novel as Woolf will very soon imagine it.
ananthousflorist's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
lucede's review against another edition
4.0
He tardado más de dos meses en leerme esta novela; pero esto ni es culpa del libro ni es algo forzosamente negativo. Las novelas de Virginia Woolf (o, al menos, las que yo he leído) son novelas muy descriptivas, muy reflexivas y, en consecuencia, muy lentas. El progreso no es lineal, sino profundo; es decir, no suceden muchas cosas, pero sí cosas muy hondas.
Fin de viaje me ha encantado. Es la primera novela de Woolf y ya en ella se encuentran sus temas predilectos: el sufrimiento, la pérdida de la inocencia, la muerte. Lo mejor de la obra es sin duda la profundidad psicológica con que se trata a los personajes, las imágenes en las descripciones y la manera en que se describen los sentimientos, desde la alegría más viva hasta la pena más honda. Además, me ha resultado imposible no sentirme identificada con la protagonista, una joven de 24 que se debate entre las ganas de vivir y aprender y el desasosiego. Si debo señalar algún defecto, diría que hay demasiados personajes que no aportan nada a la obra y que la traducción es pésima. Por lo demás, me ha gustado mucho leerlo.
Fin de viaje me ha encantado. Es la primera novela de Woolf y ya en ella se encuentran sus temas predilectos: el sufrimiento, la pérdida de la inocencia, la muerte. Lo mejor de la obra es sin duda la profundidad psicológica con que se trata a los personajes, las imágenes en las descripciones y la manera en que se describen los sentimientos, desde la alegría más viva hasta la pena más honda. Además, me ha resultado imposible no sentirme identificada con la protagonista, una joven de 24 que se debate entre las ganas de vivir y aprender y el desasosiego. Si debo señalar algún defecto, diría que hay demasiados personajes que no aportan nada a la obra y que la traducción es pésima. Por lo demás, me ha gustado mucho leerlo.
zttoklu's review
4.0
I think the font on this copy should be smaller. It was almost visible with a magnifying glass.
milooo's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
i can’t quite give this book 3 stars, because the only thing i liked about it was a few specific chapters and moments which are written really beautifully. but as much as i like Woolf’s writing style, i’m also a story guy, and this story didn’t really do it for me. as a work to be studied, im sure it’s fascinating, but as a casual read it doesn’t really hold up in the 21st century in my opinion. the characters are compelling to a certain extent, but i didn’t find myself getting attached to any of them. as a reflection of the society in which it was written, it works very well, it’s just a shame that that society was fucking boring as hell…
bethanechol's review against another edition
3.0
This is Woolf's first novel, and I picked it up as part of the "women writers" mood I was in immediately following my surgery. Of course due to its length, its difficulty, and my schedule, it took me twice as long to read The Voyage Out as it did to read Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Agnes Grey, and My Antonia combined. I enjoyed it because I enjoy Woolf - even the most boring plots with the most endless passages and the most elusive meanings will keep me transfixed with her poetry and her occasional moments of perfect, crystallized clarity. My favorite of these, by far, was the poetic and perfect description of a girl dozing in her study on a sunny afternoon, for I read it with half-open eyes lying in a sunny hotel room - possibly one of the more relaxing moments of my life.
The book is about youth and the confusion of understanding and naming young emotions and identity, and it's about the inevitable distance and misunderstanding between people. The dialogue is hard to follow and the characters almost impossible to understand - but it seems to me like this is Woolf's purpose. I think it works - I like her enough that instead of becoming entirely frustrated by an inability to comprehend, I see the characters like shadows moving around almost out of sight and hearing, and I just grasp at whatever glimpses and snippets of understanding that you can.
Overall, not the Woolf I'd recommend (that would be To the Lighthouse for beginners and Orlando for the adventuresome), but a fine piece of her work nonetheless.
The book is about youth and the confusion of understanding and naming young emotions and identity, and it's about the inevitable distance and misunderstanding between people. The dialogue is hard to follow and the characters almost impossible to understand - but it seems to me like this is Woolf's purpose. I think it works - I like her enough that instead of becoming entirely frustrated by an inability to comprehend, I see the characters like shadows moving around almost out of sight and hearing, and I just grasp at whatever glimpses and snippets of understanding that you can.
Overall, not the Woolf I'd recommend (that would be To the Lighthouse for beginners and Orlando for the adventuresome), but a fine piece of her work nonetheless.
emisallyrob's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
broganne_per's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars ~ really beautifully written but it definitely took me some time to get into!
champers4days's review against another edition
3.0
I want to like everything VW. I am IN LOVE with A Room of One's Own. I will no doubt read every single book she has ever written. But The Voyage Out wasn't my favorite.
Woolf’s writing is beauty on the page. Her descriptions of characters and scenes are lively and uniquely illustrative. However, those same animated characters have a way of fading out of existence the moment they leave the page. And her ending felt both provocative and hallow. I have no idea who she did it; clearly she's a devastatingly skilled author. But these very specific qualities resulted in a book that wasn't particularly to my liking.
Woolf’s writing is beauty on the page. Her descriptions of characters and scenes are lively and uniquely illustrative. However, those same animated characters have a way of fading out of existence the moment they leave the page. And her ending felt both provocative and hallow. I have no idea who she did it; clearly she's a devastatingly skilled author. But these very specific qualities resulted in a book that wasn't particularly to my liking.