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A review by tolstoj4ever
The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf
4.0
This was such a thoughtful exploration of human relationships, through the lense of someone so sheltered and unexperienced, that every new type of relationship, be it just friendly, distant fascination or romantic, was described vividly and with a sense of awe and discovery. It really made me re-think my own relationships in my life. What I found particularly powerful was this depiction of marriage:
"When two people have been married for years they seem to become unconscious of each other’s bodily presence so that they move as if alone, speak aloud things which they do not expect to be answered, and in general seem to experience all the comfort of solitude without its loneliness."
The comfort of solitude without its loneliness - I think that's the aim of a happy relationship.
I also loved the description of Rachel's state of mind when in a fever, it really demonstrates how some experienced can only be evoked in the written form; it would not work as a film, or a song, but as I was reading it, I felt like I, too, was feeling the stretching and contracting of time, hearing the disconnected voices floating around me, mixing in the vivid, weird dreams. I wonder why she died as soon as she got engaged - as if just these few months abroad were such an intense emotional journey for her, it was equal to an entire lifetime of emotional experiences of the average person. In a way she would never have been satisfied in life, as she was always grasping at some thoughts and ideas so far beyond what she was able to communicate, let alone experience as a woman at the time.
"When two people have been married for years they seem to become unconscious of each other’s bodily presence so that they move as if alone, speak aloud things which they do not expect to be answered, and in general seem to experience all the comfort of solitude without its loneliness."
The comfort of solitude without its loneliness - I think that's the aim of a happy relationship.
I also loved the description of Rachel's state of mind when in a fever, it really demonstrates how some experienced can only be evoked in the written form; it would not work as a film, or a song, but as I was reading it, I felt like I, too, was feeling the stretching and contracting of time, hearing the disconnected voices floating around me, mixing in the vivid, weird dreams. I wonder why she died as soon as she got engaged - as if just these few months abroad were such an intense emotional journey for her, it was equal to an entire lifetime of emotional experiences of the average person. In a way she would never have been satisfied in life, as she was always grasping at some thoughts and ideas so far beyond what she was able to communicate, let alone experience as a woman at the time.