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A review by teresatumminello
The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf
3.0
…other people whose identity was so little developed that the Ambroses did not discover that they possessed names. This quote from the book states my main problem with the book, even though the characters I’m thinking of do have names. Also, there are too many of them. Even the Dalloways make a brief, though memorable, appearance; and except for Mr. Dalloway’s one effect on Rachel, the main character (at least I think she is; she’s the only one that changes), I’m not sure what the Dalloways are doing here. However, they are vibrant and alive, especially Mrs. Dalloway, so it’s a boon for us that Woolf decided to use her again, and more fully.
Speaking of Rachel, her father is a character that is developed and then dropped, though we expect to see him by the end. By the end of the novel’s climactic scene, all I kept wondering is: Where is Mr. Vinrace!?!
It’s messy (first-time novelists sometimes feel they have to put 'everything' in their first novel) but still worth reading for its prose and ideas. In fact, the best thing about it is that some of the beautifully written, psychologically perceptive, forward-thinking scenes foreshadow what will come later for Woolf.
Speaking of Rachel, her father is a character that is developed and then dropped, though we expect to see him by the end. By the end of the novel’s climactic scene, all I kept wondering is: Where is Mr. Vinrace!?!
It’s messy (first-time novelists sometimes feel they have to put 'everything' in their first novel) but still worth reading for its prose and ideas. In fact, the best thing about it is that some of the beautifully written, psychologically perceptive, forward-thinking scenes foreshadow what will come later for Woolf.