The Voyage Out

Woolfs first novel is a haunting book, full of light and shadow. It takes Mr. and Mrs. Ambrose and their niece, Rachel, on a sea voyage from London to a resort on the South american coast. “It is a strange, tragic, inspired book whose scene is a South americanca not found on any map and reached by a boat which would not float on any sea, an americanca whose spiritual boundaries touch Xanadu and Atlantis” (E. M. Forster).

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), one of the major literary figures of the twentieth century, transformed the art of the novel with groundbreaking works such as Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse. The author of numerous collections of letters, journals, and short stories, she was an admired literary critic and a master of the essay form. The Voyage Out was first published in 1915.