I first read Virginia Woolf 17 years ago, as a sophomore in college. I had just discovered Modernism, and having gotten through Joyce’s _Ulysses_, a handful of Faulkner novels, and T. S. Eliot’s _The Waste Land_, I felt that Woolf was the next logical step. I skipped class one day (something I rarely did) and sat at the library trying to figure out what _To the Lighthouse_ (1927) was about. The more I read, the more confused I became. A collection of critical essays on the novel gave me an appreciation of it, but I still had to admit to myself that, much as I had wanted to like the novel, the experience had not been a good one. I tried _Flush_ (1933) immediately after; this biography of the Brownings' dog was more up my alley in those days, but I knew it was an odd piece in the Woolf corpus. Ten years would pass before I picked up _Mrs. Dalloway_ (1925) with a “here goes nothing” attitude. And I was blown away. Eventually I re-read _To the Lighthouse_, understood it, and loved it. _The Waves_ (1931) is waiting for me on a shelf; since so many people call it Woolf’s masterpiece, I want to leave the best for last.
I decided to read _The Voyage Out_ (1915) because I wanted to experience early Woolf. As is well known, it was with her third novel, _Jacob’s Room_ (1922), that Woolf began to produce the formally experimental work she is known for. No one would call _The Voyage Out_ one of Woolf's most significant novels, but it is nevertheless an interesting novel with an engaging story, and perhaps Woolf needed to write it (and her second novel, _Night and Day_) before exploring more difficult terrain.
_The Voyage Out_ presents a traditional narrative structure. The first quarter of the novel is concerned with a voyage by ship, as a handful of British men and women make their way to South America. The novel’s central figure (one simply cannot call her a heroine; she is not a Jane Austen character) is Rachel Vinrace, the daughter of the ship’s captain. She is musically inclined, but she has grown up without a mother and her father has kept her in absolute ignorance about the relationships between men and women. Her aunt Helen assumes the task of educating Rachel, of helping her to become a woman. This first part of the novel will be of great interest to fans of Woolf, as in it she introduces Clarissa Dalloway and her husband Richard. These characters are gone by the time Rachel and Helen reach their destination, but they make a lasting impression on the protagonist.
Most of the novel takes place in the fictional town of Santa Marina, located somewhere near the Amazon River. It is there that Rachel meets Terence Hewet, an aspiring novelist and the missing element, according to Helen, to complete Rachel’s sentimental education. Through long dialogues about art, politics, religion, love, marriage, race, and other existential topics, Woolf draws us into the world of a group of Edwardian aristocrats, a socio-economic stratum she knew very well. More important than the novel’s plot is its portrayal of a social class and its mentality during the time immediately before the Great War. Thematically and formally, _The Voyage Out_ is in dialogue with Jane Austen ("the greatest,” according to one of the novel’s characters, because “she does not attempt to write like a man,” something that could also be said of Woolf), George Eliot, and Henry James, as this is a novel of manners. The idea of the voyage to an “exotic” location makes one think of Joseph Conrad and of E. M. Forster.
The most obvious question the novel raises in terms of plot is whether the couples who have become acquainted and/or engaged will experience a happy ending together. Unlike the traditional nineteenth-century novel, _The Voyage Out_ does not provide simple solutions, and in some cases does not even provide solutions at all. By the glimpse we get into the environment in which the characters move, we can tell that they are self-satisfied, jaded, and completely illiterate when it comes to meaningful social interaction, let alone something as complex as love. The remote location the characters choose for their holiday, instead of providing recreation, only accentuates the sense of ennui that envelops them. When they receive letters from London, they are like “animals that have been fed,” their silence likened to that of “the lion-house when each beast holds a lump of raw meat in its paws.” After dinner, the vacationers are like “crocodiles so fully gorged by their last meal that the future of the world gives them no anxiety whatsoever.” One of the characters, Evelyn Murgatroyd, who understandably asks to be addressed by her first name, voices the opinion that modern life is detestable, that everything must have been so much easier for the Elizabethans. After a failed attempt at communication, Terence muses: “Why was it that relations between different people were so unsatisfactory, so fragmentary, so hazardous, and words so dangerous that the instinct to sympathize with another human being was an instinct to be examined carefully and probably crushed?” This is a society that has driven itself into an emotional dead-end.
The novel also contains extensive commentary on the relationships between men and women. In chapter XVI, Terence laments that most writing about women does not come from women themselves. “I believe we still don’t know in the least how they live, or what they feel, or what they do precisely,” he tells Rachel. “It’s the man's view that's represented, you see. Think of a railway train: fifteen carriages for men who want to smoke. Doesn’t it make your blood boil? If I were a woman I’d blow some one’s brains out. Don’t you laugh at us a great deal? Don’t you think it all a great humbug? You, I mean--how does it all strike you?” Woolf may have made Terence too perceptive for a young man of his class and epoch, but that’s another issue.
Why four stars? Simply put, _The Voyage Out_ is not _Mrs. Dalloway_, but neither is it a failure. I would not call it a magnificent novel, but it is at least a very good one. Woolf was 33 when it was published, but she had been working on it since age 24. If you are looking for a physical copy, I recommend searching for the 2000 Modern Library hardcover edition, which includes a brilliant introduction by Michael Cunningham, author of _The Hours_ (1998). More than a mere assessment of the novel, the 35-page text constitutes an introduction to Virginia Woolf.
My next Woolf novel will be her last, _Between the Acts_ (1941).
Thanks for reading, and enjoy the book!
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