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Audiobook edition · 15 h 33 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if leaving home means questioning everything you have been taught to want?
Rachel Vinrace sails from London to South America aboard her father's ship. At twenty-four, she plays the piano well but knows little about love, politics or her own desires. Encounters with Richard and Clarissa Dalloway begin to unsettle the sheltered world she knows.
Ashore, Rachel stays with her aunt Helen Ambrose near the coastal town of Santa Marina. New friendships, long afternoons and conversations with the aspiring novelist Terence Hewet open unfamiliar questions. In Virginia Woolf's first novel, the journey outward becomes an awakening within, as Rachel begins to question the life prepared for her.
What you’ll discover
- A sheltered mind opening Follow Rachel as she begins to ask questions no one has taught her to ask.
- Conversations with real stakes Discover how talk about love, marriage and ideas unsettles a young woman's familiar world.
- Private worlds behind manners Move between minds and glimpse the feelings that polite conversation keeps out of sight.
- England at a distance Enter a seaside villa and a hotel where English visitors gather far from home.
- The beginnings of Woolf Meet her early interest in inner life and the social rules that weigh on women.
Who will love it
For readers who love novels of ideas and inner life, Edwardian manners, and women questioning the rules of marriage and society, and anyone curious about how Woolf began.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A sheltered woman boards her father's ship
- Strangers on deck unsettle Rachel's calm
- Ashore, a small English world in the heat
- Friendship and talk start to change Rachel
- What the book says about women, marriage and rules
- How Woolf tells it: moving minds and the sea
Who’s who
- Rachel VinraceA sheltered young woman of twenty-four, gifted at the piano, who travels abroad and begins to question the life prepared for her.
- Helen AmbroseRachel's aunt, warm and sharp-minded, who takes her niece under her wing and wonders how best to guide her.
- Ridley AmbroseHelen's husband, a scholar of Greek, absorbed in his books and often distant from the people around him.
- Willoughby VinraceRachel's father, a shipowner whose vessel carries the party out, a man of business with firm views.
- Terence HewetA curious, talkative young man who hopes to write novels and who takes a real interest in what Rachel thinks.
- St John HirstA sharp-tongued Cambridge intellectual, Hewet's friend, who tests everyone around him with blunt remarks.
- Richard DallowayA politician and passenger on the ship, confident and fluent, who leaves a strong impression on Rachel.
- Clarissa DallowayRichard's wife, charming and light in manner, who talks kindly to Rachel during the voyage.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 15 h 33 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 8 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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La Traversée des apparences
by Virginia Woolf · 1915
Rachel Vinrace sails to South America and begins to question the life prepared for her.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Voyage Out is the first novel of Virginia Woolf, published in 1915 after years of drafting. It follows Rachel Vinrace, a young Englishwoman of twenty-four, who sails from London to South America aboard her father's ship.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A sheltered woman boards her father's ship
The story opens in London, where a small party prepares to go abroad. Rachel Vinrace is the daughter of Willoughby Vinrace, a shipowner. Her mother is dead, and she has grown up mostly in the care of aunts, far from any wider experience. She is clever in some ways and unformed in others. Music is the one place where she feels sure of herself.
Her father's ship, the Euphrosyne, is bound for South America. Aboard are Rachel's aunt Helen Ambrose and Helen's husband Ridley, a scholar who loves Greek and carries his books everywhere. The Ambroses are going out to spend time at a villa on the coast. Rachel is to travel with them. Her father, a man of business and firm opinions, is content to let others look after her.
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What is The Voyage Out about?
It follows Rachel Vinrace, a sheltered young Englishwoman who sails to South America on her father's ship. Among new people, she begins to question marriage, manners and her own wishes.
Is The Voyage Out Virginia Woolf's first novel?
Yes. It was published in 1915 and was the first novel Woolf brought out. It is more traditional in form than her later work, though her interest in minds and silence is already clear.
Who is Rachel Vinrace?
Rachel is the heroine, a woman of twenty-four raised in a protected home. She plays the piano well but knows little of people or love. The voyage opens her mind.
The author
Virginia Woolf
1882–1941 · English modernist novelist
Virginia Woolf was an English writer born in London in 1882. She wrote novels and essays, including The Voyage Out (1915), Jacob’s Room (1922), Mrs. Dalloway (1925), and The Common Reader (1925). She lived in London and Sussex. She died in Sussex in 1941.
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