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=                           The_Voyage_Out                           =
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                            Introduction
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'The Voyage Out' is the first novel by Virginia Woolf, published in
1915 by Duckworth.


                    Development and first draft
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Woolf began work on 'The Voyage Out' by 1910 (perhaps as early as
1907) and had finished an early draft by 1912. The novel had a long
and difficult gestation; it was not published until 1915, as it was
written during a period in which Woolf was psychologically vulnerable.
She suffered from periods of depression and, at one point, attempted
suicide. The resultant work contained the seeds of all that would
blossom in her later work: the innovative narrative style, and the
focus on feminine consciousness, sexuality, and death.

In 1981, Louise DeSalvo published an alternative version of 'The
Voyage Out' featuring its original title, 'Melymbrosia'. Professor
DeSalvo worked for seven years on the project of reconstructing the
text of the novel as it might have appeared in 1912, before Woolf had
begun serious revisions. She reviewed more than 1,000 manuscript pages
from Woolf's private papers, dating the earlier versions of the work
by small organisational clues such as the colour of ink used or
noticing where a pen had last left off writing. DeSalvo's
'Melymbrosia' attempts to restore the text of the novel as Woolf had
originally conceived it, containing more candid political commentary
on such issues as homosexuality, women's suffrage, and colonialism.
According to DeSalvo, Woolf was "warned by colleagues that publishing
such an outspoken indictment of Britain could prove disastrous to her
fledgling career". The work was heavily revised until it became the
novel now known as 'The Voyage Out', which omits much of the political
candour of the original. DeSalvo's edition was reissued by Cleis Press
in 2002.


                                Plot
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Rachel Vinrace embarks for South America on her father's ship and is
launched on a course of self-discovery in a kind of modern mythical
voyage. The mismatched jumble of passengers provides Woolf with an
opportunity to satirise Edwardian life. The novel introduces Clarissa
Dalloway, the central character of Woolf's later novel, 'Mrs
Dalloway'. Two of the other characters were modelled after important
figures in Woolf's life. St. John Hirst is a fictional portrayal of
Lytton Strachey, and Helen Ambrose is, to some extent, inspired by
Woolf's sister, Vanessa Bell. Rachel's journey from a cloistered life
in a London suburb to freedom, challenging intellectual discourse and
self-discovery very likely reflects Woolf's own journey from a
repressive household to the intellectual stimulation of the Bloomsbury
Group. Toward the novel's end, Rachel Vinrace dies of a fever.


                         Critical reception
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Writing in 1926, E. M. Forster described it as "... a strange, tragic,
inspired book whose scene is a South America not found on any map and
reached by a boat which would not float on any sea, an America whose
spiritual boundaries touch Xanadu and Atlantis". Reviewing the book a
decade earlier, he wrote this: "It is absolutely unafraid... Here at
last is a book which attains unity as surely as 'Wuthering Heights',
though by a different path."

Literary scholar Phyllis Rose writes in her introduction to the novel,
"No later novel of Woolf's will capture so brilliantly the excitement
of youth." And also the excitement and challenge of life. "It's not
cowardly to wish to live," says one old man at the end of the book.
"It's the very reverse of cowardly. Personally, I'd like to go on for
a hundred years... Think of all the things that are bound to happen!"


             Woolf's review copies for USA publication
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There are two known copies of the first edition that Woolf is known to
have used to record her intended alterations ahead of the 1920
re-issue in the USA. The first is in a private collection in the USA.

The second was acquired in 1976, by the University of Sydney, from a
bookshop in London. This copy was mis-filed in the science section of
the University of Sydney's rare books collection by mistake, as the
call number was similar to that collection's numbers. It was
re-discovered in 2021 during a re-cataloguing. This copy contains the
carbon copies of notes in the other copy but, also and uniquely,
Woolf's notes and some deletions (in Chapter 25) written in violet
ink. This copy has Woolf's name written on the front flyleaf. The copy
has been digitised and
[https://digital.library.sydney.edu.au/nodes/view/13658#idx384972
published] by the university.


                           External links
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*
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* [https://books.google.com/books?id=jRpRl8Lm750C Penguin Edition]


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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voyage_Out