The Voyage Out
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“The Voyage Out” by Virginia Woolf.
This is a story about a young English woman, Rachel, on a sea voyage from London, to a South American coastal city of Santa Marina. As I read the story, the title of the story became a metaphor for Rachel's inner journey.
The inner journey within this story is perhaps best summarized in the author's words:
“The next few months passed away, as many years can pass away, without definite events, and yet, if suddenly disturbed, it would be seen that such months or years had a character unlike others.”
Rachel's mother has passed away many years ago. The sea voyage and the subsequent months in Santa Marina show that Rachel is also on an inner journey, to understand herself better. She seeks advice from Helen, her aunt, and Helen and Rachel become close friends.
“…................The vision of her own personality, of herself as a real everlasting thing, different from anything else, unmergeable, like the sea or the wind, flashed into Rachel's mind, and she became profoundly excited at the thought of living...................”
Rachel falls in love with a young Englishman, Terence, in Santa Marina. But tragically, she falls ill and dies. Yet, in the brief time that Helen and Terence have known her, her journey has also made them reflect about their own lives.
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Phew. This is my second Virginia Woolf novel. Although it makes more sense to me than the first (Between The Acts), I still constantly find myself bewildered at what's happening in the narrative. There's so much dialogue, and a lot of that dialogue is typically very irrelevant and flits from topic to topic. I believe that's Woolf trying to make a point, because she does insert a lot of pretty scathing social commentary especially from the viewpoint of Helen Ambrose, who feels somewhat like an author's mouthpiece. But wow, sometimes it's really hard to follow.
The novel first introduces Helen Ambrose, a middle-aged woman leaving her children behind in England while her husband, Ridley Ambrode, and her sail to South America. She is joined by her niece Rachel Vinrace, the true protagonist of the story, and her father Willoughby Vinrace who is Helen's brother-in-law. Rachel had planned to join her father to sail on to the Congo for an expedition, but Helen convinces Willoughby to leave Rachel in her care in the South American resort that she would be stopping at, to which Willoughby agrees. Later, they meet Mr Hirst and Mr Hewet at the resort, who become interested in getting to know Helen and Rachel better.
Look, I can get that Woolf inserts a lot of pretty damn scathing social commentary, particularly on the state and rights of women, in this book. I can get behind that and see it. I just have an issue with how long her dialogue is. However, as with Between The Acts, I feel like that problem's more on me than on her. I can definitely see why others enjoyed this a lot, because when I did slow down to read some sentences closely, it was pretty striking and interesting. But it was also so dense and didn't capture my attention very well. I don't really know why, seeing that I'm usually a fan of well-written prose. Maybe I'm just not in a mood for early-20th C writing now.
