by Virginia Woolf
The voyage out is also a voyage in.
It’s such a joy to read a novel like this!
The “Euphrosyne” sets off from the Thames and travels to the estuary of
the Amazon, to the imaginary island of Santa Marina and at the same time one
witnesses the “voyage” in the life of 24-year-old Rachel Vinrace, the daughter
of the ship owner.
All the themes we find in Woolf’s
future work are here: feminism, sexuality, social power, death. The characters
are "real", English people living in the junction of the nineteenth and twentieth
century, belonging to the upper middle class of the time.
They are on the island on holidays
and go in and out of the luxury hotel but also the villa on top of a hill,
where Rachel stays with her uncles.
There is not much action in the novel
– as in all modernists’ novels – but there are exquisite depictions of
characters, behaviours and places.
Virginia Woolf is showing her talent
in this early novel of hers. Excellent work of art!
