The Voyage Out

Credits and rights

Original writer

Virginia Woolf

Publisher of this edition

BoingyBooks Classics

Original publisher

Project Gutenberg

Adaptation credits

John Shoufler / BoingyBooks Classics — digital edition

Original source / edition

The Voyage Out (1915)

License

Public Domain

License link

https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

Rights and adaptation notice

This work is in the public domain. John Shoufler published this digital edition through BoingyBooks Classics. The original work remains public domain and may be copied, adapted, and shared.

The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf (1915)

Rachel Vinrace, a sheltered young Englishwoman, sails to South America, falls in love, and confronts the mysteries of adulthood, desire, and death. Woolf's first novel — already showing the brilliance that would transform English fiction.

Historical Significance:
Virginia Woolf spent six years writing and rewriting The Voyage Out, completing it in 1913 but suffering a severe mental breakdown before its publication in 1915. The novel already contains the seeds of everything Woolf would become: the sensitivity to consciousness, the feminist questioning of women's roles, the lyrical prose, and the preoccupation with death. Rachel's sudden death from fever has been read as both a rejection of the marriage plot and a reflection of Woolf's own precarious mental state. It is a remarkable debut that announces one of the 20th century's greatest literary voices.

This public domain classic was originally published in 1915. Free to read and share.