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Voss [Paperback]

Patrick White
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
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Book Description

21 July 1994

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT MACFARLANE

Set in nineteenth-century Australia, Voss is the story of the secret passion between an explorer and a naïve young woman. Although they have met only a few times, Voss and Laura are joined by overwhelming, obsessive feelings for each other. Voss sets out to cross the continent, and as hardships, mutiny and betrayal whittle away his power to endure and to lead, his attachment to Laura gradually increases. Laura, waiting in Sydney, moves through the months of separation as if they were a dream and Voss the only reality.


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Product details

  • Paperback: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage Classics; New Ed edition (21 July 1994)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0099324717
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099324713
  • Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 2.7 x 19.9 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 86,989 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Product Description

Review

"One of the greatest magicians of fiction ... White's scope is vast and his invention endless" (Observer)

"Patrick White is, in the finest sense, a world novelist. His themes are catholic and complex and he pursues them with a single-minded energy and vision" (Guardian)

"Australia's greatest novelist" (Geoffrey Rush)

"The outstanding figure in Australian fiction" (New York Times)

Book Description

Hidden love and adventure in the Australian desert - a novel of extraordinary power and virtuosity

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Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great novels 11 May 2004
Format:Paperback
This epic about a man's journey into the heart of the Australian desert and into his own heart and mind is a classic of modern literature. Johann Ulrich Voss, though he remains always just beyond the reader's grasp as a character, is as memorable as any great figure in modern literature. If Marlow and Kurtz in Heart of Darkness were one man, this would be him.

The novel is also a love story about two people who go beyond the mediocrity of their surroundings to embark on interior journeys where they learn to know themselves and unite with each other in spirit.

For 80% of the novel I was gripped, running home from college to read more and more. My only qualm would be the ending, as the tension dissipates and the last 80 pages or so peter out under the excessive Christian symbolism. But there is no way that a potential reader should be put off by this assessment

Sentence for sentence, word for word, Patrick White is as good a prose stylist as I've ever read. The phrase "tour de force" could have been invented for this book.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Mary Whipple HALL OF FAME TOP 100 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Nobel Prize-winner Patrick White's genius for story-telling is on full display in this big, old-fashioned saga of Australia, filled with intriguing characters exploring the difficult terrain of their inner lives. For a number of characters, all male, that personal inner journey is also part of a daring adventure they make into the interior of Australia in the mid-nineteenth century, an area previously unexplored by the white people who have recently discovered this continent. The female characters in Sydney during this same period have a far more difficult time exploring their inner natures, even if they are interested in doing so. As the daughters and wives of successful merchants or entrepreneurs, their educations have been in the social graces far more than in academic learning, and their roles are pre-determined.

Despite the time, setting, vibrant descriptions of nature, and love story, this novel is far from romantic, due to White's choices for his two main characters, Johan Ulrich Voss, a German immigrant (modeled on the real explorer Ludwig Leichhardt from Prussia) who has left Germany to explore and discover new species, and Laura Trevelyan, an orphan who has come to Australia from England to live with her aunt and uncle in Sydney. Laura, who meets Voss the week before he is to sail, is quiet and studious rather than flirtatious. Her initial conversations with Voss intrigue her, though she is not particularly attracted to him, nor he to her. Their meeting, however, has complex and subtle overtones, and they connect somehow on levels beneath the surface.

White develops their story by alternating their two points of view - Voss and his men, as they travel across the north of the country, and Laura as she looks for purpose among the ladies of Sydney.
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Voss is a story of a difficult relationship between a man`s dreams and reality, in which they cannot be fulfilled. Detailed descriptions of colonial life in Sydney and lirycal depictions of the outback serve merely as a background to an investigation into human nature. White analyses the feelings and motivations of his characters with wisdom and psychological insight, but beneath the veneer of great style lies a fundamental question of belonging. The characters` lives revolve around the theme of inadequacy - being an outcast,a foreigner,a troubled spirit. The author indicates the difficulty of a human condition, where not only do we have to face the socially created system of restraints, but also to accept our weakness to the forces of nature. White`s novel is a rewarding piece of literature, depicting the power of nature and human instincts over reason and strict moral rules with great wit and compassion towards our imperfections. A must.
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4 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great novels 11 May 2004
Format:Paperback
This epic about a man's journey into the heart of the Australian desert and into his own heart and mind is a classic of modern literature. Johann Ulrich Voss, though he remains always just beyond the reader's grasp as a character, is as memorable as any great figure in modern literature. If Marlow and Kurtz in Heart of Darkness were one man, this would be him.

The novel is also a love story about two people who go beyond the mediocrity of their surroundings to embark on interior journeys where they learn to know themselves and unite with each other in spirit.

For 80% of the novel I was gripped, running home from college to read more and more. My only qualm would be the ending, as the tension dissipates and the last 80 pages or so peter out under the excessive Christian symbolism. But there is no way that a potential reader should be put off by this assessment

Sentence for sentence, word for word, Patrick White is as good a prose stylist as I've ever read. The phrase "tour de force" could have been invented for this book.

Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
11 of 19 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Not for me 19 Oct 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Given the recent controversy over the readability of literary prize-winning books, and the make-up of juries, perhaps I am not surprised that I found this novel difficult to get into. Indeed I gave up after 113 pages. I was much looking forward to reading about colonial Australia, but this much into the book I found I was none the wiser. Moreover, I was intensely irritated both by the fact that every slightest physical gesture is interpreted as Deeply Meaningful, and by the sheer number of adjectives per noun. No doubt this makes me a very superficial reader, but may others like me be warned.
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