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y separately published work icon Voss : A Novel single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1957... 1957 Voss : A Novel
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'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. 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.

'From the careful delineation of Victorian society to the sensitive rendering of hidden love to the stark narrative of adventure in the Australian desert, Patrick White's novel is a work of extraordinary power and virtuosity.'

Source: Random House Books (Sighted 21/09/2012)

Exhibitions

6681414
10630101
10626492

Adaptations

y separately published work icon Voss : Opera in Two Acts After the Novel by Patrick White David Malouf , Richard Meale (composer), Grosvenor Place : Australian Music Centre , 1980-1989 Z272889 1980-1989 single work musical theatre opera

Voss was adapted into an opera by author David Malouf and composer Richard Meale. It was first performed by the Australian Opera in Adelaide, March 1986.

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Notes

  • Dedication: For Marie d'Estournelles de Constant
  • In a letter to Hu Wenzhong, White refers to a Russian edition, but this has not been traced.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Eyre and Spottiswoode ,       1957 .
      image of person or book cover 1200495154397096654.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 478p.
      Reprinted: 1962 , 1968
      Note/s:
      • First published 3 December 1957. Reprinted three times in 1958.
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,      :       Viking ,       1957 .
      person or book cover
      Extent: 442p.
      Reprinted: 1974
      Note/s:
      • First published in August 1957. Reprinted twice.
    • Toronto, Ontario,
      c
      Canada,
      c
      Americas,      :       Macmillan ,       1957 .
      image of person or book cover 4641410290431925726.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 442p.
    • Harmondsworth, Middlesex,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Mitcham, Blackburn - Mitcham - Vermont area, Melbourne - East, Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin ,       1960 .
      image of person or book cover 8398269839219201875.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online (Modern Classics reprint)
      Extent: 448p.
      Note/s:
      • Reprinted twenty-one times by 1993.
      • Australian issue 1974.
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,      :       Avon Books ,       1975 .
      Extent: 445p.
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Jonathan Cape ,       1980 .
      Extent: 478p.
      ISBN: 022401773X
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Vintage ,       1994 .
      person or book cover
      Extent: 478p.
      ISBN: 0099324717
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Vintage Australia , 2012 .
      person or book cover
      Source: Publisher's website
      Extent: 464p.
      Edition info: Vintage Classic edition
      Note/s:
      • Publication date: 01/10/2012
      ISBN: 9781742756882
Alternative title: Voss : Roman
Language: German
    • Reinbek,
      c
      Germany,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Rowohlt ,       1973 .
      image of person or book cover 181305573260414968.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 450p.
      ISBN: 3499117606
    • Leipzig,
      c
      Germany,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Reclam ,       1987 .
      person or book cover
      Extent: 470p.
      ISBN: 3379000892
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Other Formats

  • Also braille and sound recording.
  • Also large print.
  • Also dyslexic edition
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Related Works

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Works about this Work

The Boredom and Futility of War in Patrick White's Fiction Annalisa Pes , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Le Simplegadi , April no. 15 2016; (p. 65-73) This article investigates the representation of war in terms of uselessness and waste in the fiction of Patrick White, with a particular emphasis on the short story “After Alep”, written in 1945 when the writer was enrolled in the RAF as an Intelligence Officer. By analysing the story in the light of White’s approach to the war as to “the most horrifying and wasteful period” of his life (Marr 1992: 493), the article attempts to demonstrate how the narrative devices used by White contribute to demythologize the rhetoric of the war and of war heroes in a way that may be instrumental in conveying a message of peace out of the ultimate sense of futility transmitted by any war.
12 Books Every Australian Should Read Anna Vallen , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Geographic [Website] , February 2016; 'Take a literary journey to the interior with these 12 must-read Australian books, representing a cross section of Australian literature, meditating on landscape, history and what makes us Australian.'
Theodora as an Unheard Prophetess in Patrick White's The Aunt's Story Antonella Riem Natale , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Le Simplegadi , no. 16 2016; (p. 37-49)

This essay takes into consideration some of the themes dear to Veronica

Brady’s heart and present in her profound critical analysis of Australian literature. Veronica often read Patrick White’s work in the light of a spiritual quest and a mystical-mythical vision. Aim of this essay is to investigate how the figure of the aunt, in The Aunt’s Story (1948), embodies one of the isolated and visionary characters in White’s work who transmits a message that superficial contemporary society is unable to understand. I will show how Theodora Goodman’s role as explorer in the inner land of the Self connects her with ancient partnership (Eisler 1987), Goddess’ archetypes, in particular that of the Crone, embodying a “woman of age, wisdom and power” (Bolen 2001). This figure had an important but now forgotten role in ancient gylanic societies (Eisler 1987). Theadora, the Goddess’ gift, as the protagonist’s name should read, is a powerful reminder of the sacred spiritual function of ancient

women-priestess. Theodora is Theadora, a priestess beloved by the Goddess. Contemporary society, being unable to see beyond the ordinary, can only catalogue these sacred figures as ‘mad’.

Full Text PDF
Your Country Is of Great Subtlety : Aspects of the Brazilian Translation of Patrick White’s Voss Ian Alexander , Monica Stefani , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Ilha Do Desterro : A Journal of English Language , vol. 69 no. 2 2016; 'A number of the dialogues in Patrick White’s Voss (1957), especially those involving Laura Trevelyan, involve an implicit debate about what is meant by country and what it means to live in a country. Is the colony of New South Wales simply a province of the British Empire, a little piece of Britain transplanted on the other side of the world, or is it a place where British settlers will have to adapt their ways and gradually be transformed into something new? In these dialogues, each speaker makes use of words such as country, colony, property and land in order to express their vision of the place where they find themselves, frequently forcing a shift of meaning from one sentence to the next. This study examines how this debate is carried out in the novel and how it functions in Paulo Henriques Britto’s 1985 Brazilian translation.' (Publication summary)
Elective Affinities Manning Clark, Patrick White and Sidney Nolan Mark McKenna , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Patrick White beyond the Grave : New Critical Perspectives 2015; (p. 81-100)

'Mark McKenna traces the ups and downs of another queer relationship, the oftentimes unreciprocated love of Australia's 'great' historian Manning Clark for the visionary he saw in White. He shows how Clark's monumental multi-volume History of Australia expresses greater allegiance to the preoccupations of Australia's 'elite' mid-century writers and artists, notably White and Sidney Nolan, than to the work of Clark's contemporaries in the academic discipline of history.' (Introduction 7-8)
[Review] Voss Peter Boxall , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die 2006; (p. 509)
— Review of Voss : A Novel Patrick White , 1957 single work novel
The Books That Made Us 1995 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 19-20 August 1995; (p. rev 1-2)
— Review of My Brother Jack : A Novel George Johnston , 1964 single work novel ; The Lucky Country Donald Horne , 1964 single work non-fiction ; Joe Wilson and His Mates Henry Lawson , 1901 selected work short story ; My Brilliant Career Miles Franklin , 1901 single work novel ; Monkey Grip Helen Garner , 1977 single work novel ; Voss : A Novel Patrick White , 1957 single work novel ; The Fortunes of Richard Mahony Henry Handel Richardson , 1917 single work novel
Novelists and Conventions Vincent Buckley , 1958 single work review
— Appears in: Prospect , June vol. [1] no. 1 1958; (p. 21-22)
— Review of Seedtime Vance Palmer , 1957 single work novel ; Voss : A Novel Patrick White , 1957 single work novel
'Seedtime' and 'Voss' Marjorie Barnard , 1958 single work review
— Appears in: Meanjin , Autumn vol. 17 no. 1 1958; (p. 94-100)
— Review of Seedtime Vance Palmer , 1957 single work novel ; Voss : A Novel Patrick White , 1957 single work novel
[Review] Voss 1957 single work review
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 13 December 1957; (p. 753)
— Review of Voss : A Novel Patrick White , 1957 single work novel
The Marriage of the Mind and the Cosmos in Patrick White's Voss : An Indian Perspective K. Chellappan , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Literary Criterion , vol. 37 no. 2 2002; (p. 44-53)
Inner Struggles Thomas Keneally , 2002-2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 17 December-14 January vol. 120 no. 6355 2002-2003; (p. 38-39)
Paradoxes of Non- Existence : Questions of Time, Metaphor and the Materialities of Cultural Traditions in Wilson Harris's Discussions of Australian Literary Texts Brigitta Olubas , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Cultural History , no. 21 2002; (p. 81-88, notes 122) Olubas examines the way in which Caribbean writer Wilson Harris's 'account of national traditions and of the national and cultural provenances and imaginitive inheritances of particular writers directs attention ... toward broader, unexpected imaginitive, aesthetic and representational traditions, explicitly colonial, often violent, which yet enhance our readings of the complex high points of national literary traditions and figures ... [and] presents us with other ways to take up the relations between texts, within as well as across (national) cultural traditions' (p. 88).
Containing Continents: The Moralized Landscapes of Conrad, Greene, White and Harris Mark Williams , 1985 single work criticism
— Appears in: Kunapipi , vol. 7 no. 1 1985; (p. 34-45)
y separately published work icon Postcolonial Literature from Three Continents : Tutuola, H. D., Ellison, and White Judith L. Tabron , New York (City) : Peter Lang , 2003 Z1061297 2003 multi chapter work criticism Publisher's abstract: 'How can we read literatures from other cultures? The metaphors of fractal geometry can help us think about the complexity of the cultural situation of a text or an author. Postcolonial Literature from Three Continents identifies four primary themes common to postcolonial texts - technology, memory, language, and geography - and examines them in relationship to four texts from Nigeria, the United States, and Australia so that we see both the colonized and colonizing positions of these works. The quartet of texts are Amos Tutola's The Palm-Wine Drinkard, H. D.'s Helen in Egypt , Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, and Patrick White's Voss.'
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Awards

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Last amended 6 Jun 2019 13:30:41
Subjects:
  • Australian Outback, Central Australia,
  • ca. 1840-1860
Settings:
  • Sydney, New South Wales,
  • Queensland,
Influenced by:
Ludwig Leichhardt
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