First published in 1915, the Voyage Out is Virginia Woolf's first novel. The novel begins with Mr. and Mrs. Ambrose and their niece, Rachel, embarking on a sea voyage for South America. E. M. Forster described the novel as "... a strange, tragic, inspired book whose scene is a South America not found on any map and reached by a boat which would not float on any sea, an America whose spiritual boundaries touch Xanadu and Atlantis".