120,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

Overnight NZ-wide delivery 🚀 We’ve moved into our new bookstore and warehouse 🎉

Voss

By Patrick White
0.0 (0 reviews)
3.79 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating. ( 3,510 ratings, 386 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Voss by Patrick White is a compelling tale set in 19th-century Australia, centring around an ambitious German explorer's journey into the continent's interior. As Voss leads an expedition through the harsh and unforgiving landscape, he forms a profound connection with a young woman named Laura through their letters and shared dreams. The novel delves into themes of obsession, faith, and the clash between personal and elemental forces.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2300
Elsewhere:
$2499
OVERNIGHT NZ-WIDE DELIVERY

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

If you enjoy epic tales of exploration layered with profound philosophical and psychological insights, this book may appeal to you. Set in the Australian wilderness, it captures the relentless ambition and complex emotional landscape of its characters, blending adventure with a deeply moving human story.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

The novel that put Australian literature on the map is now in a Vintage Classic edition. 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.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Voss by Patrick White is celebrated for its profound exploration of human nature and visionary storytelling. Critics often praise White's ability to blend mysticism with a deeply psychological narrative, capturing the rugged Australian landscape as almost a character in itself. However, some readers find its complex prose and philosophical depth challenging, yet ultimately rewarding. Overall, it is regarded as a classic of Australian literature, admired for its ambitious thematic scope and intricate character development.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781742756882

Publisher: Random House Australia

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 01 October 2012

Country: Australia

Imprint: Vintage (Australia)

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 30.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 199.0mm

Weight: 308g

Pages: 464

Collections

Best Sellers at Book Hero Contemporary Romance Fiction General Fiction In Stock Books In-Stock Fiction Books Literary Fiction New Release Fiction Patrick White Penguin Books Romance

About the Author

Patrick White was born in England in 1912 and taken to Australia, where his father owned a sheep farm, when he was six months old. He was educated in England at Cheltenham college and King's College, Cambridge. He settled in London, where he wrote several unpublished novels, then served in the RAF during the war. He returned to Australia after the war. He became the most considerable figure in modern Australian literature, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973. The great poet of Australian landscape, he turned its vast empty spaces into great mythic landscapes of the soul. His position as a man of letters was controversial, provoked by his acerbic, unpredictable public statements and his belief that it is eccentric individuals who offer the only hope of salvation. He died in September 1990.

Also by Patrick White

View all
  • The Vivisector
    From the Australian Nobel Laureate. This Patrick White masterpiece, now in a Vintage Classics edition. The Vivisector follows Hurtle Duffield, a painter incapable of loving anything except what he paints. The men and women who court him during his long life are, above all, the victims of his art. He is the vivisector, dissecting their weaknesses with cruel precision—his sister's...
    By Patrick White
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Tree Of Man
    At the turn of the century, Stan Parker takes a wife and makes a home as a small farmer in the wilderness of Australia. Amy bears his children and time brings him a procession of ordinary events—achievements, disappointments, sorrows, and dreams. Steeped in Australian myths and folklore, Patrick White, in only his fourth novel, burrows his way through Australian culture....
    By Patrick White
    Paperback
    $2800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Solid Mandala
    Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. In The Solid Mandala, Patrick White draws a telling and touching portrait of twin brothers. Waldo is the competent man of reason; he sees himself as the superior intellect. Arthur, accepted as a half-wit, is the innocent, God's fool, loving and outgoing in a blundering way. As they compete with and care for...
    By Patrick White
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Happy Valley: Text Classics
    Happy Valley, Patrick White's magnificent debut novel, was first published in 1939. Long out of print, it is now part of the Text Classics series. Based on White's own experiences in the early 1930s as a jackaroo at Bolaro, near Adaminaby in south-eastern New South Wales, Happy Valley paints a portrait of a community in a desolate landscape. It is...
    By Patrick White
    Paperback
    $1799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Memoirs of Many in One
    The last Patrick White novel published in his lifetime, Memoirs of Many in One presents the eccentric, often fantastical recollections of the ageing actor, Alex Xenophon Demirjian Gray. These are ‘edited’ by the writer Patrick White, her friend and executor, who is often the target of her scorn. Witty and affecting, Memoirs reveals another side of White’s fiction even as...
    By Patrick White
    Paperback
    $1799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Twyborn Affair
    One of the great magicians of fiction ... White's scope is vast and his invention endless. Angus Wilson, OBSERVER Eddie Twyborn is bisexual and beautiful, the son of a Judge and a drunken mother. With his androgynous hero - Eudoxia/Eddie/Eadith Twyborn - and through his search for identity, for self-affirmation and love in its many forms, Patrick White takes us...
    By Patrick White
    Paperback
    $5000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A Fringe Of Leaves
    From the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Set in Australia in the 1840s, A Fringe of Leaves combines dramatic action with a finely distilled moral vision. Returning home to England from Van Diemen's land, the Bristol Maid is shipwrecked on the Queensland coast, and Mrs Roxburgh is taken prisoner by a tribe of Australian Aboriginals, along with the...
    By Patrick White
    Paperback
    $2400
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Riders in the Chariot
    A bold, visionary story of four intertwining lives from the Nobel prizewinning novelist WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY DAVID MALOUF Through the crumbling ruins of the once splendid Xanadu, Miss Hare wanders, half-mad. In the wilderness, she stumbles upon an Aborigine artist and a Jewish refugee. They place themselves in the care of a local washerwoman. In a world of pervasive...
    By Patrick White
    Paperback
    $3400
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Developing Research Questions
    Developing Research Questions
    This no fuss, compact guide steers social science students of all levels through the complex process of conducting a research project. It explains how to break down initial ideas and broad topics into manageable questions and gives detailed guidance on how to refine these as the project progresses. With a wide range of international examples and reflective exercises, it is...
    By Patrick White
    Paperback
    $7195
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Living and the Dead
    The Living and the Dead
    To hesitate on the edge of life or to plunge in and risk change—this is the dilemma explored in The Living and the Dead. Patrick White's second novel is set in thirties London and portrays the complex ebb and flow of relationships within the Standish family. Mrs Standish, ageing but still beautiful, is drawn into secret liaisons, while her daughter...
    By Patrick White
    Paperback
    $3999
    Elsewhere:
    $4500
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Cockatoos
    These six short novels and stories achieve the majesty and power of the best of Patrick White's great novels. They probe beneath the surface of events – a sexual lapse, the unaccustomed climate of a foreign country, interruptions in a cherished routine, a death, a toothache – to expose a deeper, truer reality. The Cockatoos offers readers captivating insights into...
    By Patrick White
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Eye of the Storm
    This mesmerizing, ambitious, lyrical masterpiece is perhaps Nobel Prize-winner Patrick White's best novel. NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE The Eye of the Storm tells the story of Elizabeth Hunter, an ex-socialite in her eighties, who has a mystical experience during a summer storm in Sydney. This transformative event alters all her relationships, and her existence becomes charged with a meaning...
    By Patrick White
    Paperback
    Sold Out

More from General Fiction

View all
  • The Wedding People
    'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people — but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...
    By Alison Espach
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Lizzy's Pick Lizzy's Pick
    Yesteryear
    A BOLD AND BITING SATIRE. WILL HAVE YOU GASPING TO THE FINAL PAGE — Nita Prose WICKEDLY FUNNY, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND FRIGHTENINGLY PERCEPTIVE — Abigail Dean INVENTIVE, ADDICTIVE, A WILD RIDE — Ashley Audrain SHOT THROUGH WITH HUMOUR AND LACED WITH DARKNESS — Clare Mackintosh The Stepford Wives meets The Handmaid's Tale — Hannah Deitch My name was Natalie Heller...
    By Caro Claire Burke
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Dylan's Pick Dylan's Pick
    Theo of Golden
    THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from…His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance –...
    By Allen Levi
    Paperback
    $2899
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Dungeon Crawler Carl
    The apocalypse will be televised! Welcome to the first book in the wildly popular and addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman-now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition! You know what's worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what's worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction...
    By Matt Dinniman
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook
    Carl and Princess Donut have to team up with other contestants to not just survive, but to solve a deadly puzzle in this third, mind-twisting novel in the addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series -now with bonus material exclusive to this print edition! Carl and Donut have survived so far, but this fourth level is unlike anything they could imagine. The...
    By Matt Dinniman
    Hardback
    $4700
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Fourth Wing
    THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NUMBER ONE GLOBAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON! DON'T MISS OUT ON THE SERIES THAT EVERYONE CAN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT: 'This book contains an addictive, drug-like essence that will make you relinquish all responsibility until the very last word. Do not say I didn't warn you' Glamour 'I didn't sleep, I didn't eat, and when I finished, I...
    By Rebecca Yarros
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Shirl's Pick Shirl's Pick
    Taipei Story
    TAIPEI STORY is the electrifying new novel by bestselling literary phenomenon Rebecca F. Kuang, a profoundly moving coming-of-age story that explores first love, second language and final goodbyes – all set against the backdrop of one unforgettable summer in Taipei. Yale student Lily Chen arrives in Taipei hungry: for family, for culture, for connection. But her summer of discovery quickly...
    By R.F. Kuang
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Gate of the Feral Gods
    The fourth book in the explosive LitRPG Dungeon Crawler Carl series New Achievement! Total, Utter Failure.You failed a quest less than five minutes after you received it. Now that's talent. Surviving in a multilevel dungeon that also happens to be the set of the galaxy's most watched game show has taught Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess...
    By Matt Dinniman
    Hardback
    $6000
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Iron Flame
    The instant number one Sunday Times bestseller and thrilling sequel to the global phenomenon, Fourth Wing! DON'T BE THE LAST TO DISCOVER THE SERIES THAT EVERYONE CAN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT: 'Yarros is the true inheritor of Harry Potter and inspires Hunger Games levels of devotion' Guardian 'Fear not, levels of fighting, rebelliousness and all-round sexiness are still sky-high' Daily Mail...
    By Rebecca Yarros
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Haunting Adeline
    VIRAL BOOKTOK SENSATION AND USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR! The Manipulator I can manipulate the emotions of anyone who lets me. I will make you hurt, make you cry, make you laugh and sigh. But my words don't affect him. Especially not when I plead for him to leave. He's always there, watching and waiting. And I can never look away....
    By H. D. Carlton
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Carl's Doomsday Scenario
    Join Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat Princess Donut as they fight fantastical creatures and deadly mobs in the second book in the smash-hit Dungeon Crawler Carl series -now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition Now on the third floor, Carl and Donut have to fight harder than ever. They've already proven that a Coast Guard vet and once-and-forever...
    By Matt Dinniman
    Hardback
    $4699
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A Court of Thorns and Roses
    The first instalment of the GLOBAL PHENOMENON and TikTok sensation, from multi-million selling and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas. Maas has established herself as a fantasy fiction titan – Time Harry Potter magic, Taylor Swift sass, Fifty Shades-level athleticism – The Sunday Times With bits of Buffy, Game of Thrones and Outlander, this is a glorious series...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.

General Fiction lists from the team

Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!

The Latest at Book Hero

View all