Maiden Voyage [Paperback]

Denton Welch (Author), Edith Sittwell (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2004

Maiden Voyage is an account of author Denton Welch's sixteenth year, when he ran away from his English public school and was then sent to Shanghai to live with his father. The book was Welch's first and created a sensation on publication in 1943; its frank description of public schoolboy life forced publisher Herbert Read to initially seek advice from libel lawyers. Even Winston Churchill's private secretary gossiped in a letter that, "the book was reeking with homosexuality? I think I must get it." Today, Welch's expressions of sexuality may seem more demure than outrageous, but his portrayal of the passions and humiliations of adolescence is graphic. As in all of Welch's novels, it is the precisely realized details of the author's physical and social surroundings that make the book such a remarkable journey.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Exact Change (February 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1878972286
• ISBN-13: 978-1878972286
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #685,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There Should Be a 6 Star Rating For This, December 14, 2000

By 

simply pseud (CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Maiden Voyage (Paperback)

This is the book I want them to toss in my coffin before they nail the lid down. I chanced upon Maiden Voyage many years ago and as soon as I finished it, I wanted to read it all over again. The friend, who realized I had borrowed it, rather unpleasantly made me return it. Written autobiographically by a young English boy, it is an astonishing, often scandalous, and occasionally deviant account of a coming of age. Denton's brilliant style, deceptively simple but frank and intimate is timeless. Aspects of British upper class life have altered only a little since this book was written, which was pre WW2. There are still tormented boys on trains heading back to school and contemplating escape. The glimpses of Shanghai still haunt me.

I am rarely as moved by the written word. Denton Welch was a genius, a truly great writer. Maiden Voyage is his most revealing work. Order it immediately! I'm never going to lend my copy to anyone.....

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy a ticket for this Voyage, February 13, 2009

By 

Sye Sye (Perth, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maiden Voyage (Paperback)

When you read Maiden Voyage you will wonder how such deceptively simple language and storyline have gently lifted you from the ground and taken you into such a intimate encounter. The writing appears effortless, the language creates no barriers to understanding. There are many simple pleasures here that we have all experienced or thought at one time but had not thought print-worthy. Yet here they are rolled out like a deliciously intricate lushious carpet. My favorite part was the description of one unfortunate school boy who was de-bagged on a train during an outing for school and has bubble gum rubbed in his pubic hair; Welch writes that he thinks that, despite the forced nature of the attack, the boy enjoyed the publicity.

5.0 out of 5 stars Honest, December 25, 2011

By 

Benjamin (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Maiden Voyage (Paperback)

Denton Welch, artist and author, writes in part memoir, part novel, of the year at the age of fifteen he ran away from school, and subsequently left for China to join his father. He begins as he is due to set off for his return to Repton, his Derbyshire public school where his brothers also attend or attended. But instead of catching the train going north from London he buys a ticket for Salisbury. As his money runs out he is forced to make arrangements to return, with the outcome that he can eventually join his father in China.

Welch describes his escape, his brief return to Repton, and then his time in China. The account is filled with little adventures and encounters in which Welch reveals as much about himself as the people he meets and the places he visits. He writes with an artist's eye, his powers of observation creating strong images and bringing to life both people and places. Welch is an unusual youth, sensitive, something of a loner, with a great interest in the antique and especially small objects, and a sense of adventure. The honesty of his writing cannot but endear one to this young man who is clearly set apart from most, and who occasionally and subtly reveals through his writings his gay tendencies.