Maiden Voyage (Penguin Travel Library)

by Denton Welch

Book Overview

Maiden Voyage is an account of author Denton Welch's 16th 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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140095225
• ISBN13: 9780140095227
• Release Date: January 1983
• Publisher: PENGUIN BOOKS LTD
• Length: 1 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 1.0" x 1.0"

Customer Reviews

Buy a ticket for this Voyage

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.

There Should Be a 6 Star Rating For This

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.....