Initial sympathy is gradually eaten up by surprise.

He is not a positive hero, he is more like a monster that we watch with amazement. He is a sort of negative Messiah, attracting followers, that he leads not to redemption, but to neglect and annihilation. He despises Laura's self-found atheism and calls it self-murder. His spirituality is based on a self-centered deism. He is looking for his personal spiritual victory, not somebody else's wealth or fame. He is in a way a trickster, because he has no real intention to provide his sponsors with the useful information that they look for. He is insane insofar as he plainly rejects tapping information sources that would have been available. He is a lousy leader and a worse team player. Voss assembles a team and off they go, towards the huge white spot in the map of the time. Her mental loneliness mirrors Voss's, but their relationship is a misunderstanding, of the kind that relations are often made of since time began. She is rather like a Jane Austin heroine. She is the useless, futureless extra in the wealthy family.

He finds a wealthy sponsor in Sydney, and he finds a soul mate in the sponsor's orphan niece Laura, an outsider due to her emancipated mind. He is a loner and something of a mystic: he needs to find `knowledge', in a not really scientific sense. Other than his insistence and willpower, we see no real reason why he is entrusted with the expedition. He is a German with unclear scientific credentials, no Humboldt. Voss is a stranger in Australia, but then almost everyone was at the time. The appearance of Halley's comet dates the time of the adventure to 1830 and before. There was an historic role model for Voss, who disappeared without trace in the Outback, in the mid 19th century. This is the story of an explorer who is obsessed with making his own map of Australia.

Summary of voss by patrick white