Voyager

Voyager (1993) is a historical fiction novel by the best-selling novelist Diana Gabaldon and the third book in the Outlander series. A novel about love, family, and history, Voyager centers on the experiences of Claire Fraser—an English woman from the 20th century—and her husband, Jamie—a Scottish Highlander from the 18th century—as they navigate the tumultuous historical moments in which they live. By employing elements of science fiction and romance, Gabaldon explores themes of Reconciling Past and Present Selves, Making Sacrifices for Love, and The Presence of the Past.

This study guide refers to the 2001 Delta trade paperback edition of the text.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions and discussions of racism, gender discrimination, antigay bias, sexual violence and harassment, rape, ableism, mental illness, child abuse, pregnancy loss, child death, death by suicide, suicidal ideation, animal cruelty, substance use, graphic violence, sexual content, cursing, illness and death, and physical abuse.

Plot Summary

Voyager begins with the story of how Jamie Fraser, a member of the Scottish MacKenzie clan and the second husband of Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser, became one of the few Highland soldiers to survive the Battle of Culloden. Through a series of luck and coincidence, Jamie makes it back to his home in Lallybroch, where he lives in a cave for seven years while he hides from the British soldiers who want to arrest him as a traitor. Tired of hiding, Jamie eventually has one of his tenants betray him to collect the sizable reward being offered for his arrest.

In 1968, Claire, who returned to the 20th century after conceiving a child with Jamie, is in shock when she discovers historical documents that show Jamie survived Culloden, knowing that this means she may be able to go back in time and find him. Twenty years have passed since Claire’s return, and with the help of her daughter, Brianna, or Bree, and their historian friend, Roger, Claire continues to track Jamie through history, learning about his years spent in the cave and his subsequent time in Ardsmuir prison. At Ardsmuir, Jamie befriends John Grey, an English captain whose life he once spared. John is also the warden of the prison, and when it closes and all other Highland prisoners are sent to the colonies in North America, John gets Jamie a position in the stables of a wealthy English family. A few years later, John uses his connections to help Jamie get a royal pardon for his crimes.

Back in 1968, Claire, Bree, and Roger find evidence that Jamie moved to Edinburgh and became a printer in 1765. Claire calculates that this is the time she could travel to if she returned through the standing stone, and she makes the decision to leave her life in the present and return to Jamie. Claire is heartbroken to leave Bree, but both women know that Claire will only be happy if she goes back in time.

Claire returns to 1766 through the standing stones and quickly finds Jamie in Edinburgh. At first, both Claire and Jamie are ecstatic to see one another, albeit a bit shy, and Claire tells Jamie all about Bree. However, Claire quickly learns that Jamie’s life, like her own, has changed significantly in the past 20 years. Jamie is a printer but also works as a smuggler to provide for his family and tenants back at Lallybroch. As people grow suspicious of Jamie and his printing house burns down, he and Claire return to Lallybroch to be with his sister’s family, the Murrays.

Claire does not feel at home at Lallybroch like she once did, and her old friend Jenny is colder to her than she once was. As Claire and Jamie begin to reconnect, Claire learns that Jamie is married to another woman from their town and has two stepdaughters. Jamie tries to explain the circumstances of this marriage and how it was based on convenience and his loneliness rather than love. Claire flees Lallybroch, believing her time-traveling was a mistake, but is quickly forced to return when Jamie’s nephew Ian tells her that Jamie is on the verge of death after being shot by his wife.

Claire returns to Lallybroch to nurse Jamie back to health, and they reconcile, recognizing that they have both had to do difficult things to survive the last 20 years when they thought they would never be together again. Jamie and Claire intend to go to France with Ian to escape the suspicion surrounding Jamie’s smuggling. On their way, Ian is kidnapped by sailors on a boat bound for Jamaica. Jamie borrows his cousin’s ship and brings smugglers as crew to search for Ian.

On their way across the Atlantic, a British man-of-war ship asks for assistance with a typhoid outbreak. As Claire was a surgeon in the 20th century, she feels it is her duty to help the men on the plague ship. While she goes to consult with the sick crew for a few hours, the British ship sets sail again, taking Claire with them. Claire is treated well and helps tend to the sick aboard the ship, but she learns that one of their sailors recognized Jamie, and the British plan to arrest him once they get to Jamaica.

Claire jumps overboard near the island of Hispaniola and eventually makes it to shore, where she finds that Jamie’s ship had also wrecked nearby. Jamie had gone to the British ship to find Claire but went overboard in a storm, eventually landing on the island. Once everyone is reunited and the ship is fixed, they continue their search for Ian by following rumors of a mysterious Mrs. Abernathy, whose plantation they believe Ian’s ship is bound for.

When they meet Mrs. Abernathy in Jamaica, they see the woman is actually Geillis Duncan, another time-traveler whom Claire met in both the 18th and 20th centuries. Claire and Jamie don’t believe Geillis when she says she knows nothing about Ian, as she is known to perform rituals with human sacrifice when she time-travels. With the help of the people that Geillis enslaves, Claire and Jamie track Geillis and Ian to a magical cave where Geillis is in the middle of performing a ritual.

When Jamie learns that Geillis intends to go back to the 20th century to find their daughter Brianna, Jamie charges at Geillis, and she shoots him. Furious and believing Jamie is dead, Claire takes the axe Geillis was using and cuts the woman’s head off. A moment later, Claire sees that Jamie is not dead, and they run out of the cave. Once they make it back to the ship, they see that the British man-of-war is following them.

For several days, they evade the British ship. Both ships are caught in a storm, and the man-of-war sinks. Jamie and Claire’s ship survives the storm, but when they finally see land a few days later, Claire falls overboard. Jamie jumps in the water after her and holds on to her as she loses consciousness. When Claire wakes up, she discovers that she and Jamie are in a house, and their fellow sailors have made it safely to land. The woman who owns the house greets them and informs them that they are in North America, establishing the plot for the following novel in the series.