Jesse’s Reviews > The Voyage Out > Status Update
Jesse
is on page 150 of 381
this span covers the two main young men of the piece, Hewet and Hirst, arranging first an expedition to the top of a local mountain for a picnic and then a dance to celebrate the engagement of two of the visiting English. I’m stoked to see how the self-styled intellectual young men perceive Helen and Rachel but Woolf is playing it naturally as they interact more with the hotel patrons they are familiar with.
— 5 hours, 45 min ago
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Jesse
is on page 100 of 381
what’s beautiful here: Rachel, never having conversated with men before, is enthralled by Mr. Dalloway, and at one point he impulsively kisses her. Woolf’s description of Rachel’s feelings—so intense that they’re painful, trying to steady her nerves, thoroughly having enjoyed the kiss but still terrified at the universe of gender relations that has opened before her, and her aunt Helen shepherding her.
— Jun 11, 2026 02:04PM
Jesse
is on page 50 of 381
Woolf delivers one of the main points of the novel early on in a beautiful passage that describes the ship as a character, alone but free, as a metaphor for Rachel’s imminent metamorphosis. I am enjoying how each of the characters on the boat seems fully-envisioned, including the Dalloways, who have just stepped aboard. I am aware that the Missus will be followed up on in her own novel of mental dissolution.
— Jun 01, 2026 01:37PM
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5 hours, 40 min ago
the focus is again on the superficiality of attempting to get to know people, whether it’s ones that you’ve already had experience with or people who you haven’t met before. the women meeting with the men offer only the most basic details of their histories, giving only an insight into their circumstances and not their characters. Hirst earns Rachel’s ire at the dance because he basically presumes her to be a boor based on his past experiences, using that as a springboard to speak to her without attempting to really ask anything.
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The other part—the engagement gives Rachel an unguarded example of a young couple who is in love, and it fills her with a cocktail of conflicting emotions.
