Jesse’s Reviews > The Voyage Out > Status Update
Jesse
is on page 250 of 381
difficulties in establishing relationships. Hewet is so absorbed in Rachel to the point of depression; he is clearly in love for the first time. Rachel is meanwhile very interested in all people, not just Hewet, and this section has her calling and meditating on a variety of people, including some lesbian undertones with Mrs. Flushing, and a so far stilted conversation with Miss Allan.
— Jun 29, 2026 06:44AM
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Jesse’s Previous Updates
Jesse
is on page 200 of 381
this section covers the other part of the dance and its aftermath, with Hewet and Rachel obviously in the process of falling in love, and featuring a lovely romantic passage where Hewet returns the favor of the women spying on him, going to the Ambrose villa, and hearing and seeing Helen and Rachel talk, and while he is fond of Helen it is Rachel who he is focused on.
— Jun 23, 2026 09:39AM
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.
— Jun 22, 2026 08:27AM
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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Jun 29, 2026 07:00AM
this segment’s biggest turning point is Rachel attending the church service by Mr. Bax and really engaging with the entire experience for the first time only to bounce off it and join the ranks of her aunt Helen and Hirst. She is upset by so many things—what Bax is saying, the fact that the parishioners aren’t really engaging with it but rather just being there to be at a service, just the total lack of interaction.
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I like the story of Rachel interacting with these different women as different examples of how you can be satisfied in your life, even if Rachel knows that it’s not the life for her. It’s being confident in knowing what you want out of life without judging people for their own decisions.
I forgot Woolf laying the seeds of some fear on Rachel’s part with Evelyn’s admission that she feels like she can “trust” Hewett.
