The Raft

About the book

Jehane, the daughter of an Oxford scholar, watches young men enjoy opportunities that seem closed to her. With her friend Nan Tudor she repeatedly discusses marriage as the passage into a fuller life, while the years of waiting make that possibility feel increasingly urgent. The title comes from her image of unmarried women stranded on a raft, dependent upon men to bring them ashore. Dawson's narrator begins by questioning the choice she eventually makes, then returns to the circumstances and assumptions that shaped it. The novel places romantic longing beside an education that has provided few useful means of directing a future. Its concern is not simply finding a husband, but understanding what happens when one institution is expected to satisfy every frustrated desire.

• Marriage as escape
• Restricted opportunities
• Romantic expectations

Why read it

Jehane's raft metaphor turns an individual anxiety into a vivid account of dependence and constrained choice.

English Henry Holt and Company edition of 1914, illustrated by Orson Lowell