Wanderfoot (The Dream Ship)

About the book

Returning to America after his mother's death in Ireland, the surgeon Westenra feels that his last secure connection with home has disappeared. A recurring vision of an unknown woman has long accompanied his journeys, but the actual woman beside him at the ship's dinner table initially meets his disapproval. Her unconventional manner and desire for distant places disturb his preference for reserve and settled affection. Stockley's romance moves through sections set in America, Jersey, and France, connecting travel with emotional displacement. Dreams and first impressions repeatedly complicate the attempt to recognize another person. The narrative asks whether a life built around work and an imagined ideal can make room for the difficult, unpredictable reality of someone else's past and desires.

• Exile and belonging
• Dreams and recognition
• Restlessness and attachment

Why read it

Westenra's precise observation of a stranger sits uneasily beside the idealized woman of his dreams, creating tension between diagnosis and understanding.

English William Briggs and G. P. Putnam's Sons edition of 1913; also titled The Dream Ship