Status Updates From The Voyage Out

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.

‘D’you mean to tell me you’ve reached the age of twenty-four without reading Gibbon?’ he demanded.

‘Yes, I have,’ she answered.