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The Raft

by Coningsby Dawson (1883–1959)

  • Free to read
  • 10 hours to read
  • 47 chapters
  • Reading level: 6th grade

"The Raft" by Coningsby Dawson is a novel written in the early 20th century. The book explores themes of love, marriage, and the struggles faced by young women in a society that restricts their freedom and opportunities. The story follows Jehane, a 25-year-old woman, who is filled with desperation over her single status and her longing for love and companionship as she navigates her circumstances in the backdrop of Oxford. The opening portion introduces us to Jehane and her best friend, Nan Tudor, as they lament their unmarried state during their time at Oxford, observing the carefree lives of the male undergraduates. As they discuss their romantic ideals and the longing for marriage, we see the stark contrast between their dreams and the reality of their lives, particularly Jehane's deep-seated anxiety about possibly becoming an old maid. Their conversation foreshadows the arrival of William Barrington, a man from their past who rekindles old friendships—and perhaps new possibilities—while highlighting Jehane's internal conflicts about her own desires and self-worth. The opening sets the stage for a tale of unfulfilled dreams and the complexities of relationships, shedding light on societal expectations placed upon women during that era.

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  • Man-woman relationships
  • Marriage

Read the opening

Chapter I — A Man

It was said of Jehane that she married blindly on the re-bound. She herself confessed in later life that she married out of dread of becoming an old maid.

A don's daughter at Oxford has plentiful opportunities for becoming an old maid. Undergraduates are too adventurously young and graduates are too importantly in earnest for marriage; whether too young or too earnest, they are all too occupied. To bring a man to the point of matrimony, you must catch him unaware and invade his idleness. Love, in its initial stages, is frivolous.

This tragic state of affairs was frequently discussed by Jehane with her best friend, Nan Tudor. Were they to allow themselves to fade husbandless into the autumn of girlhood? Were they too ladylike to make any effort to save themselves from this horrid fate?—In the gray winter as they returned from a footer match, on the river in summer as the eights swung by, in the old-fashioned rectory-garden at Cassingland, this was their one absorbing topic of conversation. Ye gods, were they never to be married!

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Contents

Show all 47 chapters
  1. Chapter I — A Man
  2. Chapter II — “I'm Half Sick of Shadows”
  3. Chapter III — All the Way for This
  4. Chapter IV — Love's Shadow
  5. Chapter V — Enter Peter and Glory
  6. Chapter VI — Jehane's Second Marriage
  7. Chapter VII — The Whistling Angel
  8. Chapter VIII — “Coming: Coming, Peterkins”
  9. Chapter IX — Kay and Some Others
  10. Chapter X — Waffles Betters Himself
  11. Chapter XI — The Home Life of a Financier
  12. Chapter XII — The 'Maginative Child
  13. Chapter XIII — Prickcautions
  14. Chapter XIV — Peter in Egypt
  15. Chapter XV — Married Life
  16. Chapter XVI — The Angels and Ocky Waffles
  17. Chapter XVII — A House Built on Sand
  18. Chapter XVIII — Peter to the Rescue
  19. Chapter XIX — The Christmas Cab
  20. Chapter XX — The Hiding of Ocky Waffles
  21. Chapter XXI — Strange Happenings
  22. Chapter XXII — Cat's Meat Looks Round
  23. Chapter XXIII — And Glory Said
  24. Chapter XXIV — The Tricycle Makes a Discovery
  25. Chapter XXV — The Happy Cottage
  26. Chapter XXVI — The Haunted Wood
  27. Chapter XXVII — Peter Finds a Fairy
  28. Chapter XXVIII — Waking Up
  29. Chapter XXIX — A Golden World
  30. Chapter XXX — Half in Love
  31. Chapter XXXI — A Night with the Moon
  32. Chapter XXXII — If You Won't Come to Heaven, Then — —
  33. Chapter XXXIII — The World and Ocky
  34. Chapter XXXIV — The Benevolent Delilahs
  35. Chapter XXXV — Winged Birds and Rooted Trees
  36. Chapter XXXVI — The Spreading of Wings
  37. Chapter XXXVII — The Race
  38. Chapter XXXVIII — A Night of It
  39. Chapter XXXIX — On the River
  40. Chapter XL — Mr: Grace Goes on the Bust
  41. Chapter XLI — Tree-Tops
  42. Chapter XLII — The Coach-Ride to London
  43. Chapter XLIII — An Unfinished Poem
  44. Chapter XLIV — In Search of Youngness
  45. Chapter XLV — Love Knocks at Kay's Door
  46. Chapter XLVI — The Angel Whistles
  47. Chapter XLVIII — And Glory

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About this edition

This free edition of The Raft by Coningsby Dawson comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #50498, released 2015-11-19. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Romance, Novels, British Literature.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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