11 h 56 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 56 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if every new road promises freedom, but none gives you a place to belong?
In Wanderfoot (The Dream Ship), Cynthia Stockley brings together love, travel and the pull of far places. At its heart is a restless spirit and a longing for home. Distance and fate test love, while the desire to keep moving presses against the need for somewhere, and someone, to belong to.
The African veld and the old world of Europe frame this romance of lives stretched between two continents. Stockley explores the uneasy bond between freedom and belonging: the road offers possibility, but wandering alone cannot satisfy the heart. The question is not simply where to go next, but what makes a place feel like home.
What you’ll discover
- The pull of elsewhere Follow the restless longing that makes another road feel like a promise.
- Love across the distance Discover a romance where fate and far places put love to the test.
- Two worlds in contrast Explore the contrast between southern Africa’s open land and the older cities of Europe.
- Freedom with a cost Consider why the freedom to wander may still leave a heart unsatisfied.
- The search for home Spend time with the longing for belonging that lies beneath the urge to travel.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this book if you like romances with a sense of humour, travellers' tales set in Africa, Ireland and France, and stories of strong-willed women.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- The dream woman has a past
- Wandering has shaped Val's life
- Their love begins by forbidding honesty
- Marriage brings affection and hidden costs
- Protection becomes another form of silence
- Jersey turns hope into further misunderstanding
- Protecting Haidee carries an emotional cost
- Love does not erase other longings
- Pride widens the distance between them
Who’s who
- Garrett WestenraAn Irish-born New York surgeon who dreams of curing diabetes and of the woman in grey, and who finds it hard to forgive what he cannot understand.
- Val ValdanaA famous travelling journalist who signs her work Wanderfoot, and who will give up her career and her ease for the people she loves.
- Haidee HalstonWestenra's ward, a wilful, clever girl who adores her guardian and is fiercely jealous of anyone who takes a place near him.
- BranVal and Westenra's golden-haired son, a dreamy boy of strange sayings who loves boats and wants to travel to new places.
- Rupert LorrainA kind, blue-eyed young Frenchman who loves the sea and far countries, and who becomes Val's close friend in Normandy.
- Harriott KestevenVal's loyal London friend, a warm, humorous woman in battered hats who sees every sorrow behind a brave smile.
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Wanderfoot (The Dream Ship)
by Cynthia Stockley · 1913
A surgeon sees the woman of his dreams at an ocean liner dinner table, and cannot keep her.
Medium level5–10 hours to read2 languages
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In short
Picture a dinner table in the middle of the Atlantic. A surgeon from New York glances at the hands of the woman beside him and decides that drink and nerves will finish her within two years.
Wanderfoot (The Dream Ship) at a glance
- Reading time
- About 7 h5 h 30 min fast, 8 h 20 min slow
- Length
- 99,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1913by Cynthia Stockley
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A surgeon meets the woman of his dreams
Garrett Westenra, a thirty-three-year-old surgeon from New York, sails home on the Bavaric after his mother dies and is buried before he can reach her. He carries a secret. For years a woman has visited his dreams in a pale grey gown, with luminous beads hanging to her waist.
At dinner a stranger sits beside him, and he reads her as he reads patients. Her brown hands wear odd rings from Africa, her fingers are stained with nicotine, and she orders brandy and soda. Westenra decides she is careless and restless, and he gives her two years.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1913
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 7 h 45 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Stockley, Cynthia. Wanderfoot (The Dream Ship). Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/wanderfoot-the-dream-ship.
Stockley, C. (2026). Wanderfoot (the dream ship). Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/wanderfoot-the-dream-ship (Original work published 1913)
Stockley, Cynthia. Wanderfoot (The Dream Ship). Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/wanderfoot-the-dream-ship.
@book{stockley2026wanderfoot,
author = {Stockley, Cynthia},
title = {Wanderfoot (The Dream Ship)},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/wanderfoot-the-dream-ship},
note = {First published 1913}
}
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What is Wanderfoot by Cynthia Stockley about?
It tells of Garrett Westenra, an Irish surgeon in New York, and Val Valdana, a journalist known as Wanderfoot. They meet on a ship, marry quickly, and then face secrets, money worries and separation across America, Jersey and France.
Why is the book also called The Dream Ship?
Westenra has dreamed of a woman in a grey gown for years and recognises her on an ocean liner. Val and Westenra later speak of their marriage as a dream ship, sailing toward the islands of the blest.
Who is Wanderfoot in the story?
Wanderfoot is the pen name of Valentine Valdana, a freelance journalist who reports from Africa, India, Russia and other places. She chose it as a young woman, and it suits her love of travel.
The author
Cynthia Stockley
1873–1936 · South African novelist
Cynthia Stockley was a South African novelist, born in 1873. She lived in South Africa and later in England. She wrote novels in English during the early twentieth century, including Poppy, published in 1910, and Wanderfoot, also known as The Dream Ship. She died in London in 1936.
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