Night and Day was Virginia Woolf's second, and unfortunately, least-liked novel, yet, it is undeserving of that credit. On the other hand, it is easy to see why readers tend to think that, being completely different than her later works, and in some ways, even different from her first. It relates the story of Katharine Hilbery, a young English woman, content with her place in life as Angel of the House (as it were), spending her days assisting her mother in the work of compiling the oeuvre and life of her famous grandfather into an eventually-to-be-published biography; at night, alone, she wants nothing to do with her family's literary legacy and indulges in the study of mathematics, sure her family would have quite a fit over the study, if they ever discovered it.

And then there's Ralph Denham, the desperate young attorney/poet, tethered to his family, but not adverse to escape. When he happens upon a lecture Katharine's mother hosts in her drawing room, Denham meets and falls head over heels in love with Katharine, who, it seems won't do more than barely acknowledge they've met. And yet, Ralph can't stop thinking of her, obsessively so, and finding out more about her through rumor and second hand news, becomes ever more disappointed in the reality of her versus the fantasy woman he's built in his imagination, specifically when he finds out Katharine's agreed to marry the infuriating William Rodney, someone who, for all his work and renown, Ralph looks on as an undereducated blowhard. Ralph takes his woes to his friend, Mary Datchet, who he feels to be—probably because of her work with the Suffragettes—one of the only people truly able to understand his plight. Katharine isn't sure what to make of Ralph's interest in Mary, William begins to absolutely hate Ralph, meanwhile, Mary herself is falling for Ralph, and doesn't know what to think of his interest in Katharine. Extreme jealousy on the parts of all parties develops, and all Katharine wants is to be left out of it, forming her own idea of how to deal with all this, which, in the end, leads to a farce of Shakespearean proportions that leaves Katharine's family furious and nearly ready to lock Katharine up in her room for the rest of her life.

What becomes of this very weird love square? You'll have to read to find out!

I enjoyed this novel, as I usually do any work by Virginia Woolf, but have to admit, it had its moments, tending to drag here and there. But perseverance always pays off, and it does so here. I found Ralph's character actually more interesting than any of the others, and tended to see Katharine (though she wouldn't like this admission) a little more like Virginia Woolf than her sister Vanessa, as Woolf intended people to think of Katharine. I wonder if she missed altogether the resemblance, or if I, the later-days reader, am just reading a little too much into the story. Still I enjoyed this novel, if I felt it dragged a bit, and though I expected an inkling of her later style to show through, when it did, I was absolutely surprised at the somewhat SciFi flavor of various symbolic passages, in the latter part of the novel. (Yes, I do wonder if anyone else ever noticed that. :)) At any rate, I enjoyed Night and Day immensely, and recommend it, but with the caveat that, yes, this was just the beginning of Woolf's illustrious career, so if this novel doesn't strike you as being anything like you've heard Woolf to be, keep reading. :) It's worth getting through this one, if for no other reason than for the shock of what this style bloomed into in her next novel, Jacob's Room.

~Webmistress

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