I started disinterested and romance is my favourite genre (although Woolfe is making me think I just haven't experienced the right creators), but the way she writes and handles characters is truly sublime. ( )

Here's what I wrote about this read in 2008: "Hard to say it better than this: "Inside Flap Copy - Woolf here portrays her elder sister Vanessa in the character of Katharine Hilbery - the gifted daughter of a distinguished literary family, trapped in an environment which will not allow her to express herself. Looking at the questions raised by love and marriage, Night and Day paints an unforgettable picture of the London intelligentsia before the First World War, with psychological insight, compassion and humour." NOTE: MGA should probably read more Virginia Woolf. From amazon.com review: "Woolf is considered one of the greatest innovators in the English language. In her works she experimented with stream-of-consciousness, the underlying psychological as well as emotional motives of characters, and the various possibilities of fractured narrative and chronology."" ( )

I've seen this described as a comedy of manners without the comedy, which is accurate, and also as Woolf demonstrating that she can write a "conventional" novel — playing tennis with a net — before embarking on her groundbreaking Modernist journey. I suppose this is accurate, too, and if you pay attention you can see her probing the mental processes underlying her characters' actions and words, but the plot here doesn't come close to justifying the exhausting word count. It's about a pair of overlapping love triangles — Katherine and Mary love Ralph, William and Ralph love Katherine — and it amounts to a novella's worth of action at most. I think this is actually her longest novel, yet it has the least to say. Very boring at times as we follow the cast of bumbling middle/upper-middle class amorists from Chelsea to Bloomsbury to Highgate and back on foot and in innumerable cabs.

Anyway that's a wrap for Woolf's novels and my ranking is:

1. Orlando
2. Mrs Dalloway
3. To the Lighthouse
4. Between the Acts
5. The Waves
6. Jacob's Room
7. The Years
8. The Voyage Out
9. Night and Day

with only the top three being essential reading imo. ( )

Complex in its multiple scenes and points of view, frustrating when its characters confusingly, constantly change their minds and aspirations without obvious reason, Night and Day is still a great read.

This is Woolf's second novel, predating the 1920s and before her move into modernism, but still is a Woolf novel. It follows four characters, two young men and two young women from similar layers of the upper-middle classes in London, each confused about what they want from their life and each entangled in the lives, loves, and aspirations of the other three.

On one level, they are upper class twits nattering on about their own problems, but on the other hand, they are taking on modern life during a period of great change and trying to find their own way in it.

The story could have been told in fewer words, but the plot and characters kept me happily taking in the words so I could find out how they solved their problems and how some of them came together at the end. ( )

2018 Update:

Although an early work by Woolf there is a development of her poetic style of writing in parts. Something that may etch the reader also is how good it is to be middle class. Aside from Katherine, most characters have jobs that start at 10:00 and pay reasonably well. Woolf not being working class was apparently out of touch with it in her writmg. There are a few dead ends in the book too. Ralph plays the stock market with the families savings early on then that never mentions it again.



You love her but she loves him
He loves someone else, you just can't win
J Geils Band, Love Stinks

Night and Day by Virginia Woolf is her second novel and was published in 1919. The story takes place in pre-war England and involves four characters and their relationships. Kathryn Hillbery the "middle class" privileged girl. Ralph Denham the "middle class" lawyer who supports his whole family. William Rodney the mediocre poet and the suffragette, Mary round out the main characters. Also in the mix is Kathryn's slightly ditzy mother who while working on a book seems to be easily distracted. The characters all work well together. Woolf manages to add some social relevance to the story with the suffragette movement, a bit of class difference, possibly some new ideas on marriage, and a tie in to later nonfiction book "A Room of her Own."

I enjoyed this book as I have enjoyed all of Woolf's work. For those unfamiliar with Woolf, this is a good place to start. The story is very good along with the character development and interaction. The social lessons are also present. How this story differs from later works is in its form. Night and Day is a traditional novel of action and interaction unlike later works where stream of consciousness plays a much larger role. This book also differs in that it lacks Woolf's almost lyrical writing style of later novels. Night and Day is a very well written story that will not disappoint Woolf fans or new readers. ( )