An unspeakable atrocity as she is the granddaughter of some famous (now deceased) poet (who has a kind of cult status that has visitors calling at the house to see his writing desk and manuscripts). But Woolf sneaks in these bits about how K has this secret love. Of course she herself is caught up in this love-line (so not a triangle or even a square or a circle because no one seems to love her back….aAs for Katherine, I was quite determined to boo and hiss at her, since I’m on Mary’s side and all that. And that is poor Mary, who devotes her life to causes and who sort of becomes the reluctant counselor to all these lovelorn folks. Things sort themselves out eventually and all seems fine and dandy except that there is an odd number in this equation.

And hands are wrung, sighs are sighed, walks are walked and lots of tea is made. For Mary loves Ralph who loves Katherine who doesn’t love William who might love Cassandra and not Katherine (his fiancée).Īnd signals are crossed or missed entirely. In this London society where cupid’s arrows seem to have flown haphazardly. Things left unsaid.įor that seems to be how it is in Night and Day. Oh Virginia Woolf, there is so much to say but will be left unsaid because that’s how things seem to work in your world. Woolf hasn't hit her stride yet with this one, but she is getting there, and it's a fascinating second novel after the emotional explosion of The Voyage Out. Right after she goes to visit Shakespeare's grave. And I haven't even gotten to Katherine's mother (one of my favorite characters) and the archival implications of her lifelong project of organizing the papers of her famous literary father and turning them into a definitive biography. Plus Cassandra! There is a lot going on here, but Woolf keeps all the threads moving and gives us a slow-starting but effective meditation on what love is exactly, on family, on class, on literature, and on friendship. To top things off, Mary Datchet, who works for the suffrage movement and hosts rollicking salons in her flat, realizes that she has fallen in love with her friend, Ralph. And, although she isn't aware of it, Ralph Denham, the striving, intense, and awkward young lawyer who has stopped by her parents' house for tea is out of control in love with the idea of her.

She is engaged to Willam Rodney, a self-conscious but passionate lover of literature with one of the best introduction scenes in all of noveldom. Katherine Hilbery is wealthy, beautiful, secretly mathematical, and addicted to loneliness. Described as Woolf's attempt at a classic British romance, this story of a five-way love triangle in pre-War London is a lot weirder and more Woolfy than it initially seems after you dip down under the surface.

Night and Day by Virginia Woolf