Night and Day : Annotated Edition

As Katharine Hilbery, the granddaughter of a famous man of letters buried in Poets’ Corner, is helping her mother write the biography of their illustrious progenitor, she becomes engaged to William Rodney, a budding writer with an exaggerated opinion of his own poetical talent. Meanwhile, the suffragette Mary Datchet is in love with Ralph Denham, a lawyer and reviewer from a lowly background, who in turn feels more attracted to Katharine. As the stories and the romantic interests of these four young people evolve and intertwine, a picture emerges of a society still obsessed with class and hung up on the social mores of the Victorian era.

By far the most accessible and traditional of all Virginia Woolf’s novels, Night and Day is a powerful evocation of a fast-changing world, and, though conventional in style, addresses many of the author’s recurring preoccupations, such as the role of women in society and the difficulties in reconciling love and marriage.