Virginia Woolf’s second novel, Night and Day, is set in pre–World War I London and follows Katharine Hilbery, a young woman born into a distinguished literary family. Torn between tradition and her desire for independence, Katharine becomes engaged to the respectable but uninspiring William Rodney. Her encounter with two people outside her social circle — Ralph Denham, an ambitious young solicitor from a poor family, and Mary Datchet, an idealistic suffragette — challenges her assumptions about love, class, and freedom.
Although traditional in form, the novel reveals the early emergence of Woolf’s mature style: introspective, ironic, and deeply humane. Through vivid depictions of London’s intellectual society, Woolf explores the tension between social convention and the search for authentic selfhood.
Pages: not stated (Penguin Modern Classics edition, late 1970s)
Original publication: 1919
Publisher: Penguin Books (Modern Classics series)
Language: English
Original language: English
ISBN: 0-14-003033-6
