Night and Day - Virginia Woolf
Night and Day, by Virginia Woolf
Publication date: 1919
Edition: Oxford World's Classics
Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
592 pages
Source: Amazon UK
Summary from Amazon UK:
Katherine Hilbery, torn between past and present, is a figure reflecting Woolf's own struggle with history. Both have illustrious literary ancestors: in Katherine's case, her poet grandfather, and in Woolf's, her father Leslie Stephen, writer, philosopher, and editor. Both desire to break away from the demands of the previous generation without disowning it altogether. Katherine must decide whether or not she loves the iconoclastic Ralph Denham; Woolf seeks a way of experimenting with the novel for that still allows her to express her affection for the literature of the past. This is the most traditional of Woolf's novels, yet even here we can see her beginning to break free; in this, her second novel, with its strange mixture of comedy and high seriousness, Woolf had already found her own characteristic voice.
I admit that when I was assigned a Virginia Woolf novel my heart sank. Since I had to read "To the Lighthouse" at college I have been anti-Woolf. Still, I determined to give it a try. The fact that it's taken me the best part of 6 months to slog through should give an indication of how I found it. However it wasn't completely dire. It only has two reviews on Amazon (UK), and I take from that that it doesn't excite enough passion in people that they feel compelled to share their views. Or everyone avoids Virginia Woolf like me.
Basically, it's a story about the love lives of 5 young people in London before the war. Katherine, the focal character is an upper class young woman who has to suffer through helping her mother write a biography of Katherine's grandfather who was a famous poet. Ralph is from a poor background but has worked himself up to being a lawyer. He is in love with Katherine. William is a wealthy poet/writer or something, I never really quite worked out what he does. He's also "in love" with Katherine (to begin with - and it's probably more to do with her grandfather's fame) and is a more "suitable" partner for her. Mary is also from a middle-class background and working in the suffrage movement. She's the only character I almost liked. She's in love with Ralph. Cassandra is introduced half-way through. She's Katherine's cousin, and after William realises that she pays more attention to his mediocre literary efforts than Katherine does he "falls in love" with her. Then Katherine, who by this point is engaged to William, more because he and her family expect her to be than by any desire on her part, engineers a visit from Cassandra and pushes her to be with William so she "falls in love" with him. This entails inviting Ralph along on day trips with them so there are four of them, which I thought was spectacularly cruel since she knows he's in love with her but she doesn't love him. Katherine is basically a cold bitch. Katherine has some vaguely described desires to do maths and to escape the literary nonsense with her family and William. When William and Cassandra discover they love eachother (Cassandra hides behind a curtain while Katherine gets William to talk about how he loves her. It isn't stated that Katherine knows Cassandra is behind the curtain when she invites William into the room, but I bet she did), there is a farcical "scandal" where the evil step-mother aunt tells Katherine that William is playing around behind her back. Because Katherine engineered the situation she does nothing about it, so the aunt tells her father, who seems to care for his family in an off-hand sort of way, but rather than talking to them in a reasonable manner feels pressured by the aunt to preserve propriaty and forbid the men the house and send Cassandra home. Then Katherine's mother comes home from a trip and becomes a person, not just the confused-old-woman and tells Katherine to follow her heart (in a more flowery manner, it being Woolf). Then Katherine decides that actually, she probably does like Ralph a bit, but she's not going to marry him. Then her mother goes to see Ralph and asks if he wants to marry Katherine and of course he, being in love with her, says yes. And then somehow it seems Katherine will marry Ralph after all.
So basically, I didn't like any of the characters, and I didn't see the point in most of their actions. It was too long and didn't go anywhere. The only moment of drama was ridiculous. However, I realise that you're not meant to read Virginia Woolf for plot, you're meant to read for descriptions, which she does pretty well. Actually, it was the minor characters that were the most like people, for me. I could tell what sort of a man Mr Hilbery was, even though he wasn't mentioned much. And Mrs Milvain, the evil old aunt, was every bit the bitchy old lady with nothing better to do than poke her nose into people's business and stir up trouble. The people Mary works with, Mrs Seal and some man I can't remember the name of, were well characterised as well. I just didn't believe the motivations of the main characters.
My rating:3/10
Publication date: 1919
Edition: Oxford World's Classics
Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
592 pages
Source: Amazon UK
Summary from Amazon UK:
Katherine Hilbery, torn between past and present, is a figure reflecting Woolf's own struggle with history. Both have illustrious literary ancestors: in Katherine's case, her poet grandfather, and in Woolf's, her father Leslie Stephen, writer, philosopher, and editor. Both desire to break away from the demands of the previous generation without disowning it altogether. Katherine must decide whether or not she loves the iconoclastic Ralph Denham; Woolf seeks a way of experimenting with the novel for that still allows her to express her affection for the literature of the past. This is the most traditional of Woolf's novels, yet even here we can see her beginning to break free; in this, her second novel, with its strange mixture of comedy and high seriousness, Woolf had already found her own characteristic voice.
I admit that when I was assigned a Virginia Woolf novel my heart sank. Since I had to read "To the Lighthouse" at college I have been anti-Woolf. Still, I determined to give it a try. The fact that it's taken me the best part of 6 months to slog through should give an indication of how I found it. However it wasn't completely dire. It only has two reviews on Amazon (UK), and I take from that that it doesn't excite enough passion in people that they feel compelled to share their views. Or everyone avoids Virginia Woolf like me.
Basically, it's a story about the love lives of 5 young people in London before the war. Katherine, the focal character is an upper class young woman who has to suffer through helping her mother write a biography of Katherine's grandfather who was a famous poet. Ralph is from a poor background but has worked himself up to being a lawyer. He is in love with Katherine. William is a wealthy poet/writer or something, I never really quite worked out what he does. He's also "in love" with Katherine (to begin with - and it's probably more to do with her grandfather's fame) and is a more "suitable" partner for her. Mary is also from a middle-class background and working in the suffrage movement. She's the only character I almost liked. She's in love with Ralph. Cassandra is introduced half-way through. She's Katherine's cousin, and after William realises that she pays more attention to his mediocre literary efforts than Katherine does he "falls in love" with her. Then Katherine, who by this point is engaged to William, more because he and her family expect her to be than by any desire on her part, engineers a visit from Cassandra and pushes her to be with William so she "falls in love" with him. This entails inviting Ralph along on day trips with them so there are four of them, which I thought was spectacularly cruel since she knows he's in love with her but she doesn't love him. Katherine is basically a cold bitch. Katherine has some vaguely described desires to do maths and to escape the literary nonsense with her family and William. When William and Cassandra discover they love eachother (Cassandra hides behind a curtain while Katherine gets William to talk about how he loves her. It isn't stated that Katherine knows Cassandra is behind the curtain when she invites William into the room, but I bet she did), there is a farcical "scandal" where the evil step-mother aunt tells Katherine that William is playing around behind her back. Because Katherine engineered the situation she does nothing about it, so the aunt tells her father, who seems to care for his family in an off-hand sort of way, but rather than talking to them in a reasonable manner feels pressured by the aunt to preserve propriaty and forbid the men the house and send Cassandra home. Then Katherine's mother comes home from a trip and becomes a person, not just the confused-old-woman and tells Katherine to follow her heart (in a more flowery manner, it being Woolf). Then Katherine decides that actually, she probably does like Ralph a bit, but she's not going to marry him. Then her mother goes to see Ralph and asks if he wants to marry Katherine and of course he, being in love with her, says yes. And then somehow it seems Katherine will marry Ralph after all.
So basically, I didn't like any of the characters, and I didn't see the point in most of their actions. It was too long and didn't go anywhere. The only moment of drama was ridiculous. However, I realise that you're not meant to read Virginia Woolf for plot, you're meant to read for descriptions, which she does pretty well. Actually, it was the minor characters that were the most like people, for me. I could tell what sort of a man Mr Hilbery was, even though he wasn't mentioned much. And Mrs Milvain, the evil old aunt, was every bit the bitchy old lady with nothing better to do than poke her nose into people's business and stir up trouble. The people Mary works with, Mrs Seal and some man I can't remember the name of, were well characterised as well. I just didn't believe the motivations of the main characters.
My rating:3/10