Other editions of book Night and Day

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

1920, Uniform Edition published by Harcourt, Brace. Brown cloth boards with gilt lettering on spine. Pages clean and clear and binding tight. Beige DJ with blue writing on front and spine is faded and with slight smudging. Spine ends slightly worn but corners un-bumped. Inside front corners clipped. This is a Fine copy with a Fine DJ of the more obscure Virginia Wolf title. Ships from the US the next day.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

It was a Sunday evening in October, and in common with many other young ladies of herclass, Katharine Hilbery was pouring out tea. Perhaps a fifth part of her mind was thusoccupied, and the remaining parts leapt over the little barrier of day which interposedbetween Monday morning and this rather subdued moment, and played with the thingsone does voluntarily and normally in the daylight. But although she was silent, she wasevidently mistress of a situation which was familiar enough to her, and inclined to let ittake its way for the six hundredth time, perhaps, without bringing into play any of herunoccupied faculties. A single glance was enough to show that Mrs. Hilbery was so rich inthe gifts which make tea-parties of elderly distinguished people successful, that shescarcely needed any help from her daughter, provided that the tiresome business ofteacups and bread and butter was discharged for her.Considering that the little party had been seated round the tea-table for less than twentyminutes, the animation observable on their faces, and the amount of sound they wereproducing collectively, were very creditable to the hostess. It suddenly came intoKatharine’s mind that if some one opened the door at this moment he would think that theywere enjoying themselves; he would think, “What an extremely nice house to come into!”and instinctively she laughed, and said something to increase the noise, for the credit of thehouse presumably, since she herself had not been feeling exhilarated. At the very samemoment, rather to her amusement, the door was flung open, and a young man entered theroom. Katharine, as she shook hands with him, asked him, in her own mind, “Now, do youthink we’re enjoying ourselves enormously?”... “Mr. Denham, mother,” she said aloud, forshe saw that her mother had forgotten his name.That fact was perceptible to Mr. Denham also, and increased the awkwardness whichinevitably attends the entrance of a stranger into a room full of people much at their ease,and all launched upon sentences. At the same time, it seemed to Mr. Denham as if athousand softly padded doors had closed between him and the street outside. A fine mist,the etherealized essence of the fog, hung visibly in the wide and rather empty space of thedrawing-room, all silver where the candles were grouped on the tea-table, and ruddy againin the firelight. With the omnibuses and cabs still running in his head, and his body stilltingling with his quick walk along the streets and in and out of traffic and foot-passengers,this drawing-room seemed very remote and still; and the faces of the elderly people weremellowed, at some distance from each other, and had a bloom on them owing to the factthat the air in the drawing-room was thickened by blue grains of mist. Mr. Denham hadcome in as Mr. Fortescue, the eminent novelist, reached the middle of a very long sentence.He kept this suspended while the newcomer sat down, and Mrs. Hilbery deftly joined thesevered parts by leaning towards him and remarking:“Now, what would you do if you were married to an engineer, and had to live inManchester, Mr. Denham?”

Night and Day is a novel by Virginia Woolf first published on 20 October 1919. Set in Edwardian London, Night and Day contrasts the daily lives and romantic attachments of two acquaintances, Katharine Hilbery and Mary Datchet. The novel examines the relationships between love, marriage, happiness, and success.Dialogue and descriptions of thought and actions are used in equal amount, unlike in Woolf's later book, To the Lighthouse. There are four major characters, Katharine Hilbery, Mary Datchet, Ralph Denham, and William Rodney. Night and Day deals with issues concerning women's suffrage, if love and marriage can coexist, and if marriage is necessary for happiness. Motifs throughout the book include the stars and sky, the River Thames, and walks. Also, Woolf makes many references to the works of William Shakespeare, especially As You Like It.

A bold experiment in modernist fiction, Virginia Woolf's novel Night and Day is a study in contrasts. The narrative ricochets between the lives and thoughts of two friends, Katharine Hilbery and Mary Datchet, using the stark differences and points of similarity between them to construct an engrossingly complex and detailed portrait and social commentary.