Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Night and Day


Night and Day

Virginia Woolf



This book is about love and marriage - how relationships are affected by social mores and perceived obligations. Woolf also asks the bigger questions: What is love? What constitutes marriage? What is necesary for marital happiness? Is marriage necessary for happiness? What is happiness?

These are the questions facing Katherine Hilbery, who has been a willing, but bored, drudge, helping her mother with the task of researching her worthy grandfather, a well-known poet and family icon. These are questions also affecting her friends, William Rodney, mary Datchett, Cassandra Otway, and Ralph Denham.

I have loved every one of Woolf's works that I've read so far, and this one is no exception. Her writing rings as clear as a bell, yet every word, every phrase, every object is imbued with layers of meaning.