18 h 58 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 18 h 58 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
How much of yourself can you give to love before your own life slips away?
In London before the First World War, Katharine Hilbery lives among books, guests and the weight of a famous grandfather’s name. She helps her mother write his biography and pours tea in the family’s Chelsea house. But when the household sleeps, she turns to mathematics, keeping a private passion apart from the life others see.
Around her, other young people face their own choices. Ralph Denham, a solicitor’s clerk with little money, longs to build an independent life. William Rodney wants to marry Katharine without truly knowing her. Mary Datchet supports herself and campaigns for women’s votes. In Night and Day, Virginia Woolf asks what love can offer—and what it may demand.
What you’ll discover
- A mind kept private Follow Katharine from family duties to the quiet mathematics she keeps for herself.
- Love without losing yourself Explore the wish for closeness alongside the need to protect an independent inner life.
- Work with a purpose Meet Mary Datchet, whose suffrage work gives her days a purpose beyond romance.
- Two London households Move between Chelsea’s literary family life and Ralph’s crowded, noisy home in Highgate.
- Day against night Notice how tea tables, offices and good manners contrast with the characters’ private desires.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this book if you like English social comedy, close portraits of minds in motion, and stories about love and marriage that ask what people really want.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Sunday tea party and a prickly guest
- Ralph chooses a dream and goes home to Highgate
- Katharine's double life of duty and numbers
- Mary Datchet's rooms and the poet who stammers
- An office full of typewriters and a family full of rules
- A family council on scandal and the question of how to live
- Mary's love, Ralph's silence and a Christmas in the country
- Katharine under the stars at Stogdon House
- What the book says about love, marriage and independence
- How the book is told: light, houses and a wandering voice
Who’s who
- Katharine HilberyThe poet's granddaughter runs her family's household and secretly studies mathematics, wanting a life that is her own.
- Ralph DenhamA solicitor from Highgate who supports a large family, dreams of writing, and cannot stop thinking about Katharine.
- Mary DatchetA clergyman's daughter who lives alone, works for women's suffrage, and loves Ralph in silence.
- William RodneyA nervous, refined government clerk who writes plays and wants to marry Katharine.
- Mrs. HilberyKatharine's dreamy mother, who is writing her father's biography and loves poetry more than facts.
- Cassandra OtwayKatharine's lively young cousin, who changes her interests often and admires Katharine greatly.
- Mr. HilberyKatharine's amused father, who edits a Review and avoids every family difficulty.
- Joan DenhamRalph's older sister, who holds the household together and worries about money and her brothers.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet or computer, once the book texts are online.
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- The same book in bigger, clearer type, once the book texts are online.
- Audiobook
- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 9 minutes, to read today.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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Nuit et Jour
by Virginia Woolf · 1919
Katharine Hilbery pours tea, hides her mathematics, and meets a young man who thinks she should do something.
Challenging10–20 hours to readfrançais
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In short
What would you do if everyone expected you to be happy, and you were not sure what happiness was? Katharine Hilbery faces that question on a Sunday evening in October, as she pours tea while her mother entertains distinguished guests.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Sunday tea party and a prickly guest
On a Sunday evening in October, Katharine, twenty-seven, pours tea at the Hilbery house in Chelsea while her mother charms a circle of distinguished guests. Into this company comes Ralph Denham, who has written an article for her father's Review and feels at once out of place.
The talk turns to a young wife wasting away in Manchester. Katharine says something careless, and Ralph answers with an edge. Katharine helps sustain the party's animation even though she does not share its apparent enjoyment. Katharine then shows him the little room of relics, lit like a chapel. Ralph says he would hate to be overshadowed by a grandfather. His own family, he says, has nothing to be proud of, unless paying bills counts.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 9 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1919
- Language
- français
- Reading time
- 12 h 20 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Woolf, Virginia. Night and Day. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/night-and-day.
Woolf, V. (2026). Night and day. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/night-and-day (Original work published 1919)
Woolf, Virginia. Night and Day. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/night-and-day.
@book{woolf2026night,
author = {Woolf, Virginia},
title = {Night and Day},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/night-and-day},
note = {First published 1919}
}
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What is Night and Day by Virginia Woolf about?
It follows Katharine Hilbery, Ralph Denham, Mary Datchet and William Rodney in Edwardian London as they struggle with love, engagement, work and family expectation. Katharine wants a life of her own, and each person is tested by what they want and what they should do.
Is Night and Day a true story, and when was it written?
It is a work of fiction, published in 1919. The setting, with its suffrage offices, drawing rooms and committees, comes from the London that Woolf knew, but the characters and plot are invented.
What do night and day mean in the title?
They stand for two ways of living. Day is the world of facts, duties and daylight talk. Night is the world of dreams, private thoughts and hidden desires. Katharine and Ralph keep moving between them.
The author
Virginia Woolf
1882–1941 · English modernist novelist
Virginia Woolf was an English writer born in London in 1882. She wrote novels and essays, including The Voyage Out (1915), Jacob’s Room (1922), Mrs. Dalloway (1925), and The Common Reader (1925). She lived in London and Sussex. She died in Sussex in 1941.
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