18 h 58 minAudiobook12 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 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
For readers who love novels of manners, London settings and people who think deeply about love and freedom. It is a good first step into Woolf.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A tea party in the poet's house
- Katharine keeps a secret life at night
- Ralph Denham and his crowded household
- Mary Datchet works for the vote
- William Rodney and an engagement of duty
- Two families, two kinds of pressure
- Cassandra arrives and feelings begin to tangle
- Love, marriage and the need to be alone
- How Woolf tells it, with day against night
Who’s who
- Katharine HilberyThe granddaughter of a famous poet, she runs her family's household, helps with its biography and secretly loves mathematics.
- Ralph DenhamA solicitor's clerk from a crowded Highgate home, he is proud, restless and eager to build a life of his own.
- William RodneyA nervous, well-read man who writes verse plays and wants to marry Katharine, though he does not truly know her.
- Mary DatchetA self-supporting woman who works in a suffrage office, values her independence and quietly cares for Ralph.
- Cassandra OtwayKatharine's lively young cousin, who comes to London and brings openness and surprise to a guarded circle.
- Mrs. HilberyKatharine's charming and vague mother, who is trying to write a life of her father but cannot keep her papers in order.
- Mr. HilberyKatharine's father, who edits a literary review and keeps to his study while the household revolves around his family name.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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Night and Day
by Virginia Woolf · 1919
In London, Katharine Hilbery weighs love and family duty against a private life of her own.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
A tea party in the poet's house
The novel opens on an ordinary afternoon in the Hilbery house in Chelsea. Katharine Hilbery is pouring tea for the guests who drop in. Her mother, Mrs. Hilbery, drifts through the room in a charming fog, while her father, Mr. Hilbery, edits a literary review and keeps to his study and his books.
The house is full of the past. On the walls hang relics of Richard Alardyce, the poet who is Katharine's grandfather. His fame has become the family business. Visitors come to look at his portrait, to hear stories of his friends, and to feel that they stand close to English literature itself.
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What is Night and Day by Virginia Woolf about?
It follows Katharine Hilbery and Ralph Denham in pre-war London as they weigh love, family duty, work and personal freedom. Several friends and relatives are caught up in the same questions about marriage and independence.
Who are the main characters in Night and Day?
They are Katharine Hilbery, Ralph Denham, William Rodney, Mary Datchet and Cassandra Otway. Katharine's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Hilbery, shape the family world around her.
What does the title Night and Day mean?
It points to the two sides of a life. Day is the public, social self, and night is the private inner self, as in Katharine's secret love of mathematics after dark.
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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