Night and Day, by Virginia Woolf
published 1919 - read 2004

As far as I can tell, Night and Day is one of the least-read and certainly least-assigned novels in VW's canon.  This is justifiable; Woolf herself was not thrilled with the book, its bulk having been a partial inspiration for her subsequent experiments into modernist narrative.  (See The Mark on the Wall and Jacob's Room.)  Taken on its own terms, Night and Day isn't a bad piece of genre fiction (it's a matchmaking/romance novel, some sort of Woolfian tribute to Sense and Sensibility), it's just not particularly interesting.  In fact, there are lengthy chunks I would call downright boring.  There are just too many reversals of intention in the characters' minds, and even if Virginia employs her typically brilliant eye for the tricks and catches of human interaction, one ultimately can't be brought to care about whether or not Denham finds the words to tell Katharine that he loves her.  Recommended only for the hardcore Woolf fan.

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