#138. "Night and Day" by Virginia Woolf

While Virginia Woolf is now known as one of the most experimental writers of the modernist movement, her early work painted a very different picture. Maybe it was due to publishing novels under another company, but works like "Night and Day" were more in tune with what audiences of the time had expected. They were reminiscent of the romanticism of the 19th century, capturing a very stuffy and direct use of language that sought to trap its characters. However, within the conventional was something interesting. As the last "traditional" novel that Woolf produced, it showed signs of where her career would be heading. The characters were about trying to separate themselves from the old guard, to establish their voices in a society that didn't have a use for them. It may not be Woolf's most clever or energetic work, but it has way more personality and potential than many would think at first glance.
Like any writer, Woolf was eager to establish herself as her own voice. The only conflict is that she was a loyalist to what came before. Throughout "Night and Day," she explores her relationship with literature. There's the presence of a father who is renowned for his own accomplishments, making her wonder what she is to do to forge her own path. Throughout the novel, Woolf finds herself confronting texts of the past such as William Shakespeare, and wondering whether she's capable of breaking free and finding something new. There is a foundation that she is part of, but she needs to find her place within it. She finds attending stuffy parties for those older than her to be boring, forced to observe and not share her opinions. It's not until she finds friends her own age that she begins to be inspired.

The exploration of voice is one of the most important tools in the story. Even as she finds herself feeling freer in her mind than in reality, she must find a way to feel less imprisoned within herself. It's a romantic drama, but not in the way that was conventional to a Jane Austen way. Instead, it's more of a rejection of expectations for women. The protagonist doesn't want to be married and often feels disconnected from romance. She believes she's forced to give in to the fantasies, but she never notices them in her interactions. All she can do is determine how much she will break from the conventions of keeping certain cycles alive. By deconstructing why people fall in love, Woolf manages to begin creating a modernist form of literature that is about intellectual thought, and searching for meaning in the world. The results are clever, full of symbolism, and even have a certain ambiguity within the ending.

The one caveat is that "Night and Day" is still a conventional novel in structure. It may do a lot of interesting things just below the surface, but that involves patience. To a reader wanting to get a good sense of who Woolf was by the end of her career, this is a bad place to start. It's a bit dry and slow, often covering ground that modern feminist literature has explored in more substantial ways. Even then, it's playful and deserves its place in literature as a significant transition between the 19th and 20th century. It's a commentary on the meaningfulness of what came before and the uncertainty of what lies ahead. It's not the most entertaining read, but it holds clues to who Woolf began as and where things would go. It's practically the whole point of the novel. It's downright meta and self-aware to the point you can almost say that Woolf is the main character here. With that said, it's still a good right, obsessed with time and forward movement. It's a look into the future and the next run of novels will be some of the medium's most formative for the time.