+ Survey 44:310 My 29 ’20 700w
“The merits of the book are that it bears evidence of much research, though always on the one side and directed to proving what the author wants to prove, and that it is not greatly disfigured by indiscriminate abuse or by anti-patriotic bias.”
+ − The Times [London] Lit Sup p75 F 5 ’20 1950w
WOOLF, VIRGINIA (STEPHEN) (MRS LEONARD WOOLF). Night and day. *$2.25 Doran
20–19042
A long and slow-moving story dealing with a criss-crossing of love affairs. Katharine Hilbery, granddaughter of the poet Alardyce, is engaged with her mother in writing the poet’s life. Her father is editor of a literary review and all her associations are of a literary character. In secret however her predilections are for mathematics and she spends lonely midnight hours with Euclid. She becomes engaged to William Rodney, author of poetic dramas, altho she feels herself drawn to Ralph Denham, a masterful young man of no family or position. Ralph maintains a platonic friendship with Mary Datchet, a suffrage worker, who loves him and refuses his lukewarm offer of marriage for that reason. Katharine’s cousin Cassandra comes to town and captivates William, setting Katharine free to marry Ralph. This leaves everyone provided for except Mary, who continues to devote her life to causes. Considerable care is devoted to the delineation of minor characters.
“It is impossible to refrain from comparing ‘Night and day’ with the novels of Miss Austen. There are moments, indeed, when one is almost tempted to cry it Miss Austen up-to-date. It is extremely cultivated, distinguished and brilliant, but above all—deliberate. There is not a chapter where one is unconscious of the writer, of her personality, her point of view, and her control of the situation.” K. M.
+ − Ath p1227 N 21 ’19 1350w
“The half expressed thought, the interrupted sentences by which the action of ‘Night and day’ proceeds, are baffling. Carry this sort of thing a few steps further and you have Maeterlinck. Yet even this intent study of a fragmentary and delicate thing strikes one as in the spirit of Tennyson’s ‘flower in the crannied wall’ whose complete comprehension means comprehension of what God and man is.” R. M. Underhill