Night and Day (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) delves into the life of Katharine Hilbery, a young woman grappling with her future. She faces a choice between engaging with the prosaic William Rodney or embracing the passion of Ralph Denham. Meanwhile, the lives of two other women—Mary Datchet, an activist fighting for women’s rights, and Margaret Hilbery, Katharine’s mother, working on a biography of her father—intersect in complex and fascinating ways. Virginia Woolf’s second novel is both a love story and a social comedy, yet it also subtly challenges these genres by questioning the role of women and the nature of experience.

This edition includes an insightful introduction by Julia Briggs that explores the key themes of the novel and its place within the tradition of social comedy. It also features a map of central London during the period of the book and notes to enhance understanding. For over seven decades, Penguin Classics has been at the forefront of publishing classic literature in English, offering authoritative texts enriched with scholarly insights and up-to-date translations.