Night and Day / Jacob's Room

by Virginia Woolf, Dorinda Guest (Editor), Keith Carabine (Editor)

Virginia Woolf's second novel, Night and Day (1919), portrays the gradual changes in a society, the patterns and conventions of which are slowly disintegrating; where the representatives of the younger generation struggle to forge their own way, for '... life has to be to be rejected; then accepted on new terms with rapture'. Woolf begins to experiment with the novel form while demonstrating her affection for the literature of the past. Jacob's Room (1922), Woolf's third novel, marks the bold affirmation of her own voice and search for a new form to express her view that 'the human soul ... orientates itself afresh every now & then. It is doing so now. No one can see it whole therefore.' Jacob's life is presented in subtle, delicate and tantalising glimpses, the novel's gaps and silences are as replete with meaning as the wicker armchair creaking in the empty room.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Literature

576 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1922

About the author

(Adeline) Virginia Woolf was an English novelist and essayist regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.

During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929) with its famous dictum, "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

Reviews

[Caitlyn Bolton]

Night and Day (pp. 21 - 385) - 5 ⭐

[Mijke]

Night and Day - 5 ⭐️
Jacob’s room - 4,5 ⭐️

[Georgia Swadling]

god i LOVE VIRGINIA WOOLF everything she touches turns to gold and no one i’ve ever read writes prose so well that’s all i have to say

[Clapton]

This collection is very interesting as it contrasts Woolf’s second novel (Night and Day) with the subsequent novel, Jacob’s Room. While the former is generally considered an inferior novel, including by the author herself, due to its more conventional narrative style and the absence of any reference to the war (a common criticism at the time), it was nevertheless important in the development of Woolf’s style. From this perspective, it is a very interesting read, even if the novel in and of itself is far from impressive (at least if we compare it with Woolf’s later works). Impressive however is Jacob’s Room, where Woolf felt she had finally found her voice. It’s a narrative style that focuses more on the “room” around the protagonist, than at the protagonist himself, as Dorinda Guest writes in the second introduction.

The introductions to each book are what makes reading these two works one after the other especially interesting, giving a lot of good insights, especially as to understanding the “hidden” meaning of Jacob’s Room, in addition to the historical context in which the books were written and Woolf’s thinking when writing them.

[Noémi Marczell]

Whoah, Jacob's Room is a Virginia Woolf's raw talent coming to life. When I started reading, I felt like I met someone hard to figure out. I didn't know if I liked the story, but around Jacob's journey to Greece, I was invested very much.

As the narrator says, ´It is no use trying to sum people up´I feel the same about the book.

My favourite quote is coming from Jacob itself: "Their lack of concern for him was not the cause of his gloom; but some more profound conviction - it was not that he himself happened to be lonely, but that all people are."

Loved it.

[Sonia Richter]

Night and day is admittedly not Woolf’s best novel, but if you’re looking for a slightly non traditional Victorian-style romance novel, it’s a good one. There is a certain depth to it that is moving, and the themes of inner and outer existence and generational differences are played out expertly. I would expect no less from her! Jacob’s room came after, I’ve read it once before. It’s one of her dreamier novels, similar to the waves, which captures a moment in time more than it does the life of a boy. The introductory essay to this was spot on, it is Jacob’s life told through gossip, perception, and memory. At times it lost me, but I think that’s the point. It’s not linear and makes you feel like you’re reading between the lines of a biographical photography book.

[Giulia]

This book has two of Virginia Woolf's earlier stories, before her major works. You do get a sense that she is incomplete in her writing style, but the talent is there. I would have given this book a full 5 stars if Jacob's Room hadn't let me down.

Night and Day
Contrary to some other blurbs I've read, this is not a novel about igniting passions and the choice between two men as we know it. There is a choice, but Woolf presents it so subtly, and we're introduced to so many other characters and their own issues and ideas that you feel a spectator to all of them, not just the main three which so many books do. Something I've notice in both of her works here is the mastery of description and her ability to go off an a tangent and return. This was a great, great book, easily 5/5.

Jacob's Room
A bit more mixed on this one. She gave his adolescence and Cambridge days the glamorous I adore but in his twenties, Jacob and the prose got a bit lost in many things so the end was too much off and there wasn't enough story in my opinion.

[Arthur Ivan]

This features 2 of Woolf's earlier novels with different writing styles.

Night and Day is a lot easier to read than her older works but it also feels less "by Virginia Woolf", her writing style was still in development. She likes projecting certain aspects of her life in her pieces. I'm thinking this one reflected her earlier ideologies and her relationship with Leonard Woolf.

Jacob's Room is the first novel by Woolf that shows her stream of consciousness writing style. I find To The Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway, which uses the same style, better.

Both didn't really stand out to me but I'm happy to have them in my collection.

[Adam]

Both books are about things that are outside of my interest. Although I do know more about weird emotional problems now =/