Sorry not to have updated in so long.  My extra time has been taken up by reading!  I read two books recently, that brought attention to passing time and to changing romance morality.

Night and Day, by Virginia Woolf, was a delight to read, especially with a fondness for the time from which the novel dates.  There were several characters involved in a very, very long and drawn out pursuit of marriage.  This was charming to read, though somewhat agonizing from the perspective of this day and age.  Actually Woolf's presentation of the inward and external turmoils of love did not really deviate from any modern agony, because that is the nature of love, you know.

The other book that I read was a more contemporary novel, On Beauty, by Zadie Smith.  In this novel there is a more established love relationship, and a long lasting marriage is described.  While there is not so much anxiety concerning who will marry, the morality of maintaining a marriage is explored in an agonizing episode of inward and external turmoil. 

While I did enjoy both books for different reasons, I must say that it was refreshing to consider the uprightness of Woolf's characters, especially when contrasted with the events of the modern day romance.  The question of what exactly is love, of course, is an enduring human struggle, for which all of the characters were beautifully described by both authors. Because those presented with the problem of love were so tenderly portrayed in both novels, I have to say that I fell in love a little bit with both books, even if it was strange to read these two particular novels in immediate succession, because of the changing social mores of the times.

One particularly naughty bit in Smith's novel almost made me decide that I did not enjoy the book, but because I was already so drawn into those particularly dear characters, I decided to forgive the novel.  I also forgave Woolf for making me feel as anxious for her characters as she did.  In both instances, I felt as if they had just asked my mother what to do, she would have set them straight. :)