Orlando (Vintage Classics) [Paperback]

Virginia Woolf (Author)

Book Description

Series: Vintage Classics | Publication Date: January 25, 2005

Orlando’s journey, from the court of Queen Elizabeth I to modern times will also be an internal one. He is an impulsive poet who learns patience in matters of the heart, and a woman who knows what it is to be a man. Virginia’s Woolf’s most unusual and fantastic creation is a funny, exuberant tale which examines the very nature of sexuality.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Virginia Woolf was born in London in 1882, the daughter of Sir Leslie Stephen, first editor of The Dictionary of National Biography. From 1915, when she published her first novel, The Voyage Out, Virginia Woolf maintained an astonishing output of fiction, literary criticism, essays and biography. In 1912 she married Leonard Woolf, and in 1917 they founded The Hogarth Press. Virginia Woolf suffered a series of mental breakdowns throughout her life, and on 28 March 1941 she committed suicide.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Vintage Classics (January 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099478285
• ISBN-13: 978-0099478287
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.9 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,736,252 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

VIRGINIA WOOLF (1882-1941) was one of the major literary figures of the twentieth century. An admired literary critic, she authored many essays, letters, journals, and short stories in addition to her groundbreaking novels.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love reinvented., August 30, 2005

By 

S. C. Watson (WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Orlando (Vintage Classics) (Paperback)

My first book by Ms. Woolf, and it was an amazing, surreal read. Orlando is a love story, a wonderful mess-up of gender and all the questions about love that gender provokes, and an ode to creativity.

The story begins with Orlando as a romantic youth, lacking in wisdom, but not in appreciation of beauty and lust for life. His vibrancy catches the eye of the elderly Queen Elizabeth, who then, falls in love with his beauty and graces him with a court appointment and takes it upon herself to protect him from the usual pains that would befall someone of his status. [It is at this point, in the movie (with Tilda Swinton), that Queen Elizabeth (Quentin Crisp) cryptically tells him, "Do not fade. Do not wither. Do not grow old." I did not find this quote in the book, but the sentiment is the same. There is a special immortal something about Orlando that others recognize and he is doomed and blessed to tumble through the ages in one guise or another.]

Orlando falls from the queen's grace when she spies him with one of the many girls he courts. Three years after the queen's disapproval, Orlando finds himself madly in love with a Russian princess, who will not marry him. He falls asleep heartbroken, only to awake 50 years later in a different role, as an aristocratic poet. And so go Orlando's series of romances and heartbreaks. After several failed romances and the seeming death of his beloved poetry, Orlando reawakens as a woman, without skipping a beat. We then follow him/her through subsequent decades and see Orlando grow in wisdom and knowledge of love. One could say that perhaps his womanly incarnation is what Fate has thrown at him in order for him to understand what it is to be on the other side of the mirror. Yet in either form he is admired.

It's an odd story and plotwise, difficult to track, which is perhaps besides the point. Certainly full of humor. The only contemporary author to whom I can compare it is Jeannette Winterson and her novel The Passion--she has a similar interest in characters and love, and an equal disregard for rules of space, time, and gender roles. Winterson may be our modern day Woolf.

If you haven't read Orlando, and you are unsure, try the movie first. It is what prompted me to read the book. The production is gorgeous and Tilda Swinton is perfect as Orlando. And when you decide to read the book, there's plenty to be discovered that the movie can't touch on--for instance the writing nuances and styles. I'll be rereading it soon and I'm eager to see what I'll find in my second passing.