Orlando (Vintage Classics) (Paperback)

by Virginia Woolf (Author), Peter Ackroyd (Introduction), Margaret Reynolds (Introduction)

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Product Description

As his tale begins, Orlando is a passionate young nobleman whose days are spent in rowdy revelry, filled with the colorful delights of Queen Elizabeth's court. By the close, he will have transformed into a modern, 36-year-old woman and three centuries will have passed. Orlando will witness the making of history from its edge, dressing in the flamboyant fashions of each day, following passing customs, and socializing with celebrated artists and writers. Orlando's journey 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 Woolf's most unusual and fantastic creation, Orlando is a funny, exuberant tale that examines the very nature of sexuality.

About the Author

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941), regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the 20th century, maintained an astonishing output of fiction, literary criticism, essays, and biography. Among her best-known works are Mrs. Dalloway (1925), A Room of One's Own (1929), and To the Lighthouse (1927).

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Random House UK (January 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099478285
• ISBN-13: 978-0099478287
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,155,375 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

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

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

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.