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Orlando: A Biography Paperback – October 24, 1973

by Virginia Woolf (Author)

118 customer reviews

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In her most exuberant, most fanciful novel, Woolf has created a character liberated from the restraints of time and sex. Born in the Elizabethan Age to wealth and position, Orlando is a young nobleman at the beginning of the story-and a modern woman three centuries later. “A poetic masterpiece of the first rank” (Rebecca West). The source of a critically acclaimed 1993 feature film directed by Sally Potter. Index; illustrations.

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Product Details

Series: A Harvest Book, Hb 266
Paperback: 333 pages
Publisher: Mariner Books; Reprint edition (October 24, 1973)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 015670160X
ISBN-13: 978-0156701600
Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.9 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (118 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Specific Groups > LGBT > Transgender
- #128 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Historical > Biographical
- #158 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Biographical

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Customer Reviews

118

4.1 out of 5 stars

5 star		51%
4 star		25%
3 star		13%
2 star		7%
1 star		4%

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 80 people found the following review helpful

A gender-bending saga of three centuries

By A.J. on December 29, 2003

Format: Paperback

"Orlando" is a fictional biography whose subject in the beginning is a sixteen-year-old boy in the Elizabethan era and in the end -- three hundred years later -- is a thirty-six-year-old woman. This is not a novel about transsexuality, as such a premise would indicate, but it is a statement about sexual identity and gender roles in English society as only an author like Virginia Woolf could make, territory not even the brazen D.H. Lawrence could traverse with much confidence. It is a lyrical tour de force in which Woolf displays her considerable talent for subtly describing moods and scenery, but most surprisingly, it demonstrates her sly sense of humor and satire.
Orlando's gender alteration is naturally the central event of his preternaturally long life, but his aging only twenty years over a course of three centuries is certainly no less bizarre. To describe the circumstances under which he becomes a woman or explain the logic by which he ages so slowly would be giving away too much in this review, nor would it really help to recommend the novel to one who is not yet persuaded to read it, so I will be silent on that account, saying only that these outrageous devices fully succeed as vehicles to explore Woolf's theme of femininity with respect to English cultural and historical frames of reference.
The novel examines the effect of gender alteration on Orlando's amorous and professional capacities. As a young nobleman in the Elizabethan court whose interests are swordsmanship and poetry, he is engaged to an aristocratic Irish girl, has a torrid affair with a Russian princess, and meets a silly woman who, resembling nothing so much as a hare, calls herself the Archduchess Harriet.Read more ›

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23 of 26 people found the following review helpful

A wild tromp through literary history

By A Customer on June 18, 1999

Format: Paperback

Orlando is simply wonderful. In the novel, Woolf uses the character of Orlando, a person who lives through four centuries as man sometimes and woman sometimes. The term biography might throw you, since Orlando is no normal biography. Woolf personifies literary thought as a person (hence the timelessness and gender changing capability). She depicts Elizabethan times through the early twentieth century with wit and sarcasm. The more that you've read of English literature from Shakespeare forward the more you will catch the little jokes and the reason for why certain things happen. A very enjoyable read. The film version is not exactly the same, so I recommend sticking to the book.

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22 of 27 people found the following review helpful

Looking for something good to read? Check this one out...

By A Customer on November 17, 1996

Format: Paperback

John Irving ("World According to Garp") wrote an essay on
Charles Dickens book "Great Expectations" in which he said
that that book was the first book he had ever read that he
wished he had written. For me the first book that I had read that I wished
I had written is "Orlando" by Virgina Woolf. It blew me
away. I had seen the movie version a few years ago, and
recently found it in a bookstore, so I decided to check it out.
It's subtitle is "A Biography" and although it is based (very
loosely, I'm sure) on someone's actual life, it becomes clear
to the reader that this is definitely a work of fiction.
The reason that I enjoyed it so much is, well, let me put it
this way...Charles Dickens and John Irving were and are storytellers,
very wonderful, brilliant storytellers, but Virgina Woolf is (well, was)
an amazing artist. I don't go for poetry that much, I'm a prose
kind of guy, but "Orlando" for me, was the very best kind of poetry but
written as a narrative. Read this book. And let me know what you think...

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

Exquisite book

By Robertuccio on December 13, 2012

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

There probaly isn't very much that hasn't been already said and written about this masterpiece of literature. I was very keen on chapter 5, where Ms. Wolf simply rips Victorian morality to shreds. Superb read.

Oh the Glawr!

A note on the Kindle editions: I purchased this one for $.99 though I also saw another one with the same cover but for approximately $3.99.
There wasn't enough information for me to be able to tell if there was any difference however, there is so much critique and commentary written on "Orlando" that I don't see the need to pay for something I can simply Google rather than have it added onto to the book for 10 times what I paid for this book.

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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

intriguing, but ultimately just weird

By Bob Newman VINE VOICE on April 4, 2012

Format: Paperback

For all dyed-in-the-wool Virginia Woolf fans, my review will be anathema. People who review books often review the ones they love especially, but I review each one, good or bad. I started this novel in high hopes. I had never read the famous British author and I looked forward to a special treat. The background to the rich and handsome Orlando seemed promising, his adventures interesting, but then weirdness grew and became overpowering. I didn't mind that he turned into a woman, but even so, whatever the sex of the protagonist, we need a plot in the novel. The descriptions of his doings seemed less and less relevant, his/her gender fluctuations assumed more and more importance, and I finally decided that I just didn't care. What I really didn't like about ORLANDO is that there is a sub-text, closed to those of us of this day and age, who are not privy to the intimate doings of the Bloomsbury set, who did not sit together with V. Woolf and listen to her read her latest chapters, chuckling knowingly as they recognized the models for the various characters. I felt excluded. And why would I read a novel from which I was excluded ? Well, the answer, dear reader, is that I wouldn't. And I don't recommend that you do either.

People tell me that Woolf's other novels are much better and of a different type. So, I am not condemning the writer, only the book. And, OK, maybe you will like it. But don't say I didn't warn you.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Didn’t Really Get It

The odd thing about ‘Orlando’ is that, whilst it’s conceptually daring, narratively it’s far less unconventional than other of Virginia Woolf’s novels that I’ve read. Read more

Published 3 days ago by Catherine E. Chapman

Five Stars

Amazing read, such a visionary and drawer of words! In my top.

Published 19 days ago by Claudia Tocila

Three Stars

Interesting

Published 1 month ago by Amazon Customer

Two Stars

Came as book --when I paid for audio version.

Published 2 months ago by ray

Modernist Gem

I read this for class, and I'm so glad I did. It's a modernist gem, funny, and incredibly insightful. Woolf broke ground right under the noses of aristocracy. Read more

Published 2 months ago by P. Domenick

Five Stars

Great

Published 2 months ago by Dana

Four Stars

An imaginary character apparently reflecting all dream-like visions of the author.

Published 3 months ago by ladislav drozdik

The Daring Ms. Woolf

I love Virginia Woolf. To The Lighthouse is my favorite book of all time and I've read a lot of books. This one was on my "To Read" list for a long time. Read more

Published 3 months ago by K. Whitgrove

great price, and arrived on time

Item was as described, great price, and arrived on time!

Published 3 months ago by S.

Great book.

Woolf's funniest novel... Totally worth the read, especially if gender and sexuality is your bag. Sometimes her prose is a little suffocating, but it's mostly a tongue-in-cheek... Read more

Published 4 months ago by Kiri Alvarado

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