it was okay
The last of Woolf’s novels I’ve yet to read. I’m really struggling to understand her way of writing, but I’m enjoying the weaving plots and the messages she provides in the form of satire.
Read: Feb. 11, 2025
Genre: Classic, Literary Fiction, Queer Fiction
Audience: General
Book contains: derogatory language, racial slurs, oriental othering
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Orlando, a Duke growing up in the sixteenth century, is a rowdy nobleman enjoying the pleasure and privileges of his status. When he wakes one morning to find himself a woman, he explores a whole new perspective.
Again, I don’t always have a clue what’s going on in Woolf’s writing, but this one was clearer to me than the others, s perhaps I’m getting better. Some things in this book seem to happen “just because” such as the sudden change from man to woman, and the way some characters are so strangely long-lived. I found it especially funny that no one questioned the fact that Orlando was suddenly a woman.
Orlando is told in the form of a biography, with the narrator (referring to themselves as “the biographer”) tells the story of Orlando’s life, mostly in summary, but also with regular scenes of action and dialogue. Woolf’s writing is a lot of reflection and abstract thinking, not so much concrete, and moves through time quickly.
I listened along to this book on Spotify at 2x speed. The LibriVox recording is given through Great Audiobooks in four parts, the first of which can be listened to here. She was an excellent reader.
In the opening scene, Orlando is defined as a rowdy sixteen-year-old, wanting to go to war alongside his father, but held back. He instead serves Queen Elizabeth for a time; he is beloved among the royalty. He is also a representation of a man whose attention flits from lover to lover, leaving his fiancée for a Russian woman who ends up abandoning him. When, at thirty, he wakes as a woman, Orlando sees a new perspective, and has to rethink his usual actions with those acceptable for his new situation. Nonetheless, he never loses his joie de vivre, and continues searching for meaning in life.
The relationships Orlando has through the years of his/her long life are odd, as he is constantly complimented for his legs as a man, but as a woman he must hide them. He is sought out for marriage as a man, yet remains unmarried for most of his female life. His poetry is mocked as a man, but nearly three centuries later, is revered by the same person who previously mocked him. The biggest relationship seemed to be the one Orlando has with herself.
I was confused by many of the decisions the author made, but it was still an interesting and entertaining piece, even if it felt a bit like a dream, with things not always making sense. At times, it was similar to Alice in Wonderland in that way: things happening and everyone accepting it despite the sheer nonsense of the situation. It was actually quite fun.
The pacing moved along steadily, though I wasn’t always aware of the time skipping that was happening—Orlando living in a world where everything around her seems to change but actually stays fundamentally the same.
This book is an excellent dialogue about gender and history and art and culture. I highly recommend it to critical thinkers!
The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Villette by Charlotte Brontë
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
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