A review of the classic novel “Orlando” by Virginia Woolf
Having seen the 1992 film version with Tilda Swinton in the titular role and the 2022 theatre adaptation starring Emma Corrin, I thought that I would tackle the original 1928 novel. The eponymous hero is a male noble man and poet in the early 17th century who lives until the time of Woolf, about half way through this period of more than three centuries changing gender from a man to a woman, along the way meeting a succession of poets, writers and critics.I confess that I did not find it an easy read. There is minimal plot, only six (untitled) chapters, and lots of long sentences and really long paragraphs (the lengthiest paragraph is almost three pages). The writing is impressive but the language is flowery, even flamboyant. The novel is inspired by, and dedicated to, Woolf’s lover Vita Sackville-West and there are multitudinous references to literary characters and works plus Sackville-West’s life and family. The Penguin Classics version of the book that I read had over 30 pages of notes.
The work is presented as a biography, complete with eight photographs, but the elongation of a lifetime and the gender transformation of this life make it a most unusual and unreliable biography. The whole work is a satire and there are some humorous characterisations. Woolf wrote of her book that “it is all a joke” and called it “a writer’s holiday”.
However, Orlando has two periods when he falls asleep for a week and has “his moods of melancholy”, while Woolf herself was subject to breakdowns throughout her life and eventually drowned herself in the River Ouse. I know that the novel is a classic, but there were times when I almost fell asleep or contemplated throwing myself in the River Thames.