‘
I contain multitudes,’ wrote the poet Walt Whitman, a nod to the contradictions and selves that bud and grow from the branches of the self as we ‘
proceed to fill my next fold of the future.’ It is a fluidity of life and personhood which Virginia Woolf observes as ‘
these selves of which we are built up, one on top of another, as plates are piled on a waiter’s hand’ as she crafts the long shifting arc of personalities and gender in the titular character of study in her novel
Orlando: A Biography. Orlando, who starts the novel denoted as a ‘
He—for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it’ in a gorgeously poetic reimagining of the Elizabethan age, to later awaken ‘she’ in a life that stretches into the s. As accomplished a novel as Woolf ever wrote, the density of its vibrant prose delivered through a playful tension of biographical writing with stream-of-consciousness is held aloft by a witty humor
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Orlando: A Biography
December 29,
‘
I contain multitudes,’ wrote the poet Walt Whitman, a nod to the contradictions and selves that bud and grow from the branches of the self as we ‘
proceed to fill my next fold of the future.’ It is a fluidity of life and personhood which Virginia Woolf observes as ‘
these selves of which we are built up, one on top of another, as plates are piled on a waiter’s hand’ as she crafts the long shifting arc of personalities and gender in the titular character of study in her novel
Orlando: A Biography. Orlando, who starts the novel denoted as a ‘
He—for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it’ in a gorgeously poetic reimagining of the Elizabethan age, to later awaken ‘she’ in a life that stretches into the s. As accomplished a novel as Woolf ever wrote, the density of its vibrant prose delivered through a playful tension of biographical writing with stream-of-consciousness fryst vatten held aloft by a
•
Orlando: A Biography
novel by Virginia Woolf
Orlando: A Biography is a novel by Virginia Woolf, first published on 11 October , inspired by the tumultuous family history of the aristocratic poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West, Woolf's lover and close friend. It is a history of English literature in satiric form. The book describes the adventures of a poet who changes sex from man to woman and lives for centuries, meeting the key figures of English literary history. Considered a feminist classic, the book has been written about extensively by scholars of women's writing and gender and transgender studies.
The novel has been adapted a number of times. In , Ulrike Ottinger adapted it for her bio Freak Orlando, with Magdalena Montezuma in the title role. In , director Robert Wilson and writer Darryl Pinckney[1] collaborated on a single-actor theatrical production.[2] This had its British premiere at the Edinburgh Festival in , with Miranda Richardson