1.
“Orlando: A Biography”
-by Virginia Woolf
Prepareby:-DrashtiJoshi
Department of English
MKBU

2.
Points to Ponder
• About Author
• Key Facts
• About Novel
• Character List
• Themes
• Symbols
• Quotes

3.
About Author
Also Known As: Adeline Virginia Stephen
Born: January 25, 1882 • London • England
Died: March 28, 1941 (aged 59) • England
Notable Works: “A Room of One’s Own” • “Flush” • “Freshwater” • “Jacob’s Room” •
“Modern Fiction” • “Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown” • “Mrs. Dalloway” • “Orlando” • “The Art of
Fiction” • “The Common Reader” • “The Common Reader: Second Series” • “The New
Biography” • “The Pargiters: A Novel-Essay” • “The Voyage Out” • “The Waves” • “The
Years” • “Three Guineas” • “To the Lighthouse”
Movement / Style: Modernism
Notable Family Members: spouse- Leonard Woolf • father Sir Leslie Stephen • sister
Vanessa Bell
Subjects Of Study: literature

4.
• Full Title:- Orlando: a Biography
• Author:- Virginia Woolf
• Type Of Work:- Novel
• Genre:- Fictional biography
• Language:-English
• Time And Place Written:- Woolf wrote Orlando from her home in London,
1927–1928, between To the Lighthouse and The Waves
• Date Of First Publication:- October 11, 1928, the date given in the last line
of the novel
• Publisher:- Hogarth Press
• Narrator:- Third-person, omniscient narrator; an unreliable "biographer" who
changes style and tone to suit the changes of Orlando's life
• Protagonist:- Orlando
• Chapters:- Six(6) Setting (Time):- 1588 to 1928
• Setting (Place):- Mostly in England (London and Kent), but 1660–1685 are
spent on an tourism to Constantinople and the hills of Turkey
Key Facts

5.
About Novel
-Orlando: A Biography is a novel published in 1928 by the English author
Virginia Woolf.
-It tells the story of Orlando, a member of the English nobility who is born a
male in 16th century England. Around the age of 30, Orlando mysteriously
changes into a woman and lives for centuries without visibly aging.
-Author Jeanette Winterson called Orlando “the first trans novel in English.”
-The title character is based on Woolf’s lover and friend, Vita Sackville-West.
-Sackville-West was a successful novelist, poet, and journalist. She
published more than a dozen collections of poetry and 13 novels during her
lifetime.
-Vita shares many biographical details with Orlando. Orlando’s noble legacy
and extended family mirror Sackville-West.
-Like Orlando’s own family estate, Sackville-West had a family home called
the Knole, though Vita Sackville-West was unable to inherit it due to her
gender.

6.
-The novel has been adapted for film and theatre. Among them is the 1992
film version starring Tilda Swinton as Orlando and 1998 theatrical
adaptation by Sarah Ruhl that played Off-Broadway in 2010.
The book makes frequent use of the term “gyipsy.” Outside of direct
quotations, this term has been replaced with the term Romani.
-To describe the genders of characters, this guide uses the gender the
character is identified with during that moment.
-When talking more broadly, the guide uses they/them. For the
ungendered biographer, the term they/them is used.
-The novel tells the story of Orlando from the age of 16 in 16th century
England until the age of 36 in 1928.
-The novel is narrated by an unnamed biographer who expresses their
opinions about the story's events, despite their claims to only report facts.
Continue…

7.
-In the 17th century, King Charles II appoints Orlando to be an
ambassador in Constantinople.
-When Orlando finally awakes, she is now a woman. Although the
change is mysterious, Orlando has little difficulty accepting it.
-Orlando finally reaches the 1920s, the decade in which Woolf wrote
and published Orlando.
-Orlando finally publishes “The Oak Tree” to great critical success. In
the final scene, Shel flies above Orlando’s home in an airplane before
leaping out of the plane to join her.
-As he does this, a wild bird springs up. The clock strikes midnight, and
it is the present. breast to the sky. Shel, now a fine sea captain, leaps
down. As he does this, a wild bird springs up. The clock strikes
midnight, and it is the present.
Continue…

8.
characters

9.
Themes
1.) Writing and Literature
2.) Subjectivity, Truth and Biography
3.) Gender and Society
4.) Identity and Transformation

10.
Symbols
1.) Clothing
2.) “The Oak Tree”
3.) Dogs

11.
Quotes
“As long as she thinks of a man, nobody objects to a woman
thinking.”
― Virginia Woolf, Orlando
“A woman knows very well that, though a wit sends her his
poems, praises her judgment, solicits her criticism, and drinks
her tea, this by no means signifies that he respects her
opinions, admires her understanding, or will refuse, though
the rapier is denied him, to run through the body with his
pen.”
― Virginia Woolf, Orlando
“Orlando naturally loved solitary places, vast views, and to feel
himself for ever and ever and ever alone.”
― Virginia Woolf, Orlando