Orlando: Virginia Woolf

History's Most Charming Love Letter

Orlando by Virginia Woolf. It’s called a “charming love letter”. It is, but Woolf is both enamoured of Orlando and pokes gentle, sarcastic fun at him/her. Orlando goes from being a man in the Elizabethan era to a modern woman..and is based on her lover, Vita Sackville-West. Woolf’s observations of class differences as well as gender differences and expectations, and lack of awareness of the upper classes are poignant. I keep wanting to memorize multiple sentences and paragraphs, commit to memory her sentences. The complexity and depth of the main character, the sharp still relevant observations, the gender-bending, time-shifting, while staying fun and somehow light…instant favorite, and turned me into an instant Woolf fan. I loved it so much that I immediately watched the film (with Tilda Swinton! Swoon).