Orlando in Never too Late to Read Classics

Jul 02, 2018 Josh Caporale rated it did not like it · review of another edition

1 1/2 stars

Orlando was a really tough read for so many reasons. Ultimately, though, I am not sure if this was a biography trying to be a novel or a novel trying to be a biography, for while this is a work of fiction that has a biographical arrangement, it has difficulty in fitting into either category. I was really eager to read Orlando and explore the challenge of gender roles and definition of gender that this novel presented, but all I picked up was an experience where I felt I was plodding i 1 1/2 stars

Orlando was a really tough read for so many reasons. Ultimately, though, I am not sure if this was a biography trying to be a novel or a novel trying to be a biography, for while this is a work of fiction that has a biographical arrangement, it has difficulty in fitting into either category. I was really eager to read Orlando and explore the challenge of gender roles and definition of gender that this novel presented, but all I picked up was an experience where I felt I was plodding in a dense story that often put me to sleep, literally.

This novel in the form of a biography is actually inspired by Virginia Woolf's close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West (though both Woolf and Sackville-West were married to men), whose photos are used when showing photos of Orlando as a woman. On that basis, the story begins with Orlando as a young man in Britain who serves as a page to the queen, but is also very much into his creative endeavors. Orlando finds love with Princess Marousha Stanilovska Dagmar Natasha Iliana Romanovitch, whom he refers to as Sasha, but this only lasts so long as he makes his way to bigger opportunities, primarily that as ambassador to Constantinople. It is here that following a riot, Orlando goes to sleep and wakes up a woman. While Orlando feels the same and overlooks gender in her quest for love, her role in the world has changed, as she is now required to take on the roles that a woman would take.

This book was just a task to read and outside of its potential critical material that COULD be interesting to explore, the story in itself missed the mark in far too many ways. The characters were wooden and only seemed to serve a purpose for what messages this story was trying to convey. When I say messages, I mean the many attempts to have a great impact, but ultimately fail to do so each time. There were definitely fantastical elements within this story, for the transformation of Orlando from man to woman cannot be explained in any other way and yet the details about Orlando's adjustments, her defiance of gender, and her interactions with others proved to be way too watery. Even when there are revelations that take place following her transformation, these moments are touched upon, sometimes explored to an extent, but are ultimately abandoned.

As a piece for the times and as a piece to be critically explored by scholars, theorists, feminists, and anyone in gender studies, this may possess a slight sense of merit if they are enthusiasts for everything about Virginia Woolf and her background. For anyone else or for anyone looking for a book, let alone a work about gender and feminism, that goes somewhere, this is a great struggle. This book does do a decent job in depicting the times quite accurately, but it is not enough to rescue the book from any sense of despair. I have gotten a lot out of Virginia Woolf's short works and I admire her intellect, but this novel is not one of her highlights in my mind. It is one of the greatest disappointments I have had with any of my reading expeditions. ...more

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Aug 27, 2021 Christine PNW rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I cannot make heads nor tails out of this book, but it contains very pretty words.

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Jul 14, 2020 Sarah rated it liked it

Well, Hmm. I don't know. I didn't love it. Shall we call it experimental? I'm a simple person, or simple taste, and "experimental" novels rarely appeal to me. I really like the concept here, which is why I choose to seek it out. The titular character, Orlando, starts the novel as a boy, and he lives in perpetuity (the book starts in the 1500's, and ends in 1928). But the real interesting part is about halfway through, Orlando falls into a deep sleep (his second), and awakes as a woman. Orlando n ...more

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Mar 22, 2014 GONZA rated it liked it

E' probabile che per capire la storia io debba vedere il film; nonostante l'introduzione, le note critiche ed auobiografiche e la varie spiegazioni riguardo al fatto che questo romanzo vada inteso come una lunga lettera d'amore di Virgini Wolf a Vita Sackville-West, io non l'ho capito. Tra l'altro posso aggiungere, siccome non è il primo libro dell'autrice che leggo, che probabilmente sarà anche l'ultimo, perchè lei mi annoia. ...more

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