Orlando

Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel follows Orlando, a young nobleman in Elizabethan England who, after a mysterious three-century sleep, awakens in the modern era as a woman. This fantastical premise allows Woolf to explore the fluidity of identity, the passage of time, and the constraints of gender and social class. The narrative moves from the court of Queen Elizabeth I to the Georgian era and finally to early twentieth-century London, tracing Orlando’s evolution from a courtier to a poet and diplomat. Through this journey, the book examines how external roles and internal selves shift across centuries, offering a playful yet profound meditation on selfhood and transformation.

Description adapted from Open Library ↗.