Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Orlando by Virginia Woolf.
How long does it take to write something good? What are the experiences and perspectives you need to bring to bear in order to create something worthwhile? Then, what is the criteria for success? Is it public acclaim? Money earned? Or simply something you're happy with. Discovering and analysing these questions is the journey Virginia Woolf's eponymous character Orlando is on.
Now for some spoilers. Woolf gives her character an unusual life to live, learn and taste, at the age of thirty (having lived a hundred years or so) he turns into a she, and continues as a woman for the next three hundred years. This gives her time to perfect the poem “The Oak Tree” ( which she carries around next to her bosom). It also gives Woolf the opportunity to examine and weave gender issues and attitudes throughout history into the story.
She is of course an incredible writer, every page has something extraordinary on it, either a nugget of philosophy, a thought or an observation perfectly expressed. Here is an example from a completely random page;-
Orlando was unaccountably disappointed. She had thought of literature all these years ( her seclusion, her rank, her sex must be her excuse) as something wild as the wind, hot as fire, swift as lightning; something errant, incalculable, abrupt, and behold, literature was an elderly gentleman in a grey suit talking about a duchess. The violence of her disillusionment was such that some hook or button fastening the upper part of her dress burst open, and out upon the table fell 'The Oak Tree', a poem.
The tone of the book I would describe as zany and light-hearted, which was a surprise to me because of her reputation as a literary heavyweight. Her voice is ever present – as the narrator and as the person set with the task of writing the biography of Orlando (possibly Woolf herself) – scattering funny asides and observations, complaining and apologizing to the reader when Orlando is inactive or boring, and so reminding you you are reading a story created by a clever, witty writer sat in her study working hard.
All in all this book was a pleasant surprise, very readable, quirky and entertaining but with plenty depth if you want to explore.
