Orlando

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.” (Winterson, Jeanette. “’Different sex. Same person’: How Woolf’s Orlando became a trans triumph.” The Guardian. 3 Sep. 2018.) The book is widely regarded as one of Woolf’s most popular and critically acclaimed works. Although its subtitle suggests that the book will be nonfiction, it instead tells the surreal coming of age story of the fictional Orlando, satirizing the biographical genre in English literature. Woolf used the form of the biography to criticize the pursuit of objective fact, arguing that creativity and imaginative language can better capture the truth of someone. It also calls into question constructs of gender identity.

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.