Woolf, Virginia - Orlando

Woolf, Virginia - “Orlando”

"Orlando" is a novel written by the English author Virginia Woolf.
The book is experimental because:
- The author demonstrates a great ability to vary her narrative style according to the historical moment that is narrated.
- it is characterized by new narrative solutions that, at the time of the writing of the novel, aroused a lively debate in London literary circles.
"Orlando" looks more like a secret album; in fact it can be considered as a declaration of love written by a woman, Woolf, for another woman (the noble Vita Sackville-West, with whom Virginia Woolf had a relationship).
“Orlando” can be considered as a fictional biography of Vita Sackville West, a poetic character more than a poet, a modern and elusive woman, on the crest of the wave in the fashion of the period: androgynous, bisexual, fierce smoker and masculine intellectual. Virginia will come out blessed by their meeting, in love with her strength and her charm.
The peculiarity of this novel is the great originality of the plot. The plot is very articulate and revolves around the androgynous figure of Orlando, hero-heroine who spans four centuries (from the 16th to the 19th), often clashing with the English society of those centuries, which as a handsome young man turns into an enchanting lady .
From a stylistic point of view, Virginia Woolf alternates various registers and points of view: for example, the narrator is sometimes omniscient, other ones in the third person.