Orlando

Second Edition

Virginia Woolf
Edited by Michael H. Whitworth

Oxford World's Classics

• A new edition of Woolf's fictional biography of a cross-dressing hero/ine whose experiments with genre and concerns with sexuality have ensured its popularity in the twenty-first century.
• The Introduction draws on the latest scholarship and considers questions concerning fame and posterity, the contemporary publishing context, the nature of biography, history and historicization.
• The notes provide essential contextual background and identify the literary allusions and self-reference.
• Up-to-date bibliography and full chronology.
• Biographical preface by Frank Kermode.

New to this Edition:

• Introduction by Michael Whitworth.
• Revised and updated Select Bibliography.
• New and expanded Notes.
• Re-set text, and original illustrations placed closer to their original position in the text.

Orlando

Second Edition

Virginia Woolf
Edited by Michael H. Whitworth

Oxford World's Classics

Description

Orlando

Second Edition

Virginia Woolf
Edited by Michael H. Whitworth

Oxford World's Classics

Author Information

Orlando

Second Edition

Virginia Woolf
Edited by Michael H. Whitworth

Oxford World's Classics

Reviews and Awards

Orlando

Second Edition

Virginia Woolf
Edited by Michael H. Whitworth

Oxford World's Classics

From Our Blog

Orlando: An audio guide

In honor of Virginia Woolf's death (March 28, 1941), listen to Dr Michael Whitworth, editor of the Oxford edition of Virginia Woolf's Orlando, introduce the novel, and discuss Woolf's life and times in this Oxford World's Classics audio guide. "I feel the need of an escapade after these serious poetic experimental books...I want to kick up my heels and be off."

Posted on March 27, 2017

Read the blog post

Orlando

Second Edition

Virginia Woolf
Edited by Michael H. Whitworth

Oxford World's Classics

Audio Guide

"I feel the need of an escapade after these serious poetic experimental books...I want to kick up my heels and be off.''

Orlando tells the tale of an extraordinary individual who lives through history first as a man, then as a woman. At its heart is the figure of Woolf's friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West, and Knole, the historic home of the Sackvilles. Orlando mocks the conventions of biography and history and wryly examines sexual double standards.

 

To listen to Dr Michael Whitworth, editor of the Oxford World's Classics edition, introduce Orlando click on the links below.

Orlando - The novel

• Michael Whitworth summarizes the plot and describes the main themes[2:04]


• Virginia Woolf's style of writing in Orlando is considered to be very different from most of her other novels, and it is considered her most accessible work[2:32]

 

Virginia Woolf and her life

• Virginia Woolf's relationship with Vita Sackville-West[3:33]
  
• Woolf dedicated Orlando to Vita Sackville-West. What did she think of the novel?[3:38]
  
• Woolf was denied a university education because she was a woman. Had she had been a man, would she have been better known as a novelist?[2:00]
   
• Michael Whitworth discusses Woolf's mental health.[2:09]

Her work

• It was important to Woolf to title this novel, Orlando - a biography.[2:32]


• How did Woolf fit into the modernist movement? [2:20]


• Woolf took an interest in a more popular way of writing to see if she could reach a wider audience for Orlando [1:25]


• Michael Whitworth on the critical reception of Orlando and how that's changed in the postmodern age. [2:12] 

The interview in full

Listen to the interview in full [29:18]