Orlando

Orlando

(Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

About the Book

Virginia Woolf’s pioneering novel about a time-traveling sixteenth-century nobleman who wakes up in the body of a woman, with a new foreword by Andrea Lawlor, author of Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl

“A brilliant book that teaches you so much about identity and love—all these fundamental questions that we ask ourselves.” —Emma Corrin

“I read this book and believed it was a hallucinogenic, interactive biography of my own life and future.” —Tilda Swinton

A Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, with flaps and deckle-edged paper


First masculine, then feminine, Orlando is a young sixteenth-century nobleman who gallops through the centuries, from Elizabethan England and imperial Turkey to Virginia Woolf’s own time. Will he find happiness with the exotic Russian Princess Sasha? Or is the dashing explorer Shelmerdine the ideal man? And what form will Orlando take on the journey—a nobleman, traveler, writer? Man or . . . woman?
 
Written for the charismatic, bisexual writer Vita Sackville-West, Orlando is one of Woolf’s most popular and accessible novels, a playful mock biography of a chameleon-like historical figure that is both a wry commentary on gender and, in Woolf’s own words, a “writer’s holiday” that delights in its ambiguity and capriciousness.

This edition is collated from all known proofs, manuscripts, and impressions to reflect the author’s intentions, and includes an introduction and notes by the distinguished scholar and coauthor of The Madwoman in the Attic Sandra M. Gibert.

For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition Series

The Whale Rider
A Farewell to Arms
The Sound and the Fury
The Wizard of Oz
Orlando
The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing
Monkey King
Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories
To the Lighthouse
The Custom of the Country
View more

About the Author

Virginia Woolf
VIRGINIA WOOLF (1882-1941) was born in London. A pioneer in the narrative use of stream of consciousness, she published her first novel, The Voyage Out, in 1915. This was followed by literary criticism and essays, most notably A Room of One’s Own, and other acclaimed novels, including Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and Orlando. More by Virginia Woolf
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About the Author

Andrea Lawlor
Andrea Lawlor teaches writing at Mount Holyoke College and edits fiction for Fence. They live in western Massachusetts. Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is their first novel. More by Andrea Lawlor
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About the Author

Sandra M. Gilbert
Sandra M. Gilbert is Professor Emerita at the University of California, Davis, and co-author, with Susan Gubar, of the classic work of feminist literary criticism The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. More by Sandra M. Gilbert
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About the Author

Brenda Lyons
Brenda Lyons is a fantasy artist with an M.F.A. in Illustration from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She uses traditional media and specializes in watercolor. Since she was a child, she's loved all birds of prey and enjoys combining those animals with her imagination to create fantasy worlds and creatures. With Brenda's help, readers will be able to create their own mythical beings such as gryphons, unicorns, dragons, a phoenix and more! More by Brenda Lyons
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About the Author

Sandra M. Gilbert
Sandra M. Gilbert is Professor Emerita at the University of California, Davis, and co-author, with Susan Gubar, of the classic work of feminist literary criticism The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. More by Sandra M. Gilbert
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