"The book in Bloomsbury is a joke, in Mayfair a necessity, and in America a classic."

This page provides information on Virginia Woolf and her novel, Orlando.

Features:

~ Elizabeth Bowen was first a devotee, and then an acquaintance, of Virginia Woolf. In 1960, she looked back upon perceptions of Orlando in an afterword.

~ A detailed year-by-year chronology of the author's life was compiled by John Lehmann (Woolf's associate from the Hogarth Press).

~ Learn about a scandal in English literature that coincided with the publication of the racy Orlando.

~ Cool essays by Kelly Tetterton: Virginia Woolf's Orlando: The Book as Critic, and Paperbacks as an Area of Bibliographical Study: The Case of Virginia Woolf's Orlando.

~ Believe it or not, Orlando's life's work, The Oak Tree, was recently adapted into a high-profile Cantonese play and performed in Hong Kong. In 1993, for a run of 135 shows, Isabelle Huppert starred in Orlando in Paris, directed by Bob Wilson.

~ The Major Authors Virginia Woolf CD-ROM is now available online by subscription. It includes manuscripts, complete texts, glossaries, biographies, even audio clips.

~ A resource for information on her life and works: Virginia Woolf Web.

~ The leisurely life of Vita Sackville-West, inspiration for Orlando, is summarized by the South Bank University.

~ Orlando is one of the best GLBT novels, according to Triangle Publishing Group.

~ Orlanda, a novel by French author Jacqueline Harpman, is an homage to Orlando. It follows Aline, a professor of literature in Belgium. At a Paris train station, she experiences an odd connection with a young man, Lucien, who is also travelling to Brussels. Learn more about Orlanda at amazon.com.

opening quotation from the Daily Chronicle, late November 1928.
aerial photograph is of Knole estates (setting of Orlando, home of Vita Sackville-West's ancestors).
author photograph, 1935, from Mrs. Angelica Garnett.