On 2009-08-04 J. Johnson, San Diego CA wrote: Virginia Woolf caught a break in the publishing world, which is comparable to a 365-bedroom estate. But like Orlando, Woolf needed more than that. As a member of the working class, I found myself thinking ´nice that you have so much time to pontificate on life´. Is Orlando one of the rich and bored? One who dishes out but can´t take it?
Take Sasha for instance. He calls her faithless when he´s bedded every wench in town and is engaged to marry someone else when he meets her. Hard to sympathize with the guy. It´s only a tragedy when he´s the one hurting. Throughout Orlando´s lives, he/she strikes me as a spoiled rich kid who wants to be useful and good but can´t help being a punk sometimes. Very true to real life.
Woolf takes the reader through history fantastically; every scent and sense is unique to the years. Her observation on clothes being related to the person within is great. And even though people put a homosexual spin on the subject, I felt it was more about what a person is capable of and why a ´man´ or ´woman´ label is slapped on certain traits and abilities. If a woman is mechanically inclined, does she have to give up being feminine? If a man has a fashion sense, must he forfeit his masculinity?
In the end, I found myself wondering how Orlando would have turned out if he/she weren´t so rich. Maybe it´s my working-class distaste for pampered complainers that made we want to smack Orlando. But as a non-traditional woman, I also heard my thoughts echoed in Orlando´s, especially when she ´yielded to the spirit of the age´ and got married. That entire description of the pressure to marry was brilliant because it comes from without and within.
All in all, there are perks and drawbacks to being male or female. But Orlando shows we´re not the only one who finds our talents stretch beyond what is considered a man´s job or a woman´s. Did Orlando have to become a woman to know love? Did his maleness make him a better ambassador? Nowadays we say ´of course not´. But Orlando personifies those questions, makes the reader aware of the chains of tradition. And just like Orlando´s ancestry, are they anchors or dead weight? Or both?. And summed up by saying Wonderful atmosphere, fascinating character, occasional eye-rolling. Currently Orlando: A Biography has an overall rating of 8 over 10.
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Mariner Books claimed In her most exuberant, most fanciful novel, Woolf has created a character liberated from the restraints of time and sex. Born in the Elizabethan Age to wealth and position, Orlando is a young nobleman at the beginning of the story-and a modern woman three centuries later. “A poetic masterpiece of the first rank” (Rebecca West). The source of a critically acclaimed 1993 feature film directed by Sally Potter. Index; illustrations.
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