Written for her lover Vita Sackville-West, Orlando is Woolf’s playfully subversive take on a biography, here tracing the fantastical life of Orlando. As the novel spans centuries and continents, gender and identity, we follow Orlando’s adventures in love – as he changes from a lord in the Elizabethan court to a lady in 1920s London.
First published in 1928, this tale of unrivalled imagination and wit quickly became the most famous work of women’s fiction. Sexuality, destiny, independence and desire all come to the fore in this highly influential novel that heralded a new era in women’s writing.