Orlando, A Biography (version 3)

Virginia Woolf's most successful novel recounts the extraordinary biography of Orlando from his youth in the reign of Elizabeth I to her life as a successful author and mother in 1928, the year of the book's publication. Over the 350 years of his/her life, Orlando loves and is betrayed by a Russian princess, serves as British ambassador to Constantinople, changes sex, lives among gypsies, narrowly escapes marriage to the Archduchess Harriet/Archduke Harry, enjoys the society of Addison, Dryden and Pope, and finally marries Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmardine with whom she has a child. Over the same 350 years, Orlando struggles with her love of writing, finally publishing her poem 'The Oak Tree', begun in the 1500s, in the 1920s. Along the way, Orlando and her biographer spend much time and energy pondering on the craft of writing and the differences between the sexes. Woolf's mock biography, complete with scholarly preface and index, was loosely based on the family history of Vita Sackville-West, her country house in Kent, and her poem 'The Land'. The book is divided into six long chapters, which I have divided into shorter scenes for this audiobook. I have given each scene a descriptive title, but listeners should note that these titles do not appear in Woolf's text, nor did she give any indication of divisions within the chapters. (Summary by Phil Benson)