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“Androgynous” ! Orlando invites Nick Greene, a famous poet, to comment on his . ’s Orlando: A Biography; David Peterson Greene tears him to shreds. Orlando destroys most of his literary works ex- cept a poem called “The Oak Tree.” Adeline Virginia Stephen ! Writing one day, Orlando takes note of a woman—a Duchess—who takes a • Born January 25, 1882 in . shine to him, and tries to move in on him. Orlando is creeped out by her, and • Married (whence the name); helped found Group. goes to Constantinople as an ambassador. • The discouraged “sexual exclusivity”. ! While in Constantinople, a revolution of sorts breaks out which Orlando • The most productive years of her life followed. sleeps through. • Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and (1927) catapulted her to fame. ! Orlando becomes a woman. • In 1941, she drowned herself (walked into a river with rocks in her pockets). ! Orlando, the woman, lives with a band of gypsies for a bit, but leaves after she and her ideas about life become a nuisance to the gypsies. Then came Orlando… ! Orlando returns to , where she’s the subject of several lawsuits, • Published in 1928. which seek to determine her gender, and her holdings. • Received mostly favorable reviews. ! Orlando meets up with the Duke, and has an affair with him for a bit, but she • Most notable, though, was the tie to Victoria “Vita” Sackville-West, to whom the eventually bores of him. book was dedicated. ! She takes up with a band of prostitutes, and evidently becomes one herself • Virginia and Sackville-West had an affair for a bit, and gets pregnant. ! After pretending to be married with unsatisfactory results, Orlando meets up Before Moving On… with Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine, and marries him, since he, too, ap- • Orlando: A Biography purports to be something different. parently has changed genders. • A re-envisioning of what a biography is. To get at the character, stretches Or- ! While her husband’s away, Nick Greene, still alive, reads “The Oak Tree”, lando’s life over almost 400 years. and now has nothing but praise for it. He helps Orlando publish it, and she • Orlando based on Sackville-West. wins much acclaim. • Major characters (some): ! Orlando decides to return to her ancestral home, where, a bit ambiguously, ! Orlando: Main character. she reunites with Shelmerdine, who leaps from a passing airplane. ! The Muscovite Princess: Orlando’s early paramour. ! Nick Greene: A poet in the 17th century; critic in the late 19th, early 20th. Style (Excerpt pg. 32) ! The Duchess/Duke: An admirer of Orlando’s. • Mainly description; little action and dialogue. ! Marmaduke Bontrhop Shelmerdine: Orlando’s husband. • The description’s function is to dull the reader’s sense of time; allows her to slip ! Queen Elizabeth: Herself. from 1588 to 1928 while Orlando ages only about twenty years. ! Alexander Pope: Himself • An odd feature of this work, in contrast to Woolf’s other books, is the humor, • Plot: cynicism and sarcasm. Orlando often ridiculed, as is everything s/he deems im- ! Orlando, in the late 16th century, is 15 or 16, and male. He writes poetry and portant (cf. last line of the excerpt). five act plays in the attic of his ancestral home. Here Come the Critics… ! Queen Elizabeth takes a shine to Orlando, and makes him her protege. • ’s review from 1928 = hilarious. ! Orlando tires of English society, and falls in love with a Muscovite Princess. • “You cannot keep your end up at a London dinner-party unless you have read ! The Princess cheats on Orlando (or so he believes), and leaves him. Mrs Virginia Woolf’s Orlando.” ! Orlando retires to his estate to write poetry. • Extremely short. Claims the first part is “goodish”, while the second chapter be- trays a “startling decline”, and the rest of the book is “tedious”. • And that’s it. No specific examples. Jealous much? Here Come the Feminist Critics… • Once it became socially acceptable in academic circles to discuss homosexuality, Virginia Woolf’s affair with Sackville-West became a hot topic. • After years of relative obscurity, Orlando becomes hot. • Most critics say two things about Orlando: (1) the main character is based on Vita Sackville-West; and (2) the main character is androgynous. (Cf. first line of the back of the book jacket.) • At this point, critics say little else. Orlando is interesting insofar as it says some- thing about Virginia Woolf’s sexuality, or the sexuality of women in the early twentieth century (cf. Smith’s Lesbian Panic, and what little attention Orlando receives therein). • Paperback editions of Orlando and the recent movie have taken the cue, and now focus almost exclusively on the male/female aspect of this book. • Orlando is first definitely male (cf. pg. 5), then definitely female (cf. pg. 67). • While male, Orlando is very male, and not a bit female. • While female, Orlando retains memories of her male existence, but not the im- pulses, desires or attitudes. • To claim Orlando is androgynous is to deny two very basic facts: (1) Orlando, as a male, is completely male, and has no questions about his gender or sexuality; and (2) after becoming female, Orlando accepts in its entirety the role of a female, along with the genetic differences.

The Role of Sackville-West Or Paramount Importance • Yes, it’s a real thing. In a letter to Sackville-West, she writes, “But listen; suppose • Whatever one says of the male/female issue, by focusing one’s attention on that Orlando turns out to be Vita; and its [sic] all about you and the lusts of your flesh aspect alone, one misses the point of the . and the lure of your mind…” • The biography is not of Sackville-West, or even Orlando, but of the artist. • Plot parallels Sackville-West’s life, to an extent (Muscovite Princes = a former • The most important aspect of the novel is time and its effect on the protagonist. lover of Sackville-West; the regal, upper-class history similar to Sackville-West’s • Regardless of what is and isn’t most important, a simple fact that critics before history; Shelmerdine = Sackville-West’s husband, himself a bisexual like his wife, and after the feminist revolution miss is that the novel, as a whole, must be ad- etc.). dressed—not merely the male/female half, or the historical half. • Sackville-West, though, if anything, is an inspiration. Orlando the character be- comes quite different, and the book is a complete creation. References Banks, Joanne T., Ed. Congenial Spirits: The Selected Letters of Virginia Woolf. San • Plus, Orlando is constantly criticized. Far from a “loving portrayal”. ! Diego: Brace, 1989. • At least an equal inspiration: E.M. Forster’s , which Woolf Bennett, Arnold. “FIRST IMPRESSION: ‘Orlando’ by Virginia Woolf, 8 November despised. Most of the novel is a critique of literature, literary theory, and literary ! 1928”. The (London) Independent. FindArticles.com. 2 Dec. 2008 criticism. ! . Smith, Patricia J. Lesbian Panic: in Modern British Women’s Fiction. Androgyny ! New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1997. Tetterton, Kelly. “Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: The Book as Critic”. The Fifth Annual • No. ! Virginia Woolf Conference at Otterbein College. 18 June 1995. • Androgynous denotes a person or style that prominently features traits of both Woolf, Virginia. Orlando: A Biography. Orig. published 1928. Ware, UK: Wordsworth sexes, or of neither. ! Classics, 1995.