Magical

Orlando by Virgina Woolf has totally enchanted me. It is beautifully written with an extraordinary abundance of vocabulary and mastery of the English language. Woolf transports you effortlessly to a world where ages succeed one another depicting all the world changes typical of the corresponding era. But Orlando lives through them all. And although his gender changes, his personality, so rich and versatile, does not and stays fascinating throughout the whole book which holds you spellbound from the very first word to the last. Clare Higgins is a gifted narrator and her clear and musical diction contributes to the enjoyment of the story. I have listened to the book twice and I intend to do it more times. I also intend to purchase more books by the author.


Mayca Est?vez

22 people found this helpful

wonderful language, unusual style

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Perhaps. It's something that few people would seek out on their own.

If you’ve listened to books by Virginia Woolf before, how does this one compare?

Somewhat less grim than her polemics, a witty fantasy.

What about Clare Higgins’s performance did you like?

Superb reading, showing fluency and thorough familiarity with the material and idiom. It made me able to pretend I was hearing the voice and thoughts of the author, as she projected them into her protagonist.

If you could rename Orlando, what would you call it?

Migrations of a soul

Any additional comments?

Vivid descriptions of wonderful natural and social environments; no direct dialog or conversations; some devastating skewering of the follies of manners and institutions, as in essays; rambling plot and erratic pace, with many digressions and ellipses; humorous turns of phrase; interesting characters.

Not nearly enough pause breaks for skipping back if you miss one or two intricate sentences among the dense verbiage.

11 people found this helpful

By the truth we are undone. Life is a dream.

"The change of sex, though it altered their future, did nothing whatever to alter their identity."
- Virginia Woolf, Orlando

A beautiful, poetic look at gender, sex, poetry, time, love, living, etc. This gender-studies masterpiece was inspired by Woolf's reltionship with Vita Sackville-West. According to Vita's son: "The effect of Vita on Virginia is all contained in Orlando, the longest and most charming love letter in literature, in which she explores Vita, weaves her in and out of the centuries, tosses her from one sex to the other, plays with her, dresses her in furs, lace and emeralds, teases her, flirts with her, drops a veil of mist around her."

This is one of the easier Woolf novels to read. Toward the end it gets a bit stream-of-consious (as Modern writers were wont to do), but the narrative of this novel floats and folds through time and gender easily. It was an amazing way of looking at the female experience because Orlando's experience was first fundamentally experienced by Orlando regardless of their gender. So, the novel as biography allowed Woolf to mine the experience from the inside instead of the outside. It also allowed the fluidity of gender to be explored in a way that a less fanciful novel might not have been able to.

It is wild to think this book was published in 1928 AND here we are 90-years-later still working our britches into Puritanical bunches over gender and bathrooms. What a bunch of nonsense. One area of hope does exist. In my lifetime, I have seen a huge increase in the attention paid to the difficulties faced by those who don't fit into the gender norms. Things ARE SLOWLY getting better for my friends and the children of my friends who might not fit easily into the pants or skirts society wants to drop them in. Hopefully, it doesn't take 400 years.

10 people found this helpful

Way Ahead Of All Writers in That Era

What can I say. She was a writer that had visions where a writer would probably dare go in the year "Orlando" was written. She had a style of her own. A style that seem to catch on as time went by. As more writings, essays and stories came to press the more she became excepted as a top writer not only in Britian but also other areas such the US. She was most certain a women's right's supportor. At the same time she loved all her family including her husband Leonard. She also was very close with her sister and brother.
As for the story "Orlando" it kept my interest right up til the very end. It is a love story with twist and turns and surprises. Iam sure you will find in very intersting and mysitical as I did. I have read a many of Mrs. Woolf stories and essays. "Orlando" I would rate high on HER charts for story line and writing expertise. Give it a sample listen it may get your curiosity.

11 people found this helpful

It might start becoming interesting...

...but I won't be there to find out. This is unlike any Woolf I've read before -- forced and artificial, with great long catalogs of cloying elaboration. The atmosphere is claustrophobic.

4 people found this helpful

Poetry for the heart and mind!

New author for me. First time reading/listening to this book, although I saw the movie first. I should have read the book first, and I would have better understood the movie. I must say, I had to wrestle with some of my shocked emotions when I came across some passages. She described emotions so beautifully and with such simplicity I was speechless for several moments . I had to stop the book and roll the words in my mind for several minutes. A masterpiece that requires your full attention with a marvelous sense of humor!

1 person found this helpful

Orlando

Heard lots of amazing things about this book so I wanted to give it a try... It's not the kind of book i'm used to reading but it was still interesting and the lady who read it was excellent!

1 person found this helpful

I know I'm supposed to like it, but...

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Very creative right brained people or those who enjoyed literature class in college would enjoy this book. I had frequent flashbacks to English lit during my confused listening, which may yet necesitate treatment for post traumatic stress. The only reason I continued to listen was that I enjoyed the way that the narrator read it. Her voice made the rambling string of words sound like poetry, though what it all meant was beyond me.

9 people found this helpful

I would prefer to read Virginia Woolf

Okay, this was a stuff up. Do not listen to Virginia Woolfe on Audible (duh). Or rather, if you're someone like me who struggles to lie down and listen to intensely introspective thoughts for 9 hours without distraction, don't. My brother made the point that perhaps her writing does not translate as well to audio books: he is right. This one does not pass the test. And what's worse, I should have stopped, upgraded to kindle, returned it, moved on with my life.

It only appeared difficult to get into in this format, the story is very accessible when you pay close attention, the writing is contemplative and wry. The main character covers both genders and 300ish years, and there are enormous changes in society for one person to experience, the greatest being the role of women.

Unsolicited sex change

Virginia Woolf's Orlando is a fantasy tale of young aristocrat in the late 16th century who after a series of unfortunate love interests suddenly finds him/herself changed to a woman (around age 30) and proceeds to drift on agelessly into the 20th century. Along the way, there is some time among gypsies and upon returning to England (where no one seems to question this biological miracle), meanders in an androgynous manner even learning that a former female love interest is in fact a man. All the while writing a masterpiece of a poem. Eventually, she manages to find a mate with similar attitudes and proclivities towards fluidity in gender roles and succeeds in getting her poem published.

Woolf's obviously uses Orlando to explore gender roles throughout several centuries specifically through the perspective of someone who never quite fits neatly into a binary world. At the same time, she finds ways to demonstrate these tendencies throughout history in general in subtle ways. There's also in evidence biased literary criticism that has temporal component to its subjectivity. Perhaps most important in terms of suspension of belief to enjoy the tale is that everyone seems to accept the phenomenon without question.

The narration is well done with reasonable character distinction and good pacing.