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Orlando
- Narrated by: Clare Higgins
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
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Orlando
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Summary
Exclusively from Audible
Fantasy, love and an exuberant celebration of English life and literature, Orlando is a uniquely entertaining story. Originally conceived by Virginia Woolf as a playful tribute to the family of her friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West, Orlando's central character, a fictional embodiment of Sackville-West, changes sex from a man to a woman and lives throughout the centuries, whilst meeting historical figures of English literature.
The book opens with Orlando as a young nobleman in Elizabethan England who finds love with a Russian princess. During Charles II's reign, he is an ambassador to Constantinople and becomes a Duke. Orlando then goes on to wake as a beautiful woman, exploring the roles of women in the 18th and 19th centuries. Eventually becoming a wife and mother the tale ends in the year 1928, a year consonant with full suffrage for women. Upon plans to publish her 1588 poem 'The Oak Tree', written in the opening of the book, she reflects on her centuries of adventure.
An exploration of androgyny and the creative life of a woman, it is considered a feminist work. Arguably one of Woolf's most popular stories, it marked a turning point in her career, departing from her more introspective works. Receiving both critical and financial success, it guaranteed Woolf's financial stability.
There have been many adaptations made, including a 1992 film starring Tilda Swinton and an opera by composer Peter Aderhold which premiered at the Braunschweig State Theatre in in 2016.
Narrator Biography
Clare Higgins is an accomplished actress of screen and stage, winning three Olivier Awards for Best Actress for her roles in Sweet Bird of Youth (1995), Vincent in Brixton (2003) and Hecuba (2005). With a long and successful career in British and American theatre, she has also been a regular feature on our television screens. Her recent roles have included Miss Cackle in The Worst Witch (2017), Ohila in Doctor Who (2013 and 2015), Hazel Warren in EastEnders (2015) and Vivian in Rogue (2014).
Claire Higgins is probably best known for her memorable and sinister performance as Julia in the horror films Hellraiser (1987) and Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988), with other film appearances including The Golden Compass (2007) and Small Faces (2006). With a voice and timing perfect for audio she has narrated many audiobooks, including Nick Hornby's How to Be Good and Joanna Trollope's The Best of Friends, and in 2009 portrayed Margaret Thatcher in the BBC Radio 4 drama A Family Affair.
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What listeners say about Orlando
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Gemma
- 16-08-17
Orlando
A wonderful read that is recommended. A story of strong will that will never give up.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 24-03-17
Magical story and magical storytelling
I adore Virginia Wools's work so this completely biased.
I love Orlando and have been enchanted by the narration. A hundred stars!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Kathy
- 14-03-23
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3.75/5
I first learned of this book when visiting Sissinghurst Castle, home of the late Vita Sackville West. Vita and Virginia were lovers and Virginia wrote this book with the character of Orlando inspired by Vita.
Orlando follows the titular character from their beginning as an Elizabethan lord as they live through centuries until the twentieth century. During this long life Orlando changes from a man to a woman how that transition affects them in different ways.
-This is the first Woolf book I've read so I have no comparison but the prose seems very dense, sometimes superfluous. Albeit part of the plot, the book transitions from regular descriptions of events and characters to poetic verse, sometimes mid paragraph. This works to an extent as part of the book but was slightly confusing listening to the audiobook.
- As someone who exists outside the gender binary, I really appreciated the meditations and insights by and of Orlando around their transition. They contemplate how different their experiences were as a man to a woman, what opportunities are changed for them, how they interact with others, how they perceive themself. I have thought some of these things myself on occasion and considering this was published 1928, was very progressive and forward thinking in this way.
- Some books are about the destination. This book is very much about the journey and more centrally the character. Orlando is written as if a biographer were telling Orlando's story and this it achieves well. However, sometimes the prose becomes bizarre, dull or confusing and it can be hard to pin point what is going on. I feel audio may not have been the best format for this book as a physical or ebook version may have allowed for the reader to flick back and remember.
Ahead of its time, deeply reflective and a different way to think about gender, society and one's place within it. I would recommend as a classic book with good queer representation.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Ant
- 01-08-13
Entertaining, if a little odd
Virginia Woolf is an author I'd never read and felt that I probably should, so I was expecting this book to be "good for me" rather than particularly fun. I found myself pleasantly surprised, The writing was elegant and easily consumable. I was kept interested by the ideas raised and liked that they were posed in a meditative manner that one could take or leave without feeling hounded into agreement by the author.
I wouldn't read the book again for the story or the concepts, but the prose would definitely draw me back:
"For it would seem - her case proved it - that we write, not with the fingers, but with the whole person. The nerve which controls the pen winds itself about every fibre of our being, threads the heart, pierces the liver."
The narrator did an excellent job of not getting in the way of this introspective story.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Elizabeth Long and Tim Walker
- 23-12-12
Subtle and beautifully written
A delightful voice lulled you through this very diverse tale of an extended life, with its myriad of twists and turns. Easy to get a bit lost at times if the intonation didn't stimulate enough, but a very interesting listen in the main. The screen version from 1992 with Tilda Swinton was my initial experience of this tale, and I was pleased that the book was more compelling than its visual counterpart.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- June
- 22-12-19
Hard work
Narrator made it worthwhile but was hard to follow a lot of the time as is often the way with Woolf.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- tamara
- 09-03-20
Long winded literature
There's an ebb and flow to this story. It captures and then loses you. And follows that cycle throughout. It felt both finite and whimsical, aged and contemporary, seperate and inclusive. A little late to this piece of literature, I manage to ingest most of it, but it was a bit indulgent at times.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 19-06-19
Woolf’s masterpiece
Unbelievable book on the nature of self, time and gender, with musings far beyond Woolf’s time.
Unfortunate that the chapters on the audiobook do not align with real chapters
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Phillip
- 24-09-09
Wonderful
They stream of consciousness style and dry wit is suited perfectly to an audiobook. Also, Clare Higgin's voice is perfectly suited to the work, and I want her to record all of Virginia Woolf's work.
It is magical, perfectly produced and the only disappointment is that 8 hours and 43 mins is over much, much too quickly. It is one of the few audiobooks that I will listen to again.
Wonderful, magical, surprising, original, beautiful, bold and full of love.
Listen to the sample . . . and then you will find that you must get this audiobook.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Mr Henry
- 10-04-13
Gorgeousness heaped on gorgeousness
Seen the film starring Tilda Swinton? It's pretty awe-inspiring in its sumptuousness and magical atmosphere. So, you won't be surprised, is Woolf's novel. Hilarious at times (a surprise for someone who'd only read her experimental works before) and truly revolutionary in its assumptions and form.
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2 people found this helpful