1001 Books 117/1001- 'Orlando' or 'I'm Going to Tell a Story and I Won't Let Little Things Like Gender and Mortality Stop Me'

So this is the second novel by Ms. Woolf novel I've tackled this year, 'Mrs. Dalloway' being the first.  In a way I think I've approached her books the wrong way round. I read 'The Hours' before I read 'Mrs. Dalloway', so the whole thing came as little of a surprise, indeed old Clarissa is referenced in so many other things it's impossible to not have some idea of what happens in this book before going in. Along similar lines I also read most of Jeanette Winterson's collection of insipid, inaccurate, bizarre, historical, lesbian fiction (yeah I didn't enjoy them CAN YOU TELL?) as well as Radclyffe Hall's sapphic tome 'The Well of Loneliness' (who knew such a controversial book could be so dull?) already, both of which clearly tip a heart to the great 'Orlando'*

So I don't really know why I came to Virginia Woolf so late in life, I think I thought I would always like her, I've certainly had her books on my shelf waiting to be read since I was a teenager, but I just never got round to it.

So was it worth the wait? Mostly yes. I found both 'Orlando' and 'Mrs. Dalloway' a lot harder to read than I thought I would. I mean I knew she was always a respected and intelligent author but I guess I always figured I could handle it; COCKY MUCH? I got through it just fine, but it took me a little over a week, which is quite a long time for a book that is only 200 pages long AND has illustrations.

I have first world problems

Still I plodded on with it, and once I got over the fact that I was never going to have any of this whole 'Orlando is immortal and changes gender' stuff explained to me I quite enjoyed it. The more anal side of my brain spent the first 60-odd pages getting more and more frustrated that Orlando was still some how young despite being like 100 years old and I didn't know why, but eventually I realised that I wasn't supposed to be thinking about that and that it wasn't important and then I kinda relaxed and let the madness happen.

Orlando is a privileged child, born in a mahoosive house towards the end of Elizabeth I's reign. He (at this point) ends up being a favourite of Queen Lizzy, then goes on to have a passionate relationship with a naughty Russian princess on the Thames when if freezes during James reign, goes all mopy for 50 years when she leaves him, becomes an ambassador in Turkey cause an Archduchess keeps trying it on with him, becomes a woman miraculously overnight after a rebellion in Constantinople, spends a while living with gypsies, goes back to London, gets pursued by the same Archduchess who has now become an Archduke, hobnobs with some famous poets, becomes a famous poet herself, gets married to a sea captain that spends most of his time travelling round Cape Horn, has a kid and the book ends in 1928. Simple as right?

I don't know 'officially' why Woolf made Orlando into some sort of X-man/woman, I know the whole thing is supposed to be about Vita Sackville-West with whom she was more than just good friends with IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN. I also know that Vita would occasionally dress up as a bloke when she was off with one of her girlfriends. But I think (for what it's worth) she just didn't let inconvenient things like gender that get in her way. She had a tale to tell, so why let boring things like the laws of nature get involved? This, after all, is fiction, the whole point is that IT ISN'T TRUE.

And kudo to Virginia, I admire her complete lack of adherence to the basic laws of life. Fiction should be about exploring new and unusual ways of telling a story and I applaud the effort. However for this to work you really do need a good story...

*OK I know 'The Well of Loneliness' came out at about the same time as 'Orlando' and probably wasn't directly influenced by old Virginia BUT Ms. Woolf did defend the publication of 'The Well' when it was censored. Also what I'm try to get at here is that most people would read 'Orlando' long before 'The Well' because it is far better know and far better written!