firekeeperrain 's review for:

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

4.0

adventurous funny inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I've read this for my Bachelor's thesis. It is not as easily accessible as other modernist books, for the language is quite... old-timey with lots of works you need to look up (either bc you have never heard them before in your life or bc they have a different meaning today). It's very poetic about nature, very description-heavy, and you need some historical side info and perhaps an insight of modernist ideas. The narrator has a voice, and they're not unreliable, just VERY subjective. Orlando is a fuckboy poet (soft-boy?) for the first half of this book, before he turns into a woman. She then behaves like a woman would, tho some masculine traits remain, until she later on is troubled by the Victorian era's expectations. Orlando's gender and sexuality remains ambigious, she remains the same Elizabethan poet throughout while becoming a part of every era at the same time. A book about queer identity and relationships, a seemingly immortal person finding themself, and poetry. I would rec to read a summary first to get an idea and feeling for the plot.