Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography

Ian Blyth (University of Stirling)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Newman University), Louise McDonald (Newman University)

Dates

First circulation or publication Oct 1928

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel
Parody

Resources

Published in 1928, Orlando is a novel that “mimics” the apparatus of a conventional biography. In addition to the reference to “A Biography” on the title page, it has a preface, an index and eight illustrations. This mimicry caused problems with booksellers in the time leading up to publication: some shops refused to order more than half a dozen copies of the novel on the grounds that “biographies” did not sell. Woolf lamented in her diary that she was going to have to pay “a high price for the fun of calling it a biography”. Such worries, however, proved to be unfounded. Although the opinion of contemporary critics was mixed, the novel itself was a great success.

Woolf had a particular interest in the …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2175 words

Citation: Blyth, Ian. "Orlando: A Biography". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 September 2002 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2988, accessed 22 November 2024.]

Save this article