作者「亞力奧斯托（Ludovico Ariosto，1474－1533）」是以「韻文詩」的方式寫成。而「好讀出版社」的這本中譯，已改寫成「散文型」的故事了。
《瘋狂奧蘭多》是一本具有史詩格局的傳奇，不但有氣概山河的征戰、殘酷駭人的殺戮、也有纏綿悱惻的愛情、驚心動魄的比武等，情節引人入勝。本書 還收集了十九世紀名插畫家杜雷的一百五十幅插畫，圖文並茂，是一本能激發好奇心、滿足想像力的有趣讀物。本書《瘋狂奧蘭多》的故事即是以查理曼率軍抵抗北 非摩爾人入侵為經，再以數個傑出勇士所從事的諸多冒險為緯交織而成。
除了以基督教、回教兩大陣營的爭戰做為主線外，更有一篇篇精彩有趣、緊張懸疑、拍案叫絕、甚而滑稽突梯的故事。
作者簡介
亞力奧斯托Ludovico Ariosto（1474－1533） 義大利的詩人和劇作家，年輕曾在宮廷服侍過，本為研習法律，後來改研讀拉丁文經典作品。1518年服侍貴族Cardinal人，並且不斷地生產戲劇。除了 設計舞台和佈景寫下一些戲劇。代表作－喜劇「Plautus and Terence」，16世紀在英語世界上演。從1505年開始創作Orlando Furioso《瘋狂的羅蘭》，此詩被喻為文藝復興時期最具影響力的一首詩。30年來多次修改此作品。初版為1516年，末版為1532年。
繪者簡介
杜雷 Gustave Dore 被諭稱有史以來最偉大的法國插畫家，生動有力的畫筆重現經典文學的風采，插畫散見於好讀的《聖經的故事》、《神曲》、《唐吉訶德》等9本書裡。
譯者簡介
吳雪卿 靜宜大學英文系老師，熱愛文學，擅長中英翻譯，譯文優美，忠實呈現原作的韻味。在好讀已出版《亞瑟王傳奇》。
*****
作者: [意]伊塔洛·卡尔维诺
ISBN: 9787544711784
页数: 396
定价: 28.0
出版社:译林出版社
丛书:卡尔维诺作品集
装帧:平装
出版年: 2010-7-1
前 言………………………………………………………………………………………………
被追赶的安杰莉卡…………………………………………………………………………………
布拉达曼特与骏鹰…………………………………………………………………………………
阿琪娜岛……………………………………………………………………………………………
奥兰多、奥林匹亚、火绳枪………………………………………………………………………
弃妇奥林匹亚………………………………………………………………………………………
哭泣岛的囚女………………………………………………………………………………………
曼迪卡尔多劫走多洛丽丝…………………………………………………………………………
巴黎之役的罗多蒙特………………………………………………………………………………
阿斯图尔夫对抗卡里格兰特和奥利罗……………………………………………………………
克罗利达诺与麦多罗………………………………………………………………………………
魔幻城堡……………………………………………………………………………………………
圣剑迪朗达尔之争…………………………………………………………………………………
奥兰多的疯狂………………………………………………………………………………………
阿格拉曼特军中内讧………………………………………………………………………………
泽比诺与伊莎贝拉之死……………………………………………………………………………
罗多蒙特、疯狂的奥兰多、安杰莉卡……………………………………………………………
月亮上的阿斯图尔夫………………………………………………………………………………
布拉达曼特与玛菲萨………………………………………………………………………………
里纳尔多与鲁杰罗的决斗…………………………………………………………………………
奥兰多恢复神智……………………………………………………………………………………
兰佩杜萨三对三决斗………………………………………………………………………………
罗多蒙特的结局……………………………………………………………………………………
被追赶的安杰莉卡 开篇只有一位少女骑马逃入树林。直到某一刻，知道这个人是谁才变得重要起来：这是一首未完结诗 的主人公，她跑步进入刚刚开启的诗篇。我们这些了解细情的人可以解释说，这里讲的是契丹公主安杰莉卡，她带着所有魔法来到法国国王查理曼的圣骑士中间，目 的是让这些人爱上她，并心怀嫉妒，这样就能让他们放弃与非洲摩尔人和西班牙的战争。然而与其记录所有的前事，不如深入这片树林。在这里，人们听到的不是席 卷法国大地的战争怒潮，而是稀疏的木屐声以及时隐时现的孤独骑士的刀剑声。 安杰莉卡身边围绕着一群被欲望模糊双眼的骑士，他们忘记了骑士的神圣职责，因为太过鲁莽而继续徒劳地打转。第一印象是这些骑士不清楚自己要什么：一会儿追赶，一会儿决斗，一会儿翻脸，他们总是处于改变主意的边缘。 以费拉乌为例：我们遇到他时，他正在河里寻找遗失的头盔：就在这时，安杰莉卡从他身边经过，他 爱上了她，而她正被里纳尔多追赶；费拉乌停止寻找头盔，开始和里纳尔多决斗；决斗过程中，里纳尔多向对手提议推迟决斗，一起追赶逃跑的少女；费拉乌和竞争 对手达成协议，停止决斗，专心寻找安杰莉卡，追寻爱情；在树林中迷失方向后，他发现自己正站在头盔落水的河岸边；他停下来，不再追赶安杰莉卡，开始寻找他 的头盔；河中出现一个被他杀死的武士的鬼魂，要求他归还原属于自己的头盔，并责问费拉乌是否真的愿意用精美的头盔装饰自己；听罢此言，费拉乌放弃河流、头 盔、鬼魂和逃跑的少女，全力找寻奥兰多。
![瘋狂奧蘭多]( "点击看大图")
作者: 亞力奧斯托/ 吳雪卿譯
出版社:好讀
出版年: 20040401
定价: NT$ 249
书 名: 疯狂的奥兰多 作 者：（意）卡尔维诺 ，赵文伟 译 出版社： 译林出版社 出版时间： 2010-7-1 ISBN: 9787544711784 开本： 16开 定价: 28.00 元
------
![Virginia Woolf 的相片。]()
Orlando: A Biography is an influential novel by Virginia Woolf, first published on 11 October 1928. A semi-biographical novel based in part on the life of Woolf's intimate friend Vita Sackville-West, it is generally considered one of Woolf's most accessible novels. The novel has been influential stylistically, and is considered important in literature generally, and particularly in the history of women's writing and gender studies. A film adaptation was released in 1992, starring Tilda Swinton as Orlando and Quentin Crisp as Queen Elizabeth I.
Following Sasha's return to Russia, the desolate, lonely Orlando returns to writing The Oak Tree, a poem started and abandoned in his youth. This period of contemplating love and life leads him to appreciate the value of his ancestral stately home, which he proceeds to furnish lavishly and then plays host to the populace. Ennui sets in and a persistent suitor's harassment leads to Orlando's appointment by King Charles II as British ambassador to Constantinople. Orlando performs his duties well, until a night of civil unrest and murderous riots. He falls asleep for a lengthy period, resisting all efforts to rouse him. Upon awakening he finds that he has metamorphosed into a woman—the same person, with the same personality and intellect, but in a woman's body. For this reason, the now Lady Orlando covertly escapes Constantinople in the company of a Gypsy clan, adopting their way of life until its essential conflict with her upbringing leads her to head home. Only on the ship back to England, with her constraining female clothes and an incident in which a flash of her ankle nearly results in a sailor's falling to his death, does she realise the magnitude of becoming a woman; yet she concludes the overall advantages, declaring 'Praise God I'm a woman!'
Orlando becomes caught up in the life of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, holding court with the great poets (notably Alexander Pope), winning a lawsuit and marrying a sea captain. In 1928, she publishes The Oak Tree centuries after starting it, winning a prize.
Orlando can be read as a roman à clef: the characters Orlando and Princess Sasha in the novel refer to Vita Sackville-West and Violet Trefusis respectively. The photographs printed in the illustrated editions of the text are all of the real Vita Sackville-West. Her husband, Harold Nicolson, appears in the novel as Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine. "The Oak Tree", the poem written by Orlando in the novel, refers to the poem "The Land", for which Vita had won the Hawthornden Prize in 1926. Moreover, the minor character Nick Greene, who later reappears as Sir Nicholas Greene, spouts opinions which had been uttered in real life by Logan Pearsall Smith.[1]
For historical details Woolf draws extensively from Knole and the Sackvilles, a book written (and reworked in several versions) by Sackville-West, describing the historic backgrounds of her ancestral home, Knole House in Kent. Other historical details derive from John Dryden's Essay of Dramatick Poesie. (Orlando, personified as one of Vita's ancestors — the 6th Earl of Dorset— discusses artistic topics with his contemporaries as described in that book.) Orlando is also an attractive version of a history book on the Sackvilles' noble descendants, their estates, their culture, etc; Woolf was middle-class and fascinated by the aristocracy, as embodied in Vita. (Vita also wrote about these subjects, but Woolf thought Vita had a "pen of brass").
The conventions of fiction and fantasy (e.g., fictional names and a main character who lives through many centuries) allowed Woolf to write a well-documented biography of a person living in her own age, without opening herself to criticism about controversial topics such as lesbian love. While Orlando was published in the same year as The Well of Loneliness, a novel banned in the UK for its lesbian theme, it escaped censorship because the main character appears as a man when he loves Princess Sasha.
Vita's mother, Lady Sackville, was not pleased at the writing of the novel, because she believed the story was too plain in its meaning, and she would call Woolf the "virgin wolf" henceforth. Violet Trefusis's reply would be a more conventional roman à clef (Broderie Anglaise), which loses much of its interest if the reader does not know the background, whereas Orlando remains a captivating novel, even if the reader does not know the identity of the person in the photographs in the book.
Orlando: A Biography was described as an elaborate love letter from Virginia Woolf to Vita Sackville-West (by the latter's son Nigel Nicolson); nonetheless, Woolf intended her novel as the first in a new trend, breaking the boundaries between what are traditionally seen as the fiction and non-fiction genres in literature (so the novel is not only about trans-gender, but also trans-genre, so to speak). This was not to be, however, as the book is invariably called a "novel" (while Woolf called it a "biography"), and is shelved in the "fiction" section of libraries and bookshops. Only in the last decades of the 20th century would authors again try this "tricky" cross-over genre (which differs from "romanticised" or "popularised"non-fiction, and does not necessarily have to take a roman à clef form) , e.g., Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes (ISBN 0-330-28976-4).
The novel's title has also come to stand for women's writing generally in some senses, as one of the most famous works by a woman author very directly treating gender.[3] For example, a project on the history of women's writing in the British Isles was named after the book.[4]
![The 17th-Century #Snowpocalypse that Inspired Virginia Woolf’s Orlando]()
![via Wikimedia]()
![via British Museum]()
瘋狂奧蘭多：最浪漫的文藝復興愛情史詩Orlando Furiso
- 作者：亞力奧斯托/著，杜雷/繪
- 原文作者：Ludovico Ariosto，Gustave Dore
- 譯者：吳雪卿/譯
- 出版社：好讀
- 出版日期：2004年04月07日
- 語言：繁體中
《瘋狂奧蘭多》是一本具有史詩格局的傳奇，不但有氣概山河的征戰、殘酷駭人的殺戮、也有纏綿悱惻的愛情、驚心動魄的比武等，情節引人入勝。本書 還收集了十九世紀名插畫家杜雷的一百五十幅插畫，圖文並茂，是一本能激發好奇心、滿足想像力的有趣讀物。本書《瘋狂奧蘭多》的故事即是以查理曼率軍抵抗北 非摩爾人入侵為經，再以數個傑出勇士所從事的諸多冒險為緯交織而成。
除了以基督教、回教兩大陣營的爭戰做為主線外，更有一篇篇精彩有趣、緊張懸疑、拍案叫絕、甚而滑稽突梯的故事。
作者簡介
亞力奧斯托Ludovico Ariosto（1474－1533） 義大利的詩人和劇作家，年輕曾在宮廷服侍過，本為研習法律，後來改研讀拉丁文經典作品。1518年服侍貴族Cardinal人，並且不斷地生產戲劇。除了 設計舞台和佈景寫下一些戲劇。代表作－喜劇「Plautus and Terence」，16世紀在英語世界上演。從1505年開始創作Orlando Furioso《瘋狂的羅蘭》，此詩被喻為文藝復興時期最具影響力的一首詩。30年來多次修改此作品。初版為1516年，末版為1532年。
繪者簡介
杜雷 Gustave Dore 被諭稱有史以來最偉大的法國插畫家，生動有力的畫筆重現經典文學的風采，插畫散見於好讀的《聖經的故事》、《神曲》、《唐吉訶德》等9本書裡。
譯者簡介
吳雪卿 靜宜大學英文系老師，熱愛文學，擅長中英翻譯，譯文優美，忠實呈現原作的韻味。在好讀已出版《亞瑟王傳奇》。
*****
疯狂的奥兰多
译者: 赵文伟
作者: [意]伊塔洛·卡尔维诺
ISBN: 9787544711784
页数: 396
定价: 28.0
出版社:译林出版社
丛书:卡尔维诺作品集
装帧:平装
出版年: 2010-7-1
简介 · · · · · ·
《疯狂的奥兰多》是一本独特的书，它是一个自己的世界，人能在其中随意旅行，进入，走出，迷路。卡尔维诺对《疯狂的奥兰多》的独特解读，竟是精选的，穿插着原诗精彩片段的一篇篇简洁而富有激情的小说。
作者简介 · · · · · ·
关于生平，卡尔维诺写道：“我仍然属于和克罗齐一样的人，认为一个作者，只有作品有价值。因此我不提供传记资料。我会告诉你你想知道的东西。但我从来不会告诉你真实。”
1923年10月15日生于古巴，1985年9月19日在滨海别墅猝然离世，而与当年的诺贝尔文学奖失之交臂。
父母都是热带植物学家，“我的家庭中只有科学研究是受尊重的。我是败类，是家里唯一从事文学的人。”
少年时光里写满书本、漫画、电影。他梦想成为戏剧家，高中毕业后却进入大学农艺系，随后从文学院毕业。
1947年出版第一部小说《通向蜘蛛巢的小径》，从此致力于开发小说叙述艺术的无限可能。
曾隐居巴黎15年，与列维—施特劳斯、罗兰·巴特、格诺等人交往密切。
1985年夏天准备哈佛讲学时患病。主刀医生表示自己未曾见过任何大脑构造像卡尔维诺的那般复杂精致。
1923年10月15日生于古巴，1985年9月19日在滨海别墅猝然离世，而与当年的诺贝尔文学奖失之交臂。
父母都是热带植物学家，“我的家庭中只有科学研究是受尊重的。我是败类，是家里唯一从事文学的人。”
少年时光里写满书本、漫画、电影。他梦想成为戏剧家，高中毕业后却进入大学农艺系，随后从文学院毕业。
1947年出版第一部小说《通向蜘蛛巢的小径》，从此致力于开发小说叙述艺术的无限可能。
曾隐居巴黎15年，与列维—施特劳斯、罗兰·巴特、格诺等人交往密切。
1985年夏天准备哈佛讲学时患病。主刀医生表示自己未曾见过任何大脑构造像卡尔维诺的那般复杂精致。
目录 · · · · · ·
目 录前 言………………………………………………………………………………………………
被追赶的安杰莉卡…………………………………………………………………………………
布拉达曼特与骏鹰…………………………………………………………………………………
阿琪娜岛……………………………………………………………………………………………
奥兰多、奥林匹亚、火绳枪………………………………………………………………………
弃妇奥林匹亚………………………………………………………………………………………
哭泣岛的囚女………………………………………………………………………………………
曼迪卡尔多劫走多洛丽丝…………………………………………………………………………
巴黎之役的罗多蒙特………………………………………………………………………………
阿斯图尔夫对抗卡里格兰特和奥利罗……………………………………………………………
克罗利达诺与麦多罗………………………………………………………………………………
魔幻城堡……………………………………………………………………………………………
圣剑迪朗达尔之争…………………………………………………………………………………
奥兰多的疯狂………………………………………………………………………………………
阿格拉曼特军中内讧………………………………………………………………………………
泽比诺与伊莎贝拉之死……………………………………………………………………………
罗多蒙特、疯狂的奥兰多、安杰莉卡……………………………………………………………
月亮上的阿斯图尔夫………………………………………………………………………………
布拉达曼特与玛菲萨………………………………………………………………………………
里纳尔多与鲁杰罗的决斗…………………………………………………………………………
奥兰多恢复神智……………………………………………………………………………………
兰佩杜萨三对三决斗………………………………………………………………………………
罗多蒙特的结局……………………………………………………………………………………
被追赶的安杰莉卡 开篇只有一位少女骑马逃入树林。直到某一刻，知道这个人是谁才变得重要起来：这是一首未完结诗 的主人公，她跑步进入刚刚开启的诗篇。我们这些了解细情的人可以解释说，这里讲的是契丹公主安杰莉卡，她带着所有魔法来到法国国王查理曼的圣骑士中间，目 的是让这些人爱上她，并心怀嫉妒，这样就能让他们放弃与非洲摩尔人和西班牙的战争。然而与其记录所有的前事，不如深入这片树林。在这里，人们听到的不是席 卷法国大地的战争怒潮，而是稀疏的木屐声以及时隐时现的孤独骑士的刀剑声。 安杰莉卡身边围绕着一群被欲望模糊双眼的骑士，他们忘记了骑士的神圣职责，因为太过鲁莽而继续徒劳地打转。第一印象是这些骑士不清楚自己要什么：一会儿追赶，一会儿决斗，一会儿翻脸，他们总是处于改变主意的边缘。 以费拉乌为例：我们遇到他时，他正在河里寻找遗失的头盔：就在这时，安杰莉卡从他身边经过，他 爱上了她，而她正被里纳尔多追赶；费拉乌停止寻找头盔，开始和里纳尔多决斗；决斗过程中，里纳尔多向对手提议推迟决斗，一起追赶逃跑的少女；费拉乌和竞争 对手达成协议，停止决斗，专心寻找安杰莉卡，追寻爱情；在树林中迷失方向后，他发现自己正站在头盔落水的河岸边；他停下来，不再追赶安杰莉卡，开始寻找他 的头盔；河中出现一个被他杀死的武士的鬼魂，要求他归还原属于自己的头盔，并责问费拉乌是否真的愿意用精美的头盔装饰自己；听罢此言，费拉乌放弃河流、头 盔、鬼魂和逃跑的少女，全力找寻奥兰多。
瘋狂奧蘭多
出版社:好讀
出版年: 20040401
定价: NT$ 249
内容简介 · · · · · ·
书 名: 疯狂的奥兰多 作 者：（意）卡尔维诺 ，赵文伟 译 出版社： 译林出版社 出版时间： 2010-7-1 ISBN: 9787544711784 开本： 16开 定价: 28.00 元
编辑本段内容简介
叙事诗《疯狂的奥兰多》又作《疯狂的罗兰》，是 一部模仿中世纪传奇的作品，一部具有史诗格局的传奇。承接博亚尔多的长诗《热恋的罗兰》而来。故事以查理大帝与撒拉逊人的战争为背景，写查理大帝的骑士罗 兰对卡泰伊公主安杰丽嘉的爱情和鲁杰罗与勃拉达曼蒂的恋爱，把其他骑士的爱情、冒险经历和上百名人物（国王、僧侣、妖魔、仙女等）的故事巧妙地编织起来， 把叙事和抒情、悲剧和喜剧的因素融为一体。故事中不但有气概山河的征战、残酷骇人的杀戮、也有缠绵非恻的爱情、惊心动魄的比武等，情节引人入胜。作者利用 中世纪流行的骑士传奇体裁，反映意大利当时的生活。谴责外国侵略者和封建割据，渴望意大利的和平与统一。《疯狂奥兰多》的艺术性和独特影响
这部长诗具有独到的艺术性，诗中对罗兰发疯的过程和复杂的心理变化，刻画细致，层次清楚，对欧洲的叙事长诗产生了深远的影响。史诗《疯狂的罗兰》(1516)被公认是意大利文艺复兴时期的最好的文学巨著，并立即风靡了整个欧洲，影响远大。疯狂奥兰多》作者介绍
卢多维科•阿里奥斯托Ludovico Ariosto (1474～1533)意大利诗人 1474年出生于意大利北方艾米利亚雷焦的一个衰落的贵族家庭。10岁时候全家迁到费拉拉.最初学习法律，但是对古典文学和人文主义产生了浓厚兴趣。 1502年进入费拉拉宫廷。早年曾经用拉丁文等模仿罗马诗人贺拉斯写过七首《讽刺诗》，喜剧 《列娜》和《巫术师》。 《疯狂的奥兰多》是他的代表作，1502年开始，1532年定稿。目录
前言 被追赶的安杰莉卡 布拉达曼特与骏鹰 阿琪娜岛 奥兰多、奥林匹亚、火绳枪 弃妇奥林匹亚 哭泣岛的囚女 曼迪卡尔多劫走多洛丽丝 巴黎之役的罗多蒙特 阿斯图尔夫对抗卡里格兰特和奥利罗 克罗利达诺与麦多罗 魔幻城堡 圣剑迪朗达尔之争 奥兰多的疯狂 阿格拉曼特军中内讧试读章节
被追赶的安杰莉卡 开篇只有一位少女骑马逃入树林。直到某一刻，知道这个人是谁才变得重要起来：这是一首未完结诗 的主人公，她跑步进入刚刚开启的诗篇。我们这些了解细情的人可以解释说，这里讲的是契丹公主安杰莉卡，她带着所有魔法来到法国国王查理曼的圣骑士中间，目 的是让这些人爱上她，并心怀嫉妒，这样就能让他们放弃与非洲摩尔人和西班牙的战争。然而与其记录所有的前事，不如深入这片树林。在这里，人们听到的不是席 卷法国大地的战争怒潮，而是稀疏的木屐声以及时隐时现的孤独骑士的刀剑声。 安杰莉卡身边围绕着一群被欲望模糊双眼的骑士，他们忘记了骑士的神圣职责，因为太过鲁莽而继续徒劳地打转。第一印象是这些骑士不清楚自己要什么：一会 儿追赶，一会儿决斗，一会儿翻脸，他们总是处于改变主意的边缘。 以费拉乌为例：我们遇到他时，他正在河里寻找遗失的头盔：就在这时，安杰莉卡从他身边经过，他 爱上了她，而她正被里纳尔多追赶；费拉乌停止寻找头盔，开始和里纳尔多决斗；决斗过程中，里纳尔多向对手提议推迟决斗，一起追赶逃跑的少女；费拉乌和竞争 对手达成协议，停止决斗，专心寻找安杰莉卡，追寻爱情；在树林中迷失方向后，他发现自己正站在头盔落水的河岸边；他停下来，不再追赶安杰莉卡，开始寻找他 的头盔；河中出现一个被他杀死的武士的鬼魂，要求他归还原属于自己的头盔，并责问费拉乌是否真的愿意用精美的头盔装饰自己；听罢此言，费拉乌放弃河流、头 盔、鬼魂和逃跑的少女，全力找寻奥兰多。 ……------
“A woman knows very well that, though a wit sends her his poems, praises her judgment, solicits her criticism, and drinks her tea, this by no means signifies that he respects her opinions, admires her understanding, or will refuse, though the rapier is denied him, to run through the body with his pen.”
― Virginia Woolf, Orlando
― Virginia Woolf, Orlando
Virginia Woolf’s Orlando ‘The longest and most charming love letter in literature’, playfully constructs the figure of Orlando as the fictional embodiment of Woolf’s close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West. Spanning three centuries, the novel opens as Orlando, a young nobleman in Elizabeth’s England, awaits a visit from the Queen and traces his experience with first love as England under James I lies locked in the embrace of the Great Frost. At the midpoint of the novel, Orlando, now an ambassador in Costantinople, awakes to find that he is a woman, and the novel indulges in farce and irony to consider the roles of women in the 18th and 19th centuries. As the novel ends in 1928, a year consonant with full suffrage for women. Orlando, now a wife and mother, stands poised at the brink of a future that holds new hope and promise for women.
Orlando: A Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Orlando: A Biography | |
|---|---|
 1st edition cover | |
| Author | Virginia Woolf |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Hogarth Press |
| Publication date | 11 October 1928 |
Contents[hide] |
[edit]Plot
Orlando tells the story of a young man named Orlando, born in England during the reign of Elizabeth I, who decides not to grow old. He is briefly a lover to the decrepit queen, but after her death has a brief, intense love affair with Sasha, a princess in the entourage of the Russian embassy. This episode, of love and excitement against the background of the Great Frost, is one of the best known, and is said to represent Vita Sackville-West's affair with Violet Trefusis.Following Sasha's return to Russia, the desolate, lonely Orlando returns to writing The Oak Tree, a poem started and abandoned in his youth. This period of contemplating love and life leads him to appreciate the value of his ancestral stately home, which he proceeds to furnish lavishly and then plays host to the populace. Ennui sets in and a persistent suitor's harassment leads to Orlando's appointment by King Charles II as British ambassador to Constantinople. Orlando performs his duties well, until a night of civil unrest and murderous riots. He falls asleep for a lengthy period, resisting all efforts to rouse him. Upon awakening he finds that he has metamorphosed into a woman—the same person, with the same personality and intellect, but in a woman's body. For this reason, the now Lady Orlando covertly escapes Constantinople in the company of a Gypsy clan, adopting their way of life until its essential conflict with her upbringing leads her to head home. Only on the ship back to England, with her constraining female clothes and an incident in which a flash of her ankle nearly results in a sailor's falling to his death, does she realise the magnitude of becoming a woman; yet she concludes the overall advantages, declaring 'Praise God I'm a woman!'
Orlando becomes caught up in the life of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, holding court with the great poets (notably Alexander Pope), winning a lawsuit and marrying a sea captain. In 1928, she publishes The Oak Tree centuries after starting it, winning a prize.
[edit]Conceptual history
Apart from being, at the beginning of the book, a knightly young man, ready for adventure, Woolf's character takes little from the legendary hero Orlando of the Italian Renaissance, spoken by Ludovico Ariosto in the Orlando Furioso.Orlando can be read as a roman à clef: the characters Orlando and Princess Sasha in the novel refer to Vita Sackville-West and Violet Trefusis respectively. The photographs printed in the illustrated editions of the text are all of the real Vita Sackville-West. Her husband, Harold Nicolson, appears in the novel as Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine. "The Oak Tree", the poem written by Orlando in the novel, refers to the poem "The Land", for which Vita had won the Hawthornden Prize in 1926. Moreover, the minor character Nick Greene, who later reappears as Sir Nicholas Greene, spouts opinions which had been uttered in real life by Logan Pearsall Smith.[1]
For historical details Woolf draws extensively from Knole and the Sackvilles, a book written (and reworked in several versions) by Sackville-West, describing the historic backgrounds of her ancestral home, Knole House in Kent. Other historical details derive from John Dryden's Essay of Dramatick Poesie. (Orlando, personified as one of Vita's ancestors — the 6th Earl of Dorset— discusses artistic topics with his contemporaries as described in that book.) Orlando is also an attractive version of a history book on the Sackvilles' noble descendants, their estates, their culture, etc; Woolf was middle-class and fascinated by the aristocracy, as embodied in Vita. (Vita also wrote about these subjects, but Woolf thought Vita had a "pen of brass").
The conventions of fiction and fantasy (e.g., fictional names and a main character who lives through many centuries) allowed Woolf to write a well-documented biography of a person living in her own age, without opening herself to criticism about controversial topics such as lesbian love. While Orlando was published in the same year as The Well of Loneliness, a novel banned in the UK for its lesbian theme, it escaped censorship because the main character appears as a man when he loves Princess Sasha.
Vita's mother, Lady Sackville, was not pleased at the writing of the novel, because she believed the story was too plain in its meaning, and she would call Woolf the "virgin wolf" henceforth. Violet Trefusis's reply would be a more conventional roman à clef (Broderie Anglaise), which loses much of its interest if the reader does not know the background, whereas Orlando remains a captivating novel, even if the reader does not know the identity of the person in the photographs in the book.
Orlando: A Biography was described as an elaborate love letter from Virginia Woolf to Vita Sackville-West (by the latter's son Nigel Nicolson); nonetheless, Woolf intended her novel as the first in a new trend, breaking the boundaries between what are traditionally seen as the fiction and non-fiction genres in literature (so the novel is not only about trans-gender, but also trans-genre, so to speak). This was not to be, however, as the book is invariably called a "novel" (while Woolf called it a "biography"), and is shelved in the "fiction" section of libraries and bookshops. Only in the last decades of the 20th century would authors again try this "tricky" cross-over genre (which differs from "romanticised" or "popularised"non-fiction, and does not necessarily have to take a roman à clef form) , e.g., Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes (ISBN 0-330-28976-4).
[edit]Influence and recognition
The work has been the subject of numerous scholarly writings, including detailed treatment in multiple works on Virginia Woolf.[2] An "annotated" edition has been published to facilitate critical reading of the text.The novel's title has also come to stand for women's writing generally in some senses, as one of the most famous works by a woman author very directly treating gender.[3] For example, a project on the history of women's writing in the British Isles was named after the book.[4]
[edit]Notes
- ^ M. H. Whitworth, ‘Logan Pearsall Smith and Orlando,’ Review of English Studies, 55 (2004), 598-604.
- ^ See, e.g., Alice van Buren, The Novels of Virginia Woolf: Fact and Vision Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973.
- ^ For example: Jacqueline Harpman, "Orlanda", Paris, Grasset, 1997.
- ^Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present, available at http://orlando.cambridge.org/ .
[edit]External links
 | Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Orlando |
- Project Gutenberg Australia hosts a free eBook of Orlando; note that copyright may apply in countries other than Australia - Zip file, Text file
The 17th-Century #Snowpocalypse that Inspired Virginia Woolf’s Orlando
Winter is coming
SHORTREAD October 28, 2015 Caroline Wazer 0
Near the beginning of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: A Biography is one of the most fanciful passages in all literature. Due to an exceptionally frigid winter, the inhabitants of London turn the frozen Thames into a 24/7 carnival:
“Great statesmen, in their beards and ruffs, despatched affairs of state under the crimson awning of the Royal Pagoda. Soldiers planned the conquest of the Moor and the downfall of the Turk in striped arbours surmounted by plumes of ostrich feathers. Admirals strode up and down the narrow pathways, glass in hand, sweeping the horizon and telling stories of the north-west passage and the Spanish Armada. Lovers dallied upon divans spread with sables. Frozen roses fell in showers when the Queen and her ladies walked abroad. Coloured balloons hovered motionless in the air. Here and there burnt vast bonfires of cedar and oak wood, lavishly salted, so that the flames were of green, orange, and purple fire.”
Because their ships had frozen in the water, the foreign delegates who visited London earlier in the fall were unable to leave, lending an international flair to the frost fair and allowing the young Orlando to meet his first love interest, the beautiful and enigmatic Russian princess Sasha.
This section of the book was turned into a charming animation in 1977, which is well worth a watch, especially if you haven’t read Orlando recently.
Though Woolf plays fast and loose with the timeline of British history in Orlando, frost fairs on the Thames were actually pretty common during the “Little Ice Age,” a period of lower average temperatures that lasted from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The first frost fair took place in 1608.
Londoner Edmund Howes gave an eyewitness report:
“…from Sunday the tenth of January untill the fifteenth of the same, the frost grew so extreme, as the ice became firme, and removed not, and then all sorts of men, women, and children, went boldly upon the ice in most parts; some shot at prickes, others bowled and danced, with other variable pastimes; by reason of which concourse of people were many that set up boothes and standings upon the ice, as fruit sellers, victuallers, that sold beere and wine, shoemakers, and a barber’s tent, etc.”
via Wikimedia
Several more frost fairs were held over the course of the 17th century, with the most elaborate in the winter of 1683-1684:
“Frost congealed the river Thames to that degree, that another city, as it were, was erected thereon; where, by the great number of streets and shops, with their rich furniture, it represented a great fair, with a variety of carriages, and diversions of all sorts.”
According to another witness,
“Coaches plied from Westminster to the Temple, and from several other staires, to and fro, as in the streetes, sleds, sliding with skeetes, a bull-baiting, horse and coach races, puppet-plays, and interludes, cookes, tipling, and other lewd places, so that it seem’d to be a bacchanalian triumph, or carnival on the water.”
via British Museum
A broadside printed that winter, now in the British Museum, includes a long ballad celebrating the fair:
“BEHOLD the wonder of this present ageA famous river now become a stageQuestion not what I now declare to you,The Thames is now both fair and market too;And many thousands dayly do resort,There to behold the pastime and the sport…”