SparkNotes: Free Study Guides No Fear Shakespeare: The Bard made easy SparkCharts: Just the facts TestPrep: SAT, ACT, and more 101s: College texts condensed Subject Finder: Browse by subject SparkCollege: Get in! SparkLife: 100% study-free home_bottom home_top BN_link
 
◄ PREVIOUS
Important Quotations Explained
NEXT ►
Study Questions and Essay Topics
 

Orlando

 Virginia Woolf
 

Key Facts

 
full title ·  Orlando: a Biography
 
author · Virginia Woolf
 
type of work · Novel
 
genre · Fictional biography
 
language · English
 
time and place written · Woolf wrote Orlando from her home in London, 1927–1928, between To the Lighthouse and The Waves
 
date of first publication · October 11, 1928, the date given in the last line of the novel
 
publisher · Hogarth Press
 
narrator · Third-person, omniscient narrator; an unreliable "biographer" who changes style and tone to suit the changes of Orlando's life
 
climax · The climax occurs when Orlando finds herself in the present day, 1928, and she is forced to acknowledge her own nature as a multitude of selves and experiences within one person.
 
protagonist · Orlando
 
setting (time) · 1588 to 1928
 
setting (place) · Mostly in England (London and Kent), but 1660–1685 are spent on an excursion to Constantinople and the hills of Turkey
 
point of view · Third-person omniscient; the narrator or "biographer" knows what each of the characters are thinking and inserts her own explanations into the text
 
falling action · Orlando, having found love, now finds life in the present moment; standing by her oak tree, she looks over her manor and welcomes back her husband Shel.
 
tense · Immediate past, real-time narration
 
foreshadowing · Orlando's poem foreshadows that she will end up back at her oak tree; the appearance of Archduchess Harriet foreshadows that he will me a man; Orlando's troubles with the gypsies foreshadow that she will return to England.
 
tone · Detached, philosophic, and poetic; although she attempts to include dates and facts making the book a real 'biography,' the narrator's work ends up as poetry.
 
themes · Sex and gender, the differences between men and women; the quality of history; the 'spirit of the age;' time; interconnectedness; truth, fact, and poetry
 
motifs · Poetry, dates, clothing, sex changes
 
symbols · The oak tree, the clock, Orlando's manor house, clouds
 
 
Help | Feedback | Make a request | Report an error | Send to a friend

◄ PREVIOUS
Important Quotations Explained
NEXT ►
Study Questions and Essay Topics
 
 
 
 
 
 
Message Boards
Ask a question or start a discussion on the community boards.
  • Orlando
  •  
     
     
     
    Printable PDF
    Download a printable version of this SparkNote.
     
     
     
    SparkCharts
    A textbook's worth of information on an easy-to-read chart.
  • Literary Terms
  •  
     
     
     
     
    Contact Us | Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions | About | Sitemap
    ©2008 SparkNotes LLC, All Rights Reserved.