"Orlando" is a novel by Virginia Woolf. It was published in 1928 and dedicated to V. Sackville-West, and considering their
relationship as history tells us, this novel is categorized as biographical.
The story traces the career of the androgynous Orlando from the late 16th century to the present day, and contains many well-observed historical and literary insights into the ages through which it accounts to.
It starts when Orlando is a handsome 16-year old boy. He turns to poetry and writing and becomes a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, who confers on him the Order of the Garter, and he also becomes the lover of a Muscovite princess.
Later he retires from society, writes more plays and poems, and enjoys the company of the irreverent English poet, by the name of Nicholas Greene.
Orlando moves on to the reign of Charles II. Under him, Orlando becomes Ambassador Extraordinary to Constantinople and is rewarded the title of being a duke. He spends a night with a dancer, and sleeps for a week. When he wakes up he finds his sex has changed.
Now a woman, Lady Orlando pursues a career in high society through Queen Anne's reign. He meets other prominent people. Eventually she marries a sailor, Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine.
As the novel progresses, Nicholas Greene reappears in the story, this time as the most influential critic of the Victorian age and arranges for the publication of Orlando's centuries-old poem, which wins her 200 guineas. Orlando gives birth to a baby, and the novel goes back to the present day, with Orlando back as a young poet again, only this time she is a female.
Virginia Woolf's "Orlando" lives through several centuries of different British reign and period, in particular, the Victorian Era. The differences in experiences of Orlando are reflected as he/she undergoes the gender change. It also gives the reader the element of actions and reactions that Orlando goes through in order to seep through the different societies at a certain point in time, again, for both his/her gender. To appreciate more, the novel and what Woolf is trying to convey, the best would still have the book on hand. Conformity to society, as well as the individual's freedom of self-expression and independence, are well extrapolated by Woolf to the end.