Virginia Woolf on Orlando: A Biography
← Back to Virginia Woolf ProfileVirginia Woolf's journal entry reveals the genesis of *Orlando*, inspired by Vita Sackville-West, outlining her initial vision for a biographical novel spanning centuries and challenging gender norms.
“Instantly the usual exciting devices enter my mind: a biography beginning in the year 1500 & continuing to the present day, called Orlando: Vita; only with a change about from one sex to the other.”
“Suppose Orlando turns out to be about Vita; and its all about you and the lusts of your flesh and the lure of your mind (heart you have none, who go gallivanting down the lanes with Campbell) — suppose there's the kind of shimmer of reality which sometimes attaches to my people, as the lustre on an oyster shell (and that recalls another Mary) suppose, I say, that Sibyl next October says "Theres Virginia gone and written a book about Vita" ... Shall you mind?”