Orlando: A Biography

Orlando: A Biography is a novel by Virginia Woolf, first published in 1928. Woolf presents it as a biography, but the book uses that form in a playful way to follow an aristocratic figure across a very long stretch of life, including a change from man to woman. It mixes fantasy with satire and turns English literary history into part of the book’s structure, so it feels less like a conventional plot-driven novel and more like a deliberately unusual literary experiment.

It suits readers who like modernist fiction, inventive forms, and books that approach identity and gender from an unusual angle. The tone is sharp but also light on its feet, with a strong interest in the world of literature itself. If you enjoy works that blur the line between biography, social satire, and fantasy, this one sits right in that space.