A biography is a novel by virginia woolf, first published on 11 october. Limited edition, signed by virginia woolf woolf, virginia. As virginia woolf describes it in orlando, the great frost of 160809 was so severe that birds froze in mid air and fell like stones to the ground. Orlando vintage classics woolf series woolf, virginia isbn. Written for virginia woolfs intimate friend, the charismatic writer vita sackvillewest, orlando is a playful mock biography.
Woolf explores the time element in human relationships. Everyday low prices on a huge range of new releases. Although woolfs work set the precedent for post modernist literature, infusing elements of fiction into biography, she weaves the internal stuggle of her former. She married leonard woolf in 1912 and completed her first novel, the voyage out in the. Virginia woolfs first novel, published in 1915, is a haunting exploration of a young womans mind, signalling the beginning of her fascination with capturing the mysteries and complexities of the inner life.
A paper presented to the fifth annual virginia woolf conference at otterbein college, june 18. A biography wordsworth classics by virginia woolf from amazons fiction books store. Along the way this most rambunctious of woolf s characters engages in sword fights, trades barbs with 18th century wits, has a baby, and drives a car. First edition, limited to 861 copies, one of 800 numbered copies signed by the author in her signature color, this is a very low number 37. Her nonfiction books included the common reader, a room of ones own, three guineas, the captains death bed and other essays, and the death of the moth and other essays. Orlando enters the book as an elizabethan nobleman and leaves the book three centuries and one change of gender later as a liberated woman of the 1920s. A short virginia woolf biography describes virginia woolfs life, times, and work. It was written in a year, between to the lighthouse and the waves.
The book describes the adventures of a poet who changes sex from man to. For more than seventy years, penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the englishspeaking world. Once described as the longest and most charming loveletter in literature, the virginia woolfs orlando is edited by brenda lyons with an introduction and notes by sandra m. At the beginning of the book orlando is a boy of 16, melancholy, indolent, loving solitude and. Woolfs income from book sales nearly tripled with the publication of orlando. A biography by virginia woolf 1928 was the esteemed british authors sixth major work. Tilda swinton as orlando in sally potters 1992 film version. A biography penguin modern classics brenda lyons, virginia woolf, sandra gilbert isbn. An epic novel, it follows the journey of one character, orlando, over the course of about 350 years 1588 1928. Dalloway, to the lighthouse, orlando, and between the acts. A highspirited romp inspired by the tumultuous family history of woolfs lover and close friend, the aristocratic poet and novelist vita sackvillewest, it is arguably one of woolfs most popular novels.