Reviews with content warning for Racism - Orlando

I want to start this review by saying that I feel like didn't fully understand this book. There were many lines that felt like a reference that I didn't get despite the many annotations that came with my edition. Be it because I'm not British, didn't live in the 1920's, wasn't part of the Bloomsbury group, am not Vita, or just because I'm dumb. Some of these may not even have been a real reference to anything and just randomness that comes with the "stream of consciousness" method. The "stream of consciousness" sections were amazing and interesting at first but did get tiring very fast. The author's writing is very funny though, in that way where it takes you a few seconds to realise there was a joke there but when you do it lights all parts of your brain. The book is full of reflections and commentaries, some interesting some not so much, many involving Orlando's legs. So many, I stopped reading to google Vita Sackville's to know what the author was talking about. The entirety of the text felt, just like Vita's son said, like a very long love letter to her. And I mean all kinds of love, be it friendship, be it romantic, be it admiration. All together in 200 or so pages.

Content Warnings

jemappellecat's review against another edition

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challenging funny reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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renorsomethin's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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leer_amor's review against another edition

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It was really racist. Did not expect that from Virginia Woolf and Im extremely disappointed. Ive always loved her prose and the lyrical way she writes but this was such a diversion from that. This book is scene as a queer classic but the extent of the racism was disgusting and it does not at all read like Woolf’s other novels. She was one of my favorite classic authors and now I feel like I have to reconsider my estimation of her and her works.

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librarymouse's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Orlando's fully unquestioned physical and social gender transition is somehow the least absurd part of this book. Not only is she unhesitatingly referred to with the correct pronouns upon the switch by the narrator, but by her fellow characters as well. The book was fine overall, though the extended timeline across a small number of pages is deeply strange when compared to Mrs. Dalloway's one day explored in detail as the only other Woolf book I've read. I really enjoyed Orlando's juggling of attraction with the gendered expectations of personality and aesthetics, and how they differed between the traditional clothes of other countries. Orlando isn't particularly likeable but I don't know that liking her was the intention behind with a novel.n her introduction to the reader, in the first pages of the novel puts her at an immediate disadvantage when it comes to likeability.

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timmytunter's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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kirjakimalainen's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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melliedm's review against another edition

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challenging reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Moments of utter brilliance mixed in with a humour that must have appealed to the time, but which struggles to age with the same dignity as it’s gender themes.

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