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A review by joeytitmouse
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
5.0
Ok. This book is very good to eat. I have to say that. However, it seems as though Woolf (a most unfortunate last name) is unsure if she was writing a fictional biography, a novel, or a sociological experiment. It starts out full of action and, of course, Woolf's wonderful diction, but as we meet halfway it becomes more and more commentary, and then the end. The end is just... what the hell is going on? IT IS THE GOOSE! THE WILD GOOSE!
It's like La Charme Discrète de la Bourgeoisie, which starts out normal and ends on a note of sheer insanity.
The last 50 or so pages cover only two hours, and have a speed which reminds me of the end of Sophie's World, where the Sophie and Alfred rush to break out of the book-within-the-book before it ends;
Now, I liked it as a whole. And there is in me a feeling that this pacing and style was intended by Woolf as a commentary - A man gets to lead a life of action whereas a woman must be satisfied with contemplation. It's about life, it's about relationships.
I recommend this book to very few people. You'd have to have the perfect temperament to enjoy it. I'd say that many, many people would not enjoy it, and it seems that GoodReads agrees with that. I identified an immeasurable amount with the Lord Orlando, later Duke, later Lady. S/he's what I am; Solitary and untrusting of people, intensely reflexive, poetic but not opportunistic, unaffected with gender though enslaved by it, melancholic but finding adoration in life itself, so many things I could identify with. The book was to me a toy boat on the Serpentine.
Oh, yea, and so many wonderful allusions that I'm going to keep as inside jokes.
Edit July 29 2020 to add ^^^ hahahahahahahaha look at the fooking egg. I was such an egg.
It's like La Charme Discrète de la Bourgeoisie, which starts out normal and ends on a note of sheer insanity.
The last 50 or so pages cover only two hours, and have a speed which reminds me of the end of Sophie's World, where the Sophie and Alfred rush to break out of the book-within-the-book before it ends;
Now, I liked it as a whole. And there is in me a feeling that this pacing and style was intended by Woolf as a commentary - A man gets to lead a life of action whereas a woman must be satisfied with contemplation. It's about life, it's about relationships.
I recommend this book to very few people. You'd have to have the perfect temperament to enjoy it. I'd say that many, many people would not enjoy it, and it seems that GoodReads agrees with that. I identified an immeasurable amount with the Lord Orlando, later Duke, later Lady. S/he's what I am; Solitary and untrusting of people, intensely reflexive, poetic but not opportunistic, unaffected with gender though enslaved by it, melancholic but finding adoration in life itself, so many things I could identify with. The book was to me a toy boat on the Serpentine.
Oh, yea, and so many wonderful allusions that I'm going to keep as inside jokes.
Edit July 29 2020 to add ^^^ hahahahahahahaha look at the fooking egg. I was such an egg.