Orlando [antikvár]

GENERAL ENTRODUCTION Wordsworth Classics are inexpensive editions designed to appeal to the general reader and students. We commissioned teachers and specialists to write wide ranging, jargon-free introductions and to provide notes that would assist the understanding of our readers rather than interpret the stories for them. In the same spirit, because the pleasures of reading are inseparable from the surprises, secrets and revelations that all narratives contain, we strongly advise you to enjoy this book before turning to the Introduction. General Adviser . Keith Carabine Rutherford College University of Kent at Canterbury INTRODUCTION Birth of a novel For Virginia Woolf, the composition of Orlando: A Biography was a lark, 'mere child's play' compared to the more serious The Waves which would follow. In important ways, however, Orlando is embedded in the fabric of all of Woolf's conciuxent work, embodying in the more playfiil form of fantasy many of her serious philosophical and literary concerns. Yet Orlando's origins remain rooted in Woolf's desire for 'fim'. 'For the truth is,' Woolf wrote in her diary on Monday, 14 March 1927, 'I feel the need of an escapade after these serious poetic experimental books whose form is always so closely considered. I want to kick up my heels & be off." In the same diary passage, Woolf indicates several fertilising influences for this new work. The narrative I The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume III, p. 131. All diary references are from this volume unless otherwise noted and will be indicated by page number in the text.