Orlando

Wilh an Intmdııctian and Notcs by Merry M. Pa\\'loivshi. Professor and Chair, Department of Engüslı, California State Unlversity, BakersfieldVirginia \Voolfs Odando. "the longest and mest charming love letter in literatüre," playfully constructs the figüre of Orlando as the ficlicnal embodiment of U'ooJfs closc fricnd and lover, Vita SackvilIc-VVest. Spanning three centuries of boisterous. fantastic adventurc, the novel opens as Orlando, a young noblcnıan in Elizabeth's England, a\vaiıs a visit from tha Quocn and traces his e\perience vvith first love as England undcr lamcs I lies locked in the embracc of the Creat Frost.Al the midpoint of the novel. Orlando. now an ambassador in Conslantinoplc, awakes to find that he is a woman. and the novel indulges in farce and irony to consider the rolcs of women in the I8th and 19th centuries. As the novel ends in 1928, a year consonanl with full suft'rage for ıvomen. Orlando, now a wifc and mother, stands poiscd at the brink of a future ihat holds ncw hope and promisc for \TOmcn, VVordsvvorth Classics presents this new edition, proclaimcd by VVoolf's coniemporary Rebecca VVcst as "a poetic masıerpiece of the first rank," restoring VVoolf's original photographs and index, and with an introduction and notes by Merry M. Paıvlovvski, US scholar in Modernisi and VVoolf studios.