First published in 1928, "Orlando: A Biography" is Virginia Woolf's sixth novel. Inspired by the life of Woolf's friend and sometimes lover, Vita Sackville-West, the novel chronicles the several century long life of its titular character, Orlando, a man living in Elizabethan times, who through some mysterious process changes gender at age thirty. Possibly as a byproduct of the sex change, Orlando lives for another three hundred years into modern times. Through the adventures of the poet Orlando, Woolf creates a satirical history of English Literature. An instant commercial success, "Orlando" was not originally recognized as great literature, but rather as a gossipy roman à clef of Sackville-West. However, in the many decades since its first publication, Woolf's short novel has become recognized as an important feminist classic, often part of many gender studies curriculum, as well as an important contribution to the modernist literature movement. This edition includes a biographical afterword.
