A collectible hardcover edition of Virginia Woolf’s pioneering novel about a time-traveling
sixteenth-century nobleman who wakes up in the body of a woman with a new foreword by Andrea
Lawlor author of Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl “A brilliant book that teaches you so
much about identity and love—all these fundamental questions that we ask ourselves.” —Emma
Corrin “I read this book and believed it was a hallucinogenic interactive biography of my
own life and future.” —Tilda Swinton A Penguin Vitae Edition First masculine then feminine
Orlando is a young sixteenth-century nobleman who gallops through the centuries from
Elizabethan England and imperial Turkey to Virginia Woolf’s own time. Will he find happiness
with the exotic Russian Princess Sasha? Or is the dashing explorer Shelmerdine the ideal man?
And what form will Orlando take on the journey—a nobleman traveler writer? Man or . . .
woman? Written for the charismatic bisexual writer Vita Sackville-West Orlando is one of
Woolf’s most popular and accessible novels a playful mock biography of a chameleon-like
historical figure that is both a wry commentary on gender and in Woolf’s own words a
“writer’s holiday” that delights in its ambiguity and capriciousness. This edition is collated
from all known proofs manuscripts and impressions to reflect the author’s intentions and
includes an illuminating introduction and notes by the distinguished scholar and coauthor of
The Madwoman in the Attic Sandra M. Gibert. Penguin Vitae—loosely translated as “Penguin of
one’s life”—is a deluxe hardcover series from Penguin Classics celebrating a dynamic and
diverse landscape of classic fiction and nonfiction from seventy-five years of classics
publishing. Penguin Vitae provides readers with beautifully designed classics that have shaped
the course of their lives and welcomes new readers to discover these literary gifts of
personal inspiration intellectual engagement and creative originality.
