“Virginia Woolf’s Orlando can be daunting for new and experienced readers alike, but its pleasures await those willing to immerse themselves in this elusive and highly allusive text. This much-needed and long-awaited edition will prove a boon to readers, offering both useful textual annotations and informative contextual readings. Madelyn Detloff’s critical selections help to make this challenging text more accessible and provide an instructive framework for gaining a greater understanding of Woolf’s gender- and genre-bending novel.”—Ana R. Rojas, University of San Francisco
“The Norton Critical Edition of Orlando is a tour de force, guiding readers through the dazzling world of Virginia Woolf’s novel with a range of important critical perspectives and their relevant archives. Detloff’s brilliant editorial vision tackles some of the most difficult topics surrounding Orlando and its adaptations across media, while doing justice to the ongoing revelations inspired by Woolf’s most audacious masterpiece.”
—Amy E. Elkins, Macalester College
This Norton Critical Edition includes:
- The first edition (1928) text of Orlando: A Biography, with an introduction and explanatory annotations by Madelyn Detloff, accompanied by illustrations from earlier editions.
- Provocative reviews from Woolf’s contemporaries and various written materials that place Orlando within a changing epoch.
- Seven critical essays on the novel’s major themes: gender, sexuality, class, feminism, and performance.
- A chronology of Woolf’s life and a selected bibliography.
