#ClassicsCommunity 2021 Reading Challenge discussion

This is the second Virginia Woolf work decided on and this is to start in April.

Please post below if you are in for this.

I am.

I'm interested.

Sounds good. Start date 1st April.

I must admit that I missed the start date, mostly because I wasn't able to finish the monstrous classic (Gargantua and Pantagruel) that I had started in January. But I'm still interested in Orlando (and I finished Rabelais on Wednesday). So is there anyone here who's still doing it?

Timár_Krisztina wrote: "I must admit that I missed the start date, mostly because I wasn't able to finish the monstrous classic (Gargantua and Pantagruel) that I had started in January. But I'm still interested in Orlando..."

Hi Krisztina!
There doesn't seem to be a lot of activity on this thread. I read Orlando back when I was in high school (1966, outside of class), loved it, have probably reread it a couple times since, though not in a long time. I also remember dragging my wife to see the movie when it came out around 1992. It's a little more nostalgic now because one of my high school classmates, John, who was in my English class and I used to hang around with a lot, is now Joanna. Who knew back then that he/she would live out that story arc?
I'd be delighted to reread it and discuss with you. I have a couple of other monstrous classics I am reading now, but it's fairly short, so I can easily slip it into my reading. Besides, I have all of Virginia Woolf on my reading list (along with thousands of other books).

Barry wrote: "I'd be delighted to reread it and discuss with you. I have a couple of other monstrous classics I am reading now, but it's fairly short, so I can easily slip it into my reading. Besides, I have all of Virginia Woolf on my reading list (along with thousands of other books)."

Thanks a lot! :) When can you slip it in? I can even start it next week if I have to, or any time later, so it's for you to say.

Anytime you want. I already have Woolf’s Complete Novels on my Kindle and read about the first 10 pages this morning. I also put a hold on an annotated copy at the library which should appear in about 4 weeks for a loan period of 3 weeks. So I’ll have to finish the annotated version by the end of July or so. Knowing myself, I find Orlando such delightful reading that I will probably finish the version I already have before the library copy is available. So I will probably be ahead of you.
Post your progress and I will reply, trying not to provide spoilers.

Barry wrote: "Anytime you want. I already have Woolf’s Complete Novels on my Kindle and read about the first 10 pages this morning. I also put a hold on an annotated copy at the library which should appear in ab..."

Next week, then. I'd like to finish a book by Valente first, and then start Orlando.

Barry wrote: "Anytime you want. I already have Woolf’s Complete Novels on my Kindle and read about the first 10 pages this morning. I also put a hold on an annotated copy at the library which should appear in ab..."

I'm starting today.

Hi Krisztina,
I just finished Orlando last night.
I enjoyed it so much that I ordered another copy, annotated and with an introduction by Maria DiBattista. It is a book which can be read on many levels.
First, which is the way I read it in high school, is simply as pure fantasy. A joke.
Second, there is the social and literary commentary.
Then there is also the fact that it is a fictionalized biography of Vita Sackville-West. Kind of an inside joke for the Bloomsbury Group. I got the annotated version to help me pick apart those references.
I love how it starts out, portraying the Elizabethan Age as kind of an over-saturated photograph, which might be how many of us experienced adolescence. After one gets into it a little way, one also realizes how fluid the timelines for the characters are. The world is on one timeline, at first mainly marked by the reigns of the English monarchs. Orlando is on another timeline where we are explicit told Orlando's age at certain points. Later on it becomes apparent that other characters have their own timelines, generally in between the first two.
I'll quit now so I don't spoil it any more for you. Let me know what you're thinking as you progress.

Barry wrote: "Hi Krisztina,
I just finished Orlando last night.
I enjoyed it so much that I ordered another copy, annotated and with an introduction by Maria DiBattista. It is a book which can be read on many le..."

Wow, you were quick. :)
That's what I'm reading it for: the timelines. :) I was really tired today, so I haven't been able to get very far in the book, I'm still in the period of the Great Frost, but I'm already enchanted by it. It's magic realism before it was even invented (or at least named).

Barry wrote: "Hi Krisztina,
I just finished Orlando last night.
I enjoyed it so much that I ordered another copy, annotated and with an introduction by Maria DiBattista. It is a book which can be read on many le..."

I did read it through, in a few days (I thought I'd finish it sooner). I had too much work to get back to Goodreads, sorry. :( I should have.

I found the text beautiful and strangely funny. I wrote a lot about it yesterday on my blog, but all of it in Hungarian. (I've been thinking of writing a bilingual blog for a long time, but it takes up too much energy to translate my posts into another language; it's not a translation actually, it's like creating the text again, almost from scratch, which is very hard.)

To me, the most important point was the journey through time (periods of history AND literary history), which changes Orlando's body, but not his/her identity. (It's so much easier to talk about this in my mother tongue, because pronouns and modifiers are not gendered in Hungarian.) Orlando is someone who seems to glide above others, so strong, graceful, resilient, and really admirable. No wonder everyone is attracted to... what pronoun shall I use here? I honestly don't know.

I know Orlando was based on an actual person in Woolf's life, but I wasn't thinking about that at all while reading. I just plunged into the text.

I also liked the parts about art, and the chances to express oneself. Every time Orlando tries to write it's a new period in British literary history that defines the way of writing. During the Elizabethan Age, he wants to write like the Elizabethans. During the Augustan Age, she wants to learn how to be witty. During the Victorian Age, she writes a poem which is just like Emily Brontë's. I admire Woolf for that. And I was laughing out loud at the allusion to Charlotte Brontë's work. Especially its film adaptation.

Because I also watched the film after reading the book. It doesn't really stick to the book; it's more of a re-creation of the story. But I liked the changes, too. Especially where it "corrected" the parts of the book which have not aged well (about foreign cultures). And I loved Tilda Swinton's acting.