How Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury group unbuttoned Britain

Published in BBC Culture on November 2, 2023

“Vain trifles as they seem, clothes have, they say, more important offices than merely to keep us warm. They change our view of the world and the world’s view of us.” So wrote Virginia Woolf in her 1928 novel Orlando, about a young nobleman who lives for several centuries, changing sex along the way.

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Why Virginia Woolf’s Orlando speaks to gender fluidity today

Published in The FT August 22, 2019

“It is enough for us to state the simple fact; Orlando was a man till the age of 30; when he became a woman and has remained so ever since.” Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando was published in 1928, yet contains an expression of gender fluidity that feels as fresh and matter of fact as if it were written today.

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