Orlando

We talked about how "To the Lighthouse" is probably Woolf's most perfect novel as far as structure and form goes, and I think that's true after finishing Orlando--the difference between the two is that "To the Lighthouse" maintains a uniform structure and tone--while in Orlando the conceit of the biographer is distinctly lessened as the novel goes on, until he almost disappears altogether. You can see Woolf try to keep up the pretense--she injects comments every once in a while--but in the end it appears like she drops it almost entirely...perhaps this was intentional as Orlando gets blasted more and more by THE PRESENT. And you can't exactly be a biographer of the present, can you?

The tone definitely gets more serious here...or perhaps I should say socially oriented? Woolf seems to be taking this half of the novel to examine some societal problems, specifically those of women, using Orlando as a synecdoche; the witticism are funny, like when the sailor falls off the mast because Orlando accidentally shows TWO INCHES of her calf...wow.

Not to Mention the ubiquitous Mr. Greene, who seems to possess about the same amount of uncanny lifespan as Orlando and who is, I'm almost certain, a representation of literary thought as a whole. Notice how now he thinks that Shakespeare and Marlowe are the bees' knees, while the contemporary writers are hacks. I also like how Woolf equates the literary transformation into Victorianism with the societal transformation into Victorianism--the description of the "damp" setting in is both creepy and fitting.