Just wanted to make a little response (since it's probably high time I've done so) about the form of the novel Orlando. By choosing to make it a "biography", Woolf is a little limited in her style. She accomplishes a lot to make the reader less shocked by Orlando's transformation into a woman by adding touches of fantasy such as the great frost and Orlando's unusual sleep patterns. By the time Orlando becomes a woman the reader takes this in stride. (That section of the novel, also, is a pretty biting scene with Woolf jabbing the mores of the day concerning lesbian love with the 'three sisters' chanting "Hide deeper, fearful Truth. For you flaunt in the brutal gaze of the sun things that were better unknown and undone; you unveil the shameful; the dark you make clear. Hide! Hide! Hide!" It is impossible not to read a sort of 'coming out' in that passage...) Of course this novel differs from a proper "biography" by not being consistent with factual information (Woolf, nor any biographer, could really get into the mind of their subject as thoroughly as here) but that's all just part of the tongue-in-cheek humor of the book (especially fun is the little Index at the end). You definitely get the feel that this is really one of Woolf's more personal books (despite what it appears at first), yet far more fun-loving than any of the previous ones. A nice little valentine to Vita (whose relationship with Woolf really warrants a closer look alongside the book itself.)