Orlando | Study Guide

Virginia Woolf

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Orlando | Chapter Summaries

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Timeline of Events

  • Age 16, Elizabethan era

    Orlando meets Queen Elizabeth I and later becomes her favorite companion.

    Chapter 1
  • Elizabethan era

    The queen dies and Orlando hangs out in bars and brothels for a few years.

    Chapter 1
  • Stuart period

    Orlando meets Sasha during the Great Frost and immediately falls in love. She breaks his heart.

    Chapter 1
  • Stuart period

    Exiled from court, Orlando dedicates himself to poetry. His work is ridiculed by Nick Greene.

    Chapter 2
  • Stuart period

    Orlando petitions for an ambassadorship in Constantinople to escape Archduchess Harriet.

    Chapter 2
  • Age 30, Stuart period

    Following a riot in Constantinople, Orlando sleeps for seven days and wakes as a woman.

    Chapter 3
  • Stuart period

    Orlando lives happily with a tribe of gypsies until they question her values.

    Chapter 3
  • Georgian era

    Orlando returns to London. All her property and titles are seized because of her gender.

    Chapter 4
  • Georgian era

    Orlando becomes friends with the literary geniuses of the era and finds them rather uninteresting.

    Chapter 4
  • Georgian era

    Orlando, dressed as a man but revealing herself as a woman, picks up a prostitute.

    Chapter 4
  • Georgian era

    Orlando spends a few undocumented years dressing as both genders depending on mood and circumstance.

    Chapter 4
  • Victorian era

    Orlando is revealed to be pregnant.

    Chapter 5
  • Victorian era

    Orlando feels a tingling sensation in her left ring finger. She feels compelled to marry.

    Chapter 5
  • Victorian era

    Orlando decides to become "nature's bride," immediately meeting Shel. They become engaged.

    Chapter 5
  • 10 days later

    Orlando and Shel marry. He leaves to sail around Cape Horn.

    Chapter 5
  • Victorian era

    Orlando finishes writing her life's work, "The Oak Tree." Nick Greene helps her publish it.

    Chapter 6
  • Victorian era

    Orlando gives birth to a son.

    Chapter 6
  • Age 36, October 11, 1928

    Orlando is confronted with her past selves while on a shopping trip. She accepts her one true self.

    Chapter 6
  • October 11, 1928

    Shel comes home.

    Chapter 6

Chapter Summaries Chart

Chapter Summary
Chapter 1 Chapter 1 begins near the end of the 16th century. Orlando, age 16, is in his family's large home, practicing his sword ... Read More
Chapter 2 In Chapter 2, Orlando has been exiled from court for humiliating Euphrosyne. He retreats to his home in the country, whe... Read More
Chapter 3 Chapter 3 begins with an admission that not much is known about Orlando's time in Constantinople, as most of the records... Read More
Chapter 4 In Chapter 4, Orlando sails home to England, and she is startled to realize that her gender dictates how people treat he... Read More
Chapter 5 As Chapter 5 opens at the beginning of the 19th century, a dark cloud drastically changes life in England, beginning wit... Read More
Chapter 6 In Chapter 6, Orlando goes back to "The Oak Tree" after Shel leaves for Cape Horn. She writes furiously throughout the n... Read More
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