Orlando: A Biography

Virginia and Leonard, Virginia and Vita, Vita and Harold, Vita and Violet, Orlando and Shelmerdine. Here are five perfect unions, four real and one fictional. These are beautiful, romantic, complicated, exotic, subversive love stories.

Leonard and Virginia's marriage of minds, his compassion and support carrying her through her depression, his understanding of Vita's importance to Virginia. The man literally started a publishing house (Hogarth Press) for her because she couldn't bear criticism, for heaven's sake!
Then there are Vita's letters to Virginia, telling her she “is reduced to a thing that wants Virginia”, telling her she misses her in a “quite simple desperate human way”.
Vita and Harold's tempestuous open marriage, their manifold intimacies, their quiet acceptance of each other's romantic entanglements.
Vita and Violet's famous, intense, scandalous affair that has been fictionalised in Orlando (Violet being the Russian princess Sasha).
Orlando and Shelmerdine's secret languages, their respect of the other's need for solitude and personal space, their rejection of gender.

These couples and their dismissal of sexual familiarity/fidelity as the key components of a successful marriage is inspiring. Their ability to engage in multiple romantic relationships at the same time is impressive. I love this book, the characters in it and the writers whose stories are woven into it.