Virginia Woolf is one of the greatest novelists of the twentieth century and is one of her most unique and fantastic works. The protagonist, , begins the novel as a young sixteenth century aristocrat and a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I. She gives him an estate and orders him never to grow old. We then follow Orlando through the centuries, as he crisscrosses the world, falls in love, and becomes a woman. Profound and comic, is Woolf's deepest investigation of gender roles.