The Orlando manuscript at Knole

Virginia Woolf’s novel ‘Orlando: A Biography’ has been described as ‘the longest and most charming love letter in literature’. The book follows the story of a fictional aristocratic poet who tumbles through historical time periods and whose sex changes throughout the story. Woolf’s inspiration for her main character was her friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West.

Virginia first met Vita, a fellow writer, at a dinner party in 1922. In the years that followed the women developed a romantic relationship which had a profound impact on both their lives and their writing. The character of Orlando was inspired by Vita’s life, friends, ancestors and childhood home at Knole. Vita was born 1892 to Lord and Lady Sackville but, as her parents’ only daughter, was doomed to never inherit her family home. The loss of Knole left a deep scar on Vita’s life.

In ‘Orlando: A Biography’, the main character is always in possession of their ancestral home and this certainty was Virginia’s gift to Vita. On 6 December 1928 Viriginia gave her original manuscript, written in distinctive purple ink, to Vita with a dedication on the first page. The manuscript was preserved in Vita’s secluded Tower Writing Room at Sissinghurst Castle until her death in 1962.

The manuscript was given to the National Trust by Vita’s son, Nigel Nicolson, who believed it was Orlando’s rightful home. The purple ink that Virginia used to handwrite her drafts is very sensitive to light therefore the manuscript is rarely on display to prevent the words fading. However, a recent project to digitise every page means that one of the most beautiful and complex literary works of the twentieth century can now be accessed from anywhere in the world.