orlando a biography timeline

Virginia Woolf

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Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Virginia Woolf's Orlando . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Orlando: Introduction

Orlando: plot summary, orlando: detailed summary & analysis, orlando: themes, orlando: quotes, orlando: characters, orlando: symbols, orlando: theme wheel, brief biography of virginia woolf.

Historical Context of Orlando

Other books related to orlando.

• Full Title: Orlando: A Biography
• When Written: 1927-1928
• Where Written: London, England
• When Published: 1928
• Literary Period: Modernism
• Genre: Historical Fiction; Experimental Biography
• Setting: London and Constantinople, spanning from the 16th to the 20th century
• Climax: October 11, 1928, when Orlando wakes at 10:00 a.m. to “the present moment.”
• Antagonist: Society
• Point of View: Third-person omniscient

Extra Credit for Orlando

Bad Housekeeping. In the 1930s, Woolf wrote a series of articles for Good Housekeeping magazine about life in London. Woolf’s articles focused mainly on art, literature, and politics, not the domestic sphere, as Woolf was reported to be a notoriously bad housekeeper who once accidentally baked her wedding ring into a rice pudding.

Monkey Business. Like Orlando, Woolf was an avid animal lover, and she had several pets throughout her life, including numerous dogs, a squirrel, and a beloved Marmoset monkey named Mitzi.

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Orlando timeline - lit 4050 spring 2023.

Created by  Bettina Pedersen on  Mon, 02/20/2023 - 19:51

Part of Group:

This timeline will show the span of time in this novel's six chapters narrative Orlando's very long life, beginning in the Elizabethan Age. The span of time that Virginia Woolf assigns to her protagonist Orlando's life is fundamental to her commentary on gender and genre.

Chronological table

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Orlando Is the Virginia Woolf Novel We Need Right Now

Serious scholars have rarely taken Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando , 90 years old this week, terribly seriously. It’s commonly described as a “romp” — lighthearted and fantastical, stretching more than three hundred years with an unaging hero who changes sexes midstream — a book to explain away rather than embrace. The explanation usually goes like this: From around 1925 until 1928, Woolf had a passionate affair with the aristocratic, bohemian, bisexual novelist Vita Sackville-West. In the words of Sackville-West’s son Nigel Nicolson, the novel is “the longest and most charming love-letter in literature,” and the character of Orlando a celebration of Sackville-West’s unconventional life.

But the story of Woolf’s gender-fluid and superhuman heroine is about much more than a single individual. As a work of political satire and feminist fantasy, Orlando laid the groundwork for today’s cultural landscape, in which the boundaries of both gender and literary genre are more porous than ever. Through a protagonist who, over the course of several centuries, takes multiple lovers and writes reams of poetry in every possible style, Woolf makes a joyful case for the transgression of all limits on desire, curiosity, and knowledge. Yet at the same time, Orlando constantly runs up against the limits of that freedom, exposing the persistent vise-grip of patriarchy even on a character blessed with the privileges of wealth, beauty, and close-to-eternal youth. Woolf invites us to imagine what it would feel like to escape, and yet, over and over again, reminds us that we are trapped. When we talk today about the tantalizing potential of a gender-agnostic society, of a world in which masculine and feminine traits are recognized for the performances that they are, or when we explore such possibilities in fiction and fantasy, we do so in Orlando ’s shadow.

During the week of the novel’s release, Woolf gave the first of two talks at Cambridge that became A Room of One’s Own , which was published in 1929 and is now read as a classic of feminist polemic. Ahead of the release of that book, Woolf suspected it might be dismissed, along with Orlando , for having too much “charm” and “sprightliness.” She worried that her illustrious male friends would give it only “evasive, jocular” criticism, refusing to engage with its ideas. About Orlando , she wrote defensively, “I want fun. I want fantasy,” perhaps to preempt dismissive half-praise. Even the author seemed unwilling to acknowledge the political edge in her playful skewering of gender roles, her creation of a protagonist who is bound by neither of the two forces that define us as human: sex and death.

Both books express the same frustration, roaring to the surface again nearly a century on — the specific impossibility of living a full human life once society, in one form or another, has labeled you a woman. In both volumes, Woolf explores and clarifies the insidious enforcement of masculine power: through money, through status, through freedom of dress and movement, through the right to speak in public and be heard and believed. Woolf points out over and over again that what makes men men is their power, and what makes women women is their lack of it: financially, culturally, and physically.

In A Room of One’s Own , Woolf used the imaginary figure of Shakespeare’s forgotten sister to illustrate the historic limitations on women’s creativity, and to suggest that it was only now, in her own moment, that women writers could begin to achieve recognition. Orlando follows the same timeline, from the 16th century to Woolf’s exact time and place, England in October 1928. When Orlando is not much more than a boy, he is presented to Queen Elizabeth; the elderly monarch takes a shine to him, and as a consequence, “Lands were given him, houses assigned him.” While Elizabeth’s infatuation with Orlando is feminine, her power is not. In a speech to rouse the troops against the invading Spanish Armada, the Virgin Queen famously declared, “I may have the body but of a weak and female woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king.” Her favor endows Orlando, as a man, with property and power.

Orlando is presented at court and pursued by a number of potential wives; instead, he falls in love with a gender-ambiguous Russian princess named Sasha, who breaks his heart. He is appointed ambassador to Constantinople, elevated to the status of duke, and then, after a days-long sleep, he awakens one morning as a woman. For a brief interlude after Orlando’s male-to-female transformation (or transition), Woolf raises the possibility of not being bound by sex at all, and tries speaking of Orlando with “they” pronouns, as a person containing both male and female selves: “The change of sex, though it altered their future, did nothing whatever to alter their identity. Their faces remained, as their portraits prove, practically the same.” After these two sentences, however, the narrator-biographer bows to convention and begins to call Orlando “she.” But the glimpse of a nonbinary pronoun is tantalizing. It would take decades for the singular, gender-evasive “they” to take hold in the lexicon (Merriam-Webster dates the first use to the 1950s) and for the culture to catch up to Orlando ’s casual claim that “in every human being a vacillation from one sex to the other takes place.”

The character’s transition is more gradual than the shift to the feminine pronoun suggests. At first, Orlando adopts unisex Turkish trousers, and it is not until she feels “the coil of skirts about her legs” and the changed attitudes of observing men that she starts to grasp the consequences of her new identity. Her once-secure grasp on her estates and her noble position are suddenly subject to lawsuits that drag on for hundreds of years. The female Orlando’s fortune is reduced to the strands of pearls and emeralds wrapped around her neck, portable and removable, instead of being connected, body and soul, to her land, where she used to lie and feel the roots of an oak tree like a “spine” beneath her. The rest of the novel is about the financial and emotional consequences of being a woman in a society created and run by men, for men.

Back in London, at the end of the 18th century, Orlando spends her time attempting to glean the wisdom of the great male wits of the age, Pope, Addison, and Swift, but her sex makes it impossible to speak freely with them. She can hardly get a word in, and is ignored and patronized when she does. Frustrated, Orlando dons her old masculine clothing, takes to the streets, and picks up a prostitute, with whom she can finally have a frank conversation, woman to woman.

In Sally Potter’s 1993 film adaptation, starring the appropriately ageless and shape-shifting Tilda Swinton, the elaborate costumes make it clear that our ideas of what makes a certain appearance “masculine” or “feminine” are constantly changing and perennially absurd. From the ballooning breeches of the Elizabethans, through the Enlightenment’s monstrous wigs, and on to the crinolines of the Victorians, clothes are designed to highlight or conceal the body, to enable or restrict movement, and to declare both sex and social status. But clothing by itself cannot make men or women. Only power can do that.

Woolf describes the arrival of the Victorian era as the encroachment of damp on the landscape, buildings, furniture, bodies, and souls of the English: “The sexes drew further and further apart. No open conversation was tolerated … the life of the average woman was a succession of childbirths.” Even Orlando — previously bent on pursuing “life!” and “a lover!” — is suddenly made physically aware, by a vibration on the naked third finger of her left hand, of her lack of a husband. Marriage and monogamy are the unavoidable spirit of the age; meanwhile, the courts have finally determined that Orlando is alive and a woman, so that the ownership of her estates now depends on the production of a male heir. A domestic, dependent Orlando would be no fun, however, so Woolf gives her a husband who stays just long enough to get that ring on her finger before setting sail for Cape Horn.

The narrator purports to be Orlando’s biographer, and the novel cheekily adopts the genre’s conventions, including portraits and a reference index, which thoroughly confused early booksellers who weren’t sure what the book was. Woolf’s father, Leslie Stephen, was the first editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, a classic Victorian-era project to categorize the “great men” of the national past, and she had a lifelong fascination with biography.

In 1928, the stalwart genre rarely made space for any woman, let alone one as rebellious as Vita Sackville-West. (And even in our enlightened times, “straight” biographies of female subjects are in a significant minority .) Despite Orlando ’s broad interest in the way gender shapes lives throughout history, there’s truth in what Nigel Nicolson said, with a twist: It is not a love letter but a biography of a lover, disguised as the fictional biography of an even less conventional subject.

Born at Knole, her family’s ancestral estate in Kent, Vita was the only child of cousins Victoria Sackville-West and the third Baron Sackville, and grew up knowing that because of her sex she would never — could never — inherit her own home. The estate passed to a male cousin; she did not marry him, but instead chose Harold Nicolson, a diplomat and writer, who had roughly as many homosexual affairs as his wife did. Before Virginia, Vita’s most serious lover was Violet Keppel, whom she often went out with dressed as a man, passing herself off as Violet’s husband.

In Constantinople, where Orlando’s sex change takes place, Sackville-West lived the life of a diplomat’s wife and wrote the poems that would launch a long literary career. Woolf could be sniffy about Sackville-West’s dashed-off novels, but in the 1920s, her fame as a writer far eclipsed Woolf’s. Sackville-West’s cross-dressing; the “gypsy” blood inherited from her mother’s mother; her prolific, uneven writing — all would come to define the character of Orlando. Yet, to Woolf’s consternation, Sackville-West never fought for her claim to Knole, nor resisted the structures of power that so easily cast her aside.

Woolf wrote afterward that she began to write Orlando as a joke. She doesn’t get enough credit for her sense of humor in general, but it is clearly on display in this, her most playful book. It’s still daring for literature, especially the kind we call classics, to be as much fun as this. If published today, Orlando might have been misshelved not as biography but as fantasy or science fiction — genres in which women writers in recent years have increasingly found the space to challenge the straight-white-male strictures of both realist fiction and reality itself. Orlando ’s blend of social critique and bold fantasy echoes in the postwar fiction of Ursula Le Guin and Angela Carter , and more recently in the fairy-tale retellings of Helen Oyeyemi and Daniel Mallory Ortberg — as well as in novels like Melissa Broder’s The Pisces , in which a graduate student writing on Sappho falls in love with a merman .

Woolf grasped intuitively that narrative daring and insouciance could be driven to political ends, that lightness of heart did not mean an absence of conviction, but she remained unconvinced that her contemporaries would get it. In that sense, Orlando feels like an artifact from and for the future, a character who refuses to be bound by conventions, and who invites us to consider the possibility that all of our certainties are in fact contingencies. Although buffeted by the changing expectations of each succeeding “age,” Orlando nevertheless asserts herself over and over again, as a fully human being.

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Orlando: A Biography

A BLESSED COMPANION IS A BOOK

Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain

Illustrations in the First Editions of Orlando: A biography

Dust-jacket of first English edition (1928): an allegorical portrait c. 1570, formerly in the Worthing Museum & Art Gallery; the painting was destroyed by enemy action during the Second World War. Reproductions of the portrait appear in editions of Orlando edited by J. H. Stape (Shakespeare Head Press, 1998, p. [xxxii]; and see note, pp. 191-2) and by Brenda Lyons (Penguin Books, 1993, p. [v]). See also J. H. Stape, ‘“The Man at Worthing” and the Author of “the Most Insipid Verse She Had Ever Read”: Two Allusions in Orlando’, Virginia Woolf Miscellany , No. 50 (Fall 1997), pp. 5-6.

(1) Frontispiece: ‘Orlando as a Boy’: The Hon. Edward Sackville from ‘The Two Sons of Edward, 4th Earl of Dorset’ by Cornelius Nuie, in Lord Sackville’s private apartments, Knole.

(2) ‘The Russian Princess as a Child’: Angelica Bell, aged nine, photographed by Vanessa Bell.

(3) ‘The Archduchess Harriet’: Mary, 4th Countess of Dorset, by Marcus Gheeraerts, in Lord Sackville’s private apartments, Knole.

(4) ‘Orlando as Ambassador’: Richard Sackville, 5th Earl of Dorset, by Robert Walker (previously attributed to Gilbert Soest), in Knole collection.

(5) ‘Orlando on her return to England’: Vita Sackville-West photographed by Lenare, 2 November 1927.

(6) ‘Orlando about the year 1840’: Vita Sackville-West photographed by Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant, 14 November 1927.

(7) ‘Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine, Esquire’: Unknown man c. 1820 by unknown artist, in Nigel Nicolson’s private collection, Sissinghurst.

(8) ‘Orlando at the present time’: Vita Sackville-West at Long Barn, photographed probably by Leonard Woolf, 29 April 1928.

Virginia and Vita visited Knole to choose portraits for Orlando: (1), (3) and (4), above, were used. For further information, see Virginia Woolf’s Letters, Vol. III, [14 October ]1927, [30 October 1927], [6 November 1927], [11 November 1927], [5 December 1927], [17 April 1928], [27 April 1928], 29 April [1928], [17 June 1928]. See also ‘A Note on the Illustrations’, Orlando, edited by Brenda Lyons with an Introduction and Notes by Sandra M. Gilbert (Penguin Books, 1993), pp. xlvii-xlix; and ‘Appendix D: The Illustrations’, Orlando: The Original Holograph Draft, transcribed and edited by Stuart N. Clarke (S. N. Clarke, 1993), pp. 35-6.

copyright© Sheila M. Wilkinson, Stuart N. Clarke & VWSGB 2001, 2018

Orlando: The Original Holograph Draft transcribed and edited by Stuart N. Clarke

Based on the holograph at Knole, this transcription follows the manuscript page for page and line for line, together with Woolf’s insertions, deletions and second thoughts. In studying the first draft, the reader can see the evolution of the novel and, in the passages that differ substantially from the published text, not only how they relate to that text but how they function in the draft. It offers a fascinating comparison with the published version.

‘One of the attractive features of his edition is that for the draft itself [Clarke] uses a typeface that mimics his early typed transcription of the draft, while for the front matter and notes he uses a modern typeface with proportional spacing. Thus the pages of Woolf’s text, paler in spindly type and laid out double space on generously-sized sheets, are set apart visually from the commentary. We almost feel we are dealing with one of Woolf’s corrected typescripts. Clarke’s edition invites us not just to consult a particular passage but to read the work, and to read it as an avant-texte.’ (From: Edward Bishop, ‘The Alfa and the Avant-texte’, in Editing Virginia Woolf: Interpreting the Modernist Text, ed. James M. Haule and J. H. Stape, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002, p. 152.)

Copies of this limited, numbered edition are available for £20 + p&p. To order, please email Stuart N. Clarke at: [email protected]

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Book Summary

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Orlando: A Biography

Summary   Virginia Woolf

"Orlando: A Biography" is a novel written by Virginia Woolf and published in 1928. The book is a work of satire and was inspired by Woolf's partner Vita Sackville-West's riotous family. The novel has received many accolades since being published and is considered a classic works of feminist literature today.

The story in the book spans a period of time over 300 years from 1588 to 1928 and follows the immortal life of the titular character Orlando, a young nobleman who starts out the novel by becoming the steward, treasurer and eventual lover of Queen Elizabeth I. At one point he falls in love with a Russian princess named Sasha only to be spurned by her. Heartbroken, Orlando locks himself inside his large mansion house and decides to do nothing but write.

A short while later he is sent to Constantinople by King Charles II and is made a duke. However, while there he is seen helping a woman into his room via his balcony and his men later find him in a trance. Orlando stays in the trance for one week, unable to be awoken. After he finally wakes he realizes quickly that he has somehow undergone a sex change and is now biologically a woman. Soon Orlando begins to develop romantic feelings for the men around her and feels that she must make decisions about her sexuality and gender. During this time she begins to notice that apart from changing sexes she now also appears to not be noticeably aging.

The plot of the novel consists of Orlando coming to terms with her new sex and her new found immortality.

The novel opens in England, where a sixteen year-old boy named Orlando is lamenting his bad luck at being too young to participate in the currently ongoing wars in France and Africa. He wishes to fight although he considers himself a poet and a lover of nature. Orlando, we're told, comes from a rich family whose noble bloodlines go back thousands of years. Orlando himself is quite a good looking boy and knows he's destined for great things.  The boy hears the sound of a nearby trumpet and knows that it marks a visit from the queen of England, Queen Elizabeth I. Orlando runs home and when he meets the queen, we're told that she takes an immediate liking to him. Her majesty honors his father with the gift of a large house.

The novel then skips forward two years. The queen remembers Orlando and calls him to her court naming him steward and treasurer as she thinks him the perfect example of a nobleman. Soon, Orlando becomes the queen's favorite and even lover but one winter she catches sight of him kissing another woman. Outraged, the queen sends Orlando away. After this, Orlando finds that he enjoys seeking out "low company" and begins to dress down in peasant-like clothes and patronize local London pubs and inns. He enjoys this for a time before ultimately returning to court after he hears of the death of the queen and the coronation of a new king, James I. Orlando considers a few different court ladies to choose for marriage but finds himself dissatisfied with his choices.

Around this time there is a great frost in Britain that covers much of the country with ice and kills many people. The king, perhaps obliviously, decides to turn the unfortunate weather into something more positive and creates a winter carnival at court with a ice skating rink. While attending the carnival, Orlando sees a figure that he instantly falls in love with. He is not sure whether the person is male or female but considers that unimportant. As she approaches him he discovers that she is a Russian princess named Sasha. The two quickly become friends, conversing through a shared understanding of French and soon fall in love.

But just as quickly as it came their passion for each other quickly fades and Orlando eventually finds Sasha embracing a Russian sailor. Sasha insists that there was nothing untoward about the embrace and Orlando pretends to believe her but inwardly suffers doubt. The two plan to run away together but when Orlando arrives at their meeting place at the appointed time he finds that Sasha has stood him up. He begins to ride his horse away and sees that the river has now unfrozen and the Russian ship that Sasha arrived on is now sailing away. Furious, Orlando hurls insults at the ship as it departs.

The next summer Orlando is exiled from court and leaves in disgrace. He chooses to lock himself in his huge mansion and live in solitude, only taking time to write and read. By this point, we're told that Orlando is 25 and has himself authored over forty-seven books, poems and plays. But he finds himself having difficulties starting another and decides to halt his solitary life at least long enough to seek the help of a friend who puts him in contact with a famous writer named Nick Greene. Orlando is delighted to have Greene over at his mansion but soon finds that he doesn't share much in common with the man and finds him boring. For his own part, Greene announces the he cannot write while in Orlando's house and must leave immediately. Once he returns to his own house he soon pens a satire all about a bored, lonely nobleman like Orlando. Orlando is embarrassed and humiliated by this and burns all of his own books while vowing never to befriend anyone again, choosing to keep only dogs for company.

Many years are passed with him living this way until he is 30 and decides to begin writing again. After he writes about his ancestors and his estate, he decides to refurbish all 365 of the rooms in his mansion and invites his neighbors over to see his work, earning their approval. Orlando begins to add to a poem he has been working on called, "The Oak Tree" and finds his writing much improved.

One day, while writing, Orlando spys a woman riding by his window. Upon introducing himself she says that she is a cousin of the queen, a Romanian archduchess called Harriet. Orlando feels himself overcome with lust for her but shuns this feeling and confusedly asks the king to send him as an ambassador to Constantinople in an effort to escape. Orlando is so charming and does such a good job as ambassador that the king soon raises his status to Duke. In celebration of his new title, Orlando throws a raucous party. Thousands of people attend including many women who are in love with him. That night, after the party ends, Orlando is seen lowering a rope down from the balcony off his room to help a woman climb up. He is then seen kissing her passionately. The next morning, his servants find him asleep in his room, alone with a mess of papers and clothes surrounding him. After unsuccessfully attempting to wake him, the servants look through the papers and find a marriage license between him and Rosina Pepita, a young dancer.

On the seventh day of Orlando's stupor an uprising happens. The Turks ascend against the sultan and loot the town. They attempt to detain or murder every one of the outsiders, however discovering Orlando lying still in a stupor, they think him dead and take his robes. As Orlando lies in the daze, three ethereal, feminine figures enter: Lady of Purity, Lady of Chastity, and the Lady of Modesty. They move around Orlando's body and attempt to claim him, yet trumpets sound. The figures are daunted that nobody needs them any more. They suddenly decide that this is a spot for Truth and not for them, so they depart. The trumpeters blow one note at Orlando, "the Truth" and he finally awakes. He stands upright, exposed, and discovers that he has somehow transformed into a woman.

Orlando finds that he is not upset by the drastic change, and considers himself a beautiful woman. He thinks that, aside from biology, he is still "precisely what he had been". He - now she, is undaunted and leaves Constantinople on a donkey accompanied by a gypsy that she had been in contact with before the uprising. Riding into the mountains, Orlando falls in with the gypsy's tribe. Soon, however, she finds that she and the gypsies have different values. They have a more practical view on life while she has a love of nature and poetry.

She returns to England after a short while and the narrator tells us that it is good that she did for some of the young men of the tribe were planning to kill her. As Orlando sails back to England, she thinks about the differences between being a man and being a woman. She wonders whether it is better to be the man or the woman, the pursuer or the one who is pursued. She is saddened by the amount of time it takes her to get dressed and make herself presentable each day.

She meets the Captain of the ship, a man called Nicholas Benedict Bartolus and feels an attraction to him. As someone who has been both genders, she finishes up by rebuffing both genders similarly; ladies for their restricted part and power in the public eye, men for the way they skip about like masters but get struck stupid the second they see a woman.

The boat stays off the bank of Italy and Orlando consents to go with the Captain inland. When she gives back the following morning, she talks more like a lady than a man, and it is clear that her sentimental recess with the Captain has made her more ladylike. She cheers in being a lady, upbeat to tackle the scourges of destitution and obliviousness with a specific end goal to be free of the masculine quest for force, glad that she might invest her energy in examination and adoration. She finds that despite the fact that she is presently a lady, she is still attracted to other ladies, and that she can understand Sasha's motivations more now. But Orlando is still hesitant, she doesn't want her new gender to make her powerless or chain her to any man.

As the ship anchors in the London, Orlando marvels at the changes the city has undergone. When she returns home she finds her servants confused but content with her sudden change of gender and that many lawsuits have been brought against her. The charges are that now at several hundred years old, she is dead and therefore cannot own property, she is a woman which also makes her unfit to own property and that Rosina Pepita is claiming that her three sons own Orlando's estate instead. Orlando puts off dealing with the charges and instead devotes her time to writing instead.

One day, Harriet returns. After Orlando invites her in, Harriet reveals that in fact, she is man and was one all along. The "Archduke Harry" begs Orlando's forgiveness for the deceit and tells Orlando that he only did it because he was in love with her when she was a man. Harry asks Orlando to marry him and run away to his castle estate in Romania. Orlando isn't sure what to say and Harry decides to give her time to think, while returning everyday to see if she has arrived at an answer. Soon the two find that they have little in common and nothing to talk about. Finally they end up playing silly games until eventually Orlando cheats, hoping that Harry will notice. He does and is angered. Orlando then drops a small frog down Harry's shirt which angers him further. Harry leaves in a huff and Orlando thinks about how glad she is not to have to marry him.

Orlando begins receiving invitations to balls from the prominent ladies of London and is soon whisked into high society once again but finds herself still disinterested with speaking to the writers of the day, even though it is a different day now. She begins wearing her old, men's clothes occasionally and switching back and forth between clothing for men and for women when she feels like it. She discovers that living as both genders is interesting and uses both to their advantage, using her male person to easily eavesdrop on conversations.

At the very end of the chapter, Orlando observes an enormous cloud moving in over London from her perch atop a hill and thinks about how the Eighteenth Century was over and now the Nineteenth had begun. The nineteenth century starts with that cloud hanging over London. The narrator tells us that none of the world's colors are as bright and sogginess saturates each home. The soddenness strikes inside, as men feel a chill in their souls, and adoration and warmth are "swaddled in fine phrases".

The genders become more separated. Ivy and greenhouses are getting to be congested; the narrator portrays the suffocation of overabundant development. Queen Victoria is now ruler of England and Orlando's housekeeper notes that her majesty has been seen wearing a crinoline, a fluffy underskirt that was useful in hiding pregnancies. The narrator tells us that in that day, women had to hide their pregnancies out of modesty as long as possible. This revelation causes Orlando to speculate about whether she will bear children.

She begins work again on her poem "The Oak Tree" which she has been writing now for 300 years, since 1586 and thinks about how, though the poem has changed many times with her maturation, she - and it are still the same deep down. Orlando feels that she is not right in this century and that it is contrary to her nature. But concedes that she must find a husband in accordance with the times.

Distraught, Orlando takes a walk into the woods and soon wonders across a man on a horse. She tells him of her situation and soon the man, Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine, agrees to marry her. The two begin to get acquainted and Shelmerdine informs her that he is a seaman and adventurer. Soon Orlando tells Shel that she loves him and they have an odd moment. Shel acknowledges Orlando is a man, and Orlando acknowledges Shel is a lady at the same time. Orlando thanks Shel and says that she has still never felt more like a real female.

Following a couple of days of Shel and Orlando being a couple a message comes. It is from the Queen. The letter says that the majority of Orlando's claims have been settled: the Turkish marriage is invalidated, Rosina's children affirmed illegitimate, and Orlando's sex is announced to be female without question. She is presently in full possession of every all of her titles and property, however the claims were expensive to the point that Orlando is now very poor. The town celebrates when they hear the news that Orlando's suits are settled, and she at the end of the day gets numerous welcomes from imperative English rulers and women. Rather than attending, Orlando chooses to invest her energy alone with Shel. The two quickly marry and Shel leaves soon after on his ship. Left alone in her house, Orlando begins work on "The Oak Tree" again and finishes it promptly getting it published soon after.

Orlando discovers that she is pregnant and gives birth to a son around the turn of the 20th century. Finding herself unhappy with life, Orlando decides to bury her book (which is now in it's seventh edition) in the garden under a huge oak tree. But once she gets to is she decides not to and thinks the errand very silly. Looking out over her land she thinks that her husband will soon come home to her. It is night, and the primary stroke of midnight sounds. She hears a plane above, and she exposes her bosoms to the moon, waiting impatiently for Shelmerdine. Shelmerdine, now a sea captain jumps to the ground. As he does this, a wild flying creature springs up and Orlando shouts, "It is the goose... the wild goose!" The twelfth stroke of midnight sounds on Thursday, October 11, 1928 and the novel ends.

Character Analysis

Orlando - the entire story of the novel revolves around Orlando and follows him/her through his/her 300 year life. It is never explained why Orlando (or indeed a few other characters in the book) possess the gift of immortal life, nor does she/he ever seem particularly surprised by her longevity. Nor is she/he bothered by her sex change into a woman. Orlando as character, has a tendency to be agreeable, accepting whatever happens as a matter of course and going along with it.

Based upon Woolf's real-life partner, Vita Sackville-West, Orlando shares a considerable amount of West's qualities: most fundamentally, a profound respect for history and family convention. Orlando's sex change in the novel has vital influence in his character advancement. While she/he begins as a youthful, affluent aristocrat who enjoys tarrying about the illustrious court, Orlando closes the novel a profound, intelligent, self-reflective woman. This change is then reflected into her writing of "The Oak Tree" poem which transforms from a silly, overly-involved dramatic piece becomes a mature epic poem.

As Orlando ages she begins to understand that she is made out of many selves and parts. These parts join to frame the individual she is at the present minute. She is also piece of nature, and therefore not completely immortal. At long last, by developing and by achieving middle-age, Orlando finds that she has finally reached what she was searching for, someone who loves and accepts her.

Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine - Marmaduke or "Shel" as he is referred to in the novel, represents something for Orlando that she finds important as she grows and matures. Their courtship is comically abrupt and, as in the classic romantic novels of the day, Shel sweeps Orlando off her feet and marries her instantly, changing her life forever. Orlando chooses to find a husband primarily to comply with the "spirit of the age".

But in Shel she finds more than just a husband, but someone who truly understands her. Another individual who doesn't consider himself defined by his gender. In this way, Shel's character is mostly likely meant to represent Vita Sackville-West's real life husband, Harold Nicholson who was openly bisexual. Because Shel does not see himself as falling into any sexuality or gender category, Orlando finds him to be an acceptable husband and, best of all, equal to her.

Princess Sasha - Sasha's character is the first to evoke a few different things in Orlando at the start of the novel that quickly begin to become themes in his life. First, a deep sexual desire that precludes any reference to gender. When Orlando first meets Sasha, she is wearing heavy clothes and moving quickly. He cannot tell if she is a man or a woman but feels that he is attracted to her regardless. This effect is carried out through the rest of the novel as Orlando comes to terms with his gender and sexuality and whom he finds attractive.

Second, a sense of despair upon her leaving. Before Sasha spurns him, Orlando wants for nothing in his life. He is a rich, young, attractive nobleman who is a favorite of the queen and has never experienced any misfortune. After Sasha stands him up during their plan to run away together, Orlando experiences real loss and pain for the first time.

Perhaps as a result of this, Orlando remembers Sasha many times through the rest of the novel, often hallucinating visions of her later on. Orlando realizes toward the end of the novel that now that he/she is a woman, she understands Sasha's motivations more and forgives her. Sasha's character is most likely based on Vita Sackville-West ex-lover, Violet Trefusis.

Archduchess Henrietta/Archduke Harry - despite the fact that Harry seems, by all accounts, to be an impeccable match for Orlando (he is likewise a rich aristocrat who dresses in garments of an alternate sex), their personalities don't match by any means. Harry is a comedic character and functions as comic relief in the novel. Harry's persona of Archduchess Harriet is created specifically in order to trick Orlando into falling in love with him whereas Orlando's change of sex is genuine and permanent.

Initially falling in love with Harry when he is Harriet, Orlando later realizes that she does not particularly like Harry and was only dazzled by his good looks. Harry, however, still finds himself infatuated with Orlando and tries with no success to get her to agree to marry him. Woolf utilizes the character of Archduke Harry to spoof the great fictional romantic heros of eighteenth century romance books, who often did absurd things to demonstrate their affection. Is it thought that his character is based on the real life Henry, Lord Lascelles, another of Vita Sackville-West's suitors.

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Literature / Orlando: A Biography

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Orlando: A Biography is a 1928 fictional biography by Virginia Woolf . The novel follows Orlando, who starts out as a young nobleman during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and follows his love affair with a Russian princess, his ambassadorship in the East, and his spontaneous sex-change and life afterward as a woman. Despite living from the 16th through the 20th centuries, Orlando is 36 when the novel ends in the present day (well, October 11, 1928, but that was the present when it was written). The various themes of the novel, including gender, literature and poetry, and the passage of time, are explored by Orlando's experiences with these subjects.

Being mainly known for being a story of gender-bending, Orlando covers many Gender-Blending Tropes . The novel was partly written by Woolf as a love letter to her then-partner, Vita Sackville-West.

Orlando: A Biography contains examples of following tropes:

• Asleep for Days : Orlando is asleep for a week after the disastrous end to his affair with the Russian princess, and again before his change into a woman.
• Attractive Bent-Gender : Orlando was already good-looking as a man; upon transformation, Lady Orlando's body is said to have the best-looking aspects of either gender.
• Engaging Conversation : Orlando gets engaged to Bonthrop a few minutes after they meet .
• Gender Bender : One of the earliest in literature; anything older is usually covered by mythology instead, like Tiresias of Greek Mythology .
• Hide Your Lesbians : Archduke Harry originally tries to woo the male Orlando disguised as a woman, but drops the disguise after Orlando becomes a woman.
• Humble Goal : Bonthrop's main desire in life is to sail around Cape Horn, again and again and again. He often shipwrecks and survives — he's another one of those people who lives for centuries.
• Well, there were Nell and her friends , whom Orlando remembers quite fondly afterwards (though she might not have sex with any of them, she clearly was attracted to Nell). And though she managed to convince "spirit of the age" that it's okay for a woman to compare flowers to Egyptian girls in her poetry as long as she has a husband, a narrator notices that "she had only escaped by the skin of her teeth" there.
• There is also this line, from just after Orlando's transformation: And as all Orlando's loves had been women, now, through the culpable laggardry of the human frame to adapt itself to convention, though she herself was a woman, it was still a woman she loved; and if the consciousness of being of the same sex had any effect at all, it was to quicken and deepen those feelings which she had had as a man.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall : Orlando is sensitive to the fact that that it's the "present day" according to her "biographer".
• Leg Focus : The narrator frequently comments on the shapeliness of Orlando's legs and all the characters checking them out; and, in a slight inversion, does it much more often for Male!Orlando than Female!Orlando.
• Lemony Narrator : The narrator gets bored, goes off on tangents, complains about the missing evidence, knows things he shouldn't, doesn't know things he should...
• Overly Long Name : Seems to be common with people Orlando is romantically linked with, such as Princess Maroucha Stanilovska Dagmar Natasha Iliana Romanovitch, Lady Margaret O'Brien O'Dare O'Reilly Tyrconnel, and Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine, Esquire.
• Speculative Fiction LGBT : Orlando begins as a heterosexual male in the early 20th Century, and through time travel accidentally swaps gender, but never has to define or justify their existence. Though the concept of gender is wholly linked to biological sex, it is an early example of using the genre to discuss very untouched issues, and may be opening a discourse on being transgender.
• True Art Is Ancient : An In-Universe example. To Nicholas Green, who also lives for centuries longer than he should , the greatest art is always that of about five hundred years ago.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight : Everyone treats Orlando's eternal youth and gender changes as totally unremarkable, including Orlando him/herself.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment : Over the years, Orlando keeps her manuscript of "The Oak Tree" in her bosom. Probably in more of a secluded pocket than right next to her skin, but still ...

Alternative Title(s): Orlando

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Orlando From 1650 to 1700

Recap from the first installment in this series:  Orlando (1992) is based on Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel  Orlando: A Biography . Directed by Sally Potter and starring Tilda Swinton as Orlando, the story floats dreamily across 300 years of Orlando’s life, first as a man and then as a woman. Orlando never appears to age, owing to a magical slumber that happens every century or so, when he (then she) awakes refreshed in a new era. The film is broken up into segments with the years given to establish Orlando’s place in history at any given moment. This timeline is one of the reasons that this film has long been a costumer favorite, as the costumes, designed by Sandy Powell , range from the end of the Elizabethan age through to the modern era (well, the early 1990s at any rate). It is chalk full of eye-candy at every turn, but when I set out to write this post I realized that I would need to break it up into separate posts dealing with each of the eras, lest I overwhelm myself (and everyone else with me).

This post picks up where the previous one left off … Orlando has fallen into a deeeeeep sleep and finally awakes in 1650.

Orlando decides that he will sponsor Nick Greene, a poet and publisher, in hopes that he will help him become pursue his own dream of being a poet. Things do not go quite as well as hoped.

Greene is dirty, unkempt, a bore, and only interested in Orlando’s money.

Greene agrees to read Orlando’s poem, but dismisses it as complete rubbish, even going so far as to rewrite it himself and send it back to his master pointing out all the ways, in verse, that Orlando is basically a shallow prat.

The film suddenly leaps forward to 1700, during the reign of William and Mary. Orlando is seeking a change of pace, and the King decides to send him to Constantinople as the English Ambassador to the Turks. This leads to a lot of  fabulous wigs.

Of particular note here is Queen Mary’s mantua gown. It’s a style not often seen on film (which is a damn shame since it is seriously gorgeous). Though her gown doesn’t directly reference any portrait or extant clothing, here’s my favorite example of this style:

Once in Constantinople, Orlando does his best to adapt to the strange world around him. Initially, he seems fairly resistant to abandoning his European ways, but eventually, as a bond with the Khan develops, he starts to dress in the Turkish style.

Orlando’s red suit shares some similarities with this portrait, despite being 20 years earlier. I am not 100% convinced that Sandy Powell was sticking religiously to the timeline with some of her design decisions…

Archduke Harry arrives in Constantinople to inform Orlando that the Queen (presumably now Anne, placing this post-1702, if you’re trying to follow along historical-events-wise) wishes to recognize his years of faithful service by elevating him to the highest peerage. This requires throwing a lavish party at the Khan’s palace, in which none of the Turks attend, mainly because an uprising has suddenly broken out. The Khan asks Orlando if he will honor their friendship by sending his men to help defend the palace, and much to Archduke Harry’s bemusement, Orlando agrees to stay and fight.

After the battle, Orlando realizes that war actually IS hell, and he wants none of it. He falls into yet another slumber and… Well, we will continue this in the next post!

Does 17th-century costume on screen rock your socks?

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Share this:, 6 thoughts on “ orlando from 1650 to 1700 ”.

Yummy Fashion, especially the wigs and Orlando’s foppish clothes. Wigs sorta remind me of very long Chuck II, er Charles II, ones. This part of movie gives me wig lust, which cannot be cured.?

The costumes in this movie are amazing! I’m really regretting not seeing “Orlando” when it came out, and I guess I’ll have to track it down now.

Thanks for this series of posts!

This is one of my favourite movies of all time, and what started my girlcrush on Tilda Swinton. <3

Ah, periwigs! How I love you! And cuffs. Very early 18th century men’s fashion is a particular passion of mine (I can spend all day gazing at the Kit Kat Club portraits at the NPG http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/set/347/The+Kit-cat+Club+portraits%3A+by+Sir+Godfrey+Kneller ) And John Wood (sigh) as Archduke Harry…..

The all white/black costumes in the garden scenes are clearly referencing the Draughtsman’s contract, as the music in those scenes.

Is that desert supposed to be Constantinople?

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Orlando Airport Confirms Relocation Protocol, Millions of Disney Vacations Affected

in Walt Disney World

If you are traveling to Walt Disney World in the near future, be aware of a new relocation protocol that was just put into place at Orlando International Airport.

Unless you are driving to Walt Disney World, you are likely flying into Orlando International Airport to begin your magical vacation. The Orlando International Airport used to be the moment that the Disney vacation would begin, as guests staying at a Disney resort would hop on the Magical Express, which has been discontinued. Now, guests can use the Mears shuttle service, as well as other paid transportation methods like ride share (Uber, Lyft) to get to their resort.

While the Magical Express may no longer be there ready to inject guests with the magic of Disney right away, each terminal has Disney gift shops and billboards that will get any guest excited for the vacation that lies ahead.

What could cause you to be disarrayed on your vacation, however, is not knowing where you are going.

Orlando International Airport is massive, and now that a third terminal has been added to the airport, you may be confused as to where you are supposed to go when you arrive or depart MCO.

This week, Orlando International Airport took to X (formally Twitter) and stated that there will be an airline relocation update.

Airlines Relocation Update ✈️ Starting April 1st, 2024, Aeromexico, Avianca and Copa Airlines will be relocating to our Terminal C. For any questions regarding your specific flight, please contact the airline directly. Thank you.

Airlines Relocation Update ✈️ Starting April 1st, 2024, Aeromexico, Avianca and Copa Airlines will be relocating to our Terminal C. For any questions regarding your specific flight, please contact the airline directly. Thank you. pic.twitter.com/I4ILsFHZKe — Orlando International Airport (@MCO) March 27, 2024

So if you are traveling with Aeromexico, Avianca, and Copa Airlines, just know that you will be flying in and out of Terminal C, which is separate to Terminal A and B, as prior visitors may have been used to. If you are traveling with Mears Connect when you are headed back to the airport, they will know exactly where to bring you, but when using a ride-share service or self-driving, you will have to instruct what terminal you need to go to for your drop-off.

Kevin Thibault, the CEO of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, says Terminal C has been a welcome addition and provided a much-needed expansion.

“It really is capturing that vision of the multi-module connectivity and how they’re building on the lessons learned from existing terminals in every aspect that we have here. The holding areas, the charging stations — all those different amenities are all things that people want in the current terminal, and because it was opened in 1981, we didn’t have cell phones or Uber or Lyft to think about even 10 years ago,” says Thibault.

Just a few days ago, Orlando International Airport experienced its busiest day ever, and this Easter weekend, the airport is prepping for hundreds of thousands of more passengers using the airport to move in and out of the city. With Walt Disney World Resort, Universal Orlando Resort, SeaWorld Orlando, and so many other tourist destinations, Orlando is a hot spot for visitors from all over the world.

This month alone, Orlando International Airport will have had over 7.6 million passengers arrive, with over 50 million throughout the year. 

The airport has even been struggling to keep up with the demand, with many flights being delayed and canceled, and with terminal C being the least busy terminal with the capacity to handle more guests and flights, this relocation expansion is likely the first of many. 

Do you fly into Orlando International Airport when you visit Walt Disney World? 

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Timeline: here’s what to know about prior controversies tied to orlando commissioner regina hill, regina hill faces charges of exploitation of an elderly person and impersonation.

Anthony Talcott , Digital Journalist

ORLANDO, Fla. – Orlando Commissioner Regina Hill, 58, was arrested Thursday on charges including the exploitation of an elderly person, among others.

The District 5 city commissioner is accused of exploiting a 96-year-old woman and taking over $100,000 from her, state investigators have reported.

As the investigation into this case continues, here’s a look into the controversies that Hill has previously been tied to:

1989 - 2013 — PRIOR ARRESTS

Hill was arrested at least 21 times on a variety of charges, several of which were drug-related.

However, many of those charges were ultimately either dropped or the adjudication was withheld, court records show.

In 2000, she was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. She later pleaded guilty to the charge, being sentenced to 179 days of supervised probation and 50 hours of community service.

In 2005, she was arrested on a charge of marijuana possession, for which she was sentenced to six months probation.

APRIL 2014 — ELECTIONS

Hill faced off against Juan Lynum — son of the former City Commissioner Daisy Lynum — in an election for the District 5 seat.

During the election, Juan Lynum received 36 more votes than Hill.

However, neither candidate received more than 50% of the votes, so the race went to a runoff election.

Days after the election, Juan Lynum came under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement as part of a fraud case. FDLE agents said they were looking into accusations that Juan Lynum lived outside of District 5.

MAY 2014 — ELECTIONS

Hill won her race against competitor Juan Lynum, earning over 54% of the vote in the runoff election.

Despite being attacked as a “career criminal” by her opponents, Hill acknowledged her history, but she said that what mattered was what she planned to do next.

“Sure I have had some issues in my past, but that has built integrity, that has built strength, that has built fortitude, that has built compassion, and the people have connected to that because I have walked in many of their shoes,” she said.

While she had no prior experience as an elected official, Hill told News 6 back then that she was focused on bringing jobs to her district.

AUGUST 2014 — AIDE ARRESTED

One of Hill’s aides, Cara Reaves, was arrested at a movie theater on charges of disorderly intoxication, trespassing and battery on a law enforcement officer.

In an arrest affidavit, police said Reaves had been shouting at the Plaza Cinema Café while smelling of alcohol, prompting an officer to ask her to stop.

While ordering refreshments, Reaves continued speaking loudly and argued with other guests, causing a manager to ask her to leave, though she ignored the manager, the affidavit shows.

Police said that while placing her under arrest, she continually shouted, “Oh, I’m sorry I’m black,” and court records show she scratched an officer on the arm.

However, the disorderly conduct charge was later dropped, and despite pleading no contest to the other two charges, adjudication was withheld. Reaves denied drinking the night of her arrest.

Despite the arrest of one of her top aides, Hill told News 6 that she was not connected to the incident.

“I’m neutral in this. It’s not a Regina Hill situation or a District 5 situation,” she said. “Ms. Reaves was on her personal time, and this is a journey Cara Reaves is going to go through not as the aide of Regina Hill.”

JULY 2015 — HOME RAIDED

A home owned by Hill was raided by Orange County deputies , leading to five arrests — including Hill’s son, 27-year-old Rakeem Hill, who was charged with the following:

• trafficking in methamphetamine
• possession of a firearm by a convicted felon
• possession of ammunition by a convicted felon
• possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony
• possession of cannabis.

Illicit drugs and at least one stolen gun were found inside the home, according to investigators at the time. However, Regina Hill was not at the home when the raid happened.

Around a week later, Regina Hill said she had been unfairly scrutinized for the incident.

“It’s not fair. I’ve been a hard-working woman and a mother for 27 years, and a nurse for 23 years. I have reports for 24 years. I am trying to serve my community,” Hill told News 6 .

The charges against Rakeem Hill were dropped by prosecutors just a couple of months later, court records show.

APRIL 2017 — ONLINE VIDEO

A video posted online by Regina Hill sparked controversy after it led viewers to believe she was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

“Power to the people, uh, we’re back,” Hill said in the video. “Actually, I’m not all that cohesive...”

[WATCH NEWS 6′S PREVIOUS COVERAGE BY CLICKING IN THE MEDIA PLAYER BELOW]

The commissioner later said in a statement that she “adamantly” denied the use of drugs. She said the video doesn’t show a commissioner high on drugs — it shows a mother in grief.

According to Tallahassee police, Hill’s 24-year old daughter, Arvonni DeBose, died under suspicious circumstances death in August 2015.

“The video depicts a mother who is overcome dealing with the loss of her daughter,” the statement reads.

Hill had been using video diaries to cope with the grief, the statement continued. It also said the video shared on social media was a personal video that she did not authorize anyone to release.

AUGUST 2017 — HOTEL INCIDENT

Regina Hill was found unresponsive on the floor in the DoubleTree Hotel penthouse, prompting hotel staff to call for emergency services.

An Orlando firefighter — Joshua Granada — responded to the distress call, though he didn’t initially realize that the woman was Regina Hill.

After EMT first responders revived Hill, she reportedly began shouting and making “accusatory remarks.”

“It was cursing, cursing, cursing. ‘I hate you, you’re trying to get me in trouble,’” Granada later told News 6 . “‘I hate all of you firemen,’ and that’s what I heard, and I swear to you, I still didn’t know who she was.”

According to Granada, the hotel room looked like the aftermath of a “college rager,” with empty liquor bottles strewn about and the room reeking of cigarettes.

He also explained that Hill yelled out, “Stop touching me... All of you are trying to hurt me, you are all trying to do things.”

Due to Hill’s alleged accusations, Granada said he recorded a 30-second audio clip for his and his team’s safety.

NOVEMBER 2017 — COMPLAINT FILED

A complaint was filed against Hill, which alleged that she lived in a low-income apartment complex despite making over $60,000 per year in her role as a commissioner.

The complaint — filed by a family member of one of Hill’s political rivals — stated that Hill lived at the Landing at Timberleaf Apartments, which required residents to make $39,000 or less per year.

That complaint included a copy of the lease Hill submitted as part of her election paperwork, where it showed she paid $644 per month for rent, but her name didn’t appear anywhere on the lease.

Instead, the lease was accompanied by a notarized letter from another woman, which read, “Hill has resided with me since December of 2015 after her daughter’s death.”

Hill later responded to news about the complaint, calling it a “smear campaign.”

“I am working for the residents of Orlando, and that’s all I have to say about this,” she said.

NOVEMBER 2017 — FIREFIGHTER FIRED

Granada was fired from his position as a firefighter over the 30-second recording — since deleted — which was played in front of a few colleagues.

City records show that this was considered a breach of Hill’s privacy, hence why Granada was terminated.

The firefighters’ labor union held a press conference after the incident, saying it was a “ wrongful termination .”

Hill later announced that she wanted to press charges against Granada.

“We also must be concerned that a firefighter who is violating patient’s privacy and their rights when they are most vulnerable,” Hill said. “Sadly, at this point, my privacy has been destroyed.”

MARCH 2018 — SON ARRESTED AGAIN

Hill’s son, Rakeem Hill, was arrested again after deputies accused him of fleeing a traffic stop and attacking law enforcement.

According to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, Rakeem Hill had been spotted driving over 100 mph and swerving between lanes early in the morning.

After a deputy followed him to a parking lot, Rakeem Hill then backed his BMW into the deputy’s patrol vehicle, causing the deputy to draw his firearm and tell Rakeem Hill to get on the ground, investigators reported.

Court records show that Rakeem Hill then fled on foot, though after a chase and a short struggle , he was ultimately arrested. Marijuana was also found in the BMW, deputies said.

Rakeem Hill was eventually found guilty of resisting arrest with violence, though his charges of petit theft and battery on a law enforcement officer were dropped. He was sentenced to 18 months probation.

DECEMBER 2018 — FIREFIGHTER FACES CHARGES

Following his termination in 2017, Grenada was charged with unlawful interception of wire or oral communication, and willful disclosure of an unlawful interception of a wire or oral communication.

OCTOBER 2019 — FIREFIGHTER REINSTATED

After an extensive investigation, a federal mediator ruled that Granada shouldn’t have been terminated for the incident in August 2017.

While the mediator said a 240-hour suspension was appropriate, being fired was not, so Granada was reinstated with back pay .

However, Granada was ordered to pre-trial diversion due to his charges, but the charges would be dropped if the program was completed in six months.

Hill told News 6 that the ruling was “like a double slap in the face.”

“He betrayed the trust of all of our citizens when he illegally recorded myself on one of the calls for medical attention,” she said.

THE CURRENT CASE

After several years without a major public controversy, Hill once again came under scrutiny earlier this month when she was accused of exploiting an elderly woman .

According to court documents uncovered by News 6, the FDLE is investigating whether Hill established a power of attorney over a 96-year-old woman and secured a mortgage for a home in the Lake Man estates area of Orlando — without the elderly woman’s knowledge.

Investigators said they believe that Hill’s son and his girlfriend lived in the home while Hill lived in a separate house in the Washington Shores neighborhood.

That home once belonged to the elderly woman’s parents, but Hill wasn’t paying rent, the documents show.

According to the court records, Hill also used more than $100,000 of the woman’s cash and credit cards to buy perfume, clothing, IV vitamins, a facelift, a trip to Miami, dental surgery and car insurance.

On Thursday, Hill was arrested on the following charges:

• Exploitation of the elderly/disabled
• Impersonation
• Scheme to defraud
• Mortgage fraud

“What we can speak about and what we know from the interviews and what we’re allowed to say today is that the victim in this case was not aware of how much she had signed over to Commissioner Hill,” said FDLE Orlando Special Agent John Vecchio.

Vecchio also said that while the evidence shows Hill met the victim through her work as Orlando city commissioner, none of the charges against her involved her office.

“The charges today have to do with her acting as a citizen, not in her official capacity,” Vecchio said. “So we need to stay focused on these crimes. She is charged because of what she did as a person.”

Hill later bonded out of jail on $40,000. On Friday, she provided the following statement:

It’s unfortunate that I have been thrust into these circumstances with these allegations. Unfortunate not just for me but for (the 96-year-old woman), whom I’ve loved and cared for like my own family. I trust in God above all things, and I trust in the process. After ten years of service for the City of Orlando, I’ve illustrated my love and compassion for my constituents, my city, and my family. I know the truth; I know I’m entitled to due process, in which I trust, and I will await my day in court to prove my innocence. Regina Hill

WHAT’S NEXT?

When asked about Hill’s future as a commissioner, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer’s office said in a statement: “We do not have any authority to discipline an elected official, including suspending them from office, as that power lies with the governor.”

If Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis were to suspend Hill, the city would work with the Supervisor of Elections to hold a special election to temporarily fill the District 5 city commission seat.

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About the Author

Anthony talcott.

Anthony, a graduate of the University of Florida, joined ClickOrlando.com in April 2022.

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College Sports | UCF unveils new details, timeline for football…

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Subscriber only, college sports | ucf unveils new details, timeline for football stadium expansion.

UCF ‘s proposed expansion of FBC Mortgage Stadium is scheduled to begin in December and is expected to be completed before the start of the 2026 football season.

UCF’s Board of Trustees documents revealed project details, including a proposed timeline. The BOT is planning a workshop/retreat on March 28 to discuss the updated plans and the project’s financials.

The Orlando Business Journal was the first to report the details.

According to documents, the Roth Tower renovations will include 1,236 club seats, 34 loge boxes, 34 skybays and 25 luxury suites. The project, which involves expanding approximately 58,000 square feet, is estimated to cost $88 million.

The club seating area will increase by 40% to approximately 16,000 square feet as it grows from 900 to 1,236 seats. Luxury suites will increase from 25 to 59 and the school plans to offer a level of “sky cribs” that will provide fans with an open-air patio suite with upscale food, beverage, beer and wine.

UCF football announces date, time for spring game

The expanded premium seating options will help the school generate $2.4 million in new revenue annually.

The expansion includes improvements to the ground-level entrances and additional elevators to support the increased number of occupants. New interior and exterior gathering spaces will be available year-round during football season and for special events. There will be additional restrooms and concessions.

The tower will also expand the press box and media spaces to “ensure UCF’s Football Stadium is best positioned to host and broadcast events and highlight Orange County and Orlando as a destination sports and competition.”

UCF has selected AECOM as its architect and Barton Malow as the construction manager for the project.

The stadium expansion is part of a new football campus, first proposed by UCF athletics director Terry Mohajir in 2021. The project includes the building of McNamara Cove and the Sharon and Marc Hagle Gateway, which will serve as an activation area on gamedays while providing an additional entryway to the football stadium.

It also calls for the building of the Taylor A. Gerring Football Center . This two-story standalone football operations building will house football coaches’ offices, meeting rooms and a student-athlete lounge. Currently, the football offices are located in the Wayne Densch Sports Complex.

New UCF strength coach Anthony Kincy brings family feel to Knights

The project coincides with UCF’s entrance into the Big 12 , with additional fundraising for the athletic department’s Mission XII campaign.

Orange County commissioners approved $90 million of tourist development tax funds for the football stadium project in October. Once the Board of Trustees approves the measure, it will be signed and returned for final consideration before its June 2024 meeting. Once signed, the school will receive up to $10 million per year, starting in December.

While the project is funded through the TDT funds, UCF plans to use a $70 million bank loan and $30 million in bonds for short-term financing.

UCF expects revenues to increase after the project’s completion in 2027, coinciding with the school receiving a full conference revenue distribution. As a new member, the school gets just a partial revenue distribution of about $18 million annually until 2026.

According to the documents, design and development are projected to be complete by September, construction is expected to begin in December, and the project is expected to be finished sometime in the summer before the start of the 2026 football season.

The existing tower will remain operational during the 2025 football season, but construction will be active on the building’s north, south, and west sides during weekdays.

Matt Murschel can be reached at [email protected]

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Solar eclipse 2024: Where will the eclipse be visible? This map and timeline show you

2024 solar eclipse On April 8, some 31 million residents in 15 U.S. states will be treated to an event as old as the planet when a solar eclipse will cut across a good portion of the country.

On April 8, a solar eclipse will cut across the United States, plunging a portion of the nation into darkness.

>> Read more trending news

Those in the roughly 2,575-mile path will see a total solar eclipse — meaning that they will go into total darkness as the moon moves in between the sun and the Earth.

Those who live in other parts of the country won’t be left out. While the path of totality is only about 115 miles wide, the rest of the contiguous 48 states will experience a partial eclipse — meaning the skies will darken, but it will look more like an overcast afternoon.

The eclipse will enter the United States in Texas and travel through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Small parts of Tennessee and Michigan will also experience the total solar eclipse.

If you plan a trip to go see the eclipse, the table below provides the time that totality begins in some U.S. cities in the path of totality. These areas will also experience a partial eclipse before and after these times.

If you are wondering what you can see in your area and what time the eclipse will begin and end for you, you can check here.

Just enter the name of your city or town and you will be redirected to another page. Then, on the left-hand side of that page, click on “solar eclipse” — it will say either “total or partial eclipse.” It will then show you what time the eclipse begins in your area, the time it will be at its maximum effect and when it ends.

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Rating changes: 12 House races shift on divided battlefield

Moved toward Republicans

• Colorado’s 3rd (Open; Lauren Boebert, R) from Tilt Republican to Lean Republican
• Iowa’s 2nd District (Ashley Hinson, R) from Likely Republican to Solid Republican
• Michigan’s 10th (John James, R) from Tilt Republican to Lean Republican
• Ohio’s 9th District (Marcy Kaptur, D) from Lean Democratic to Tilt Democratic

Moved toward Democrats

• California’s 41st District (Ken Calvert, R) from Lean Republican to Tilt Republican
• Florida’s 9th District (Darren Soto, D) from Likely Democratic to Solid Democratic
• Michigan’s 3rd District (Hillary Scholten, D) from Lean Democratic to Likely Democratic
• Nebraska’s 2nd District (Don Bacon, R) from Lean Republican to Tilt Republican
• Nevada’s 3rd District (Susie Lee, D) from Lean Democratic to Likely Democratic
• New York’s 3rd District (Tom Suozzi, D) from Lean Democratic to Likely Democratic
• Ohio’s 1st District (Greg Landsman, D) from Lean Democratic to Likely Democratic
• Oregon’s 6th District (Andrea Salinas, D) from Lean Democratic to Likely Democratic

Nathan L. Gonzales is an elections analyst with CQ Roll Call.

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