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Craft and Structure / Cross-Text Connections Difficulty: Hard

Text 1

Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel Orlando is an oddity within her body of work. Her other major novels consist mainly of scenes of everyday life and describe their characters’ interior states in great detail, whereas Orlando propels itself through a series of fantastical events and considers its characters’ psychology more superficially. Woolf herself sometimes regarded the novel as a minor work, even admitting once that she “began it as a joke.”

Text 2

Like Woolf’s other great novels, Orlando portrays how people’s memories inform their experience of the present. Like those works, it examines how people navigate social interactions shaped by gender and social class. Though it is lighter in tone—more entertaining, even—this literary “joke” nonetheless engages seriously with the themes that motivated the four or five other novels by Woolf that have achieved the status of literary classics.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the assessment of Orlando presented in Text 1?

By conceding that Woolf’s talents were best suited to serious novels but asserting that the humor in Orlando is often effective

By agreeing that Orlando is less impressive than certain other novels by Woolf but arguing that it should still be regarded as a classic

By acknowledging that Orlando clearly differs from Woolf’s other major novels but insisting on its centrality to her body of work nonetheless

By concurring that the reputation of Orlando as a minor work has led readers to overlook this novel but maintaining that the reputation is unearned

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Explanation

Choice C is the best answer because it reflects how the author of Text 2 would most likely respond to the assessment of Orlando in Text 1. Both authors agree that Orlando is unusual for Woolf: Text 1 states that the novel examines its characters’ psychologies more superficially than Woolf’s other novels do, and Text 2 describes it as being lighter in tone. However, while Text 1 calls Orlando an “oddity” and mentions that Woolf “began it as a joke,” Text 2 asserts that Orlando engages the same themes as Woolf’s other great novels. Hence, the author of Text 2 would most likely accept that Orlando differs from Woolf’s other novels but would also insist on its importance in the context of Woolf’s work as a writer.

Choice A is incorrect. Text 2 does suggest that the humor in Orlando is effective. However, there’s nothing in Text 2 to suggest that the author would agree that Woolf’s talents were best suited to serious novels. Rather, the author of Text 2 compares Orlando favorably to other novels by Woolf that are implied to be darker in tone. Choice B is incorrect because the author of Text 2 does not indicate that Orlando is less impressive than Woolf’s other novels, but instead points out that it engages the same themes as other novels by Woolf that are considered classics. Choice D is incorrect because there’s nothing in Text 1 or Text 2 to suggest that readers have generally ignored Orlando because of its reputation.