I’ve always enjoyed writing book reviews, especially of biographies, where it is an opportunity to crystallize the subject’s life and offer a personal take on it, as well as discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the particular biographer’s approach.
And David Astor, the former Observer editor, is buried in the same graveyard. He had bought the Manor House in the village in the 1940s and arranged Orwell's burial.
As good as his books are, his essays really shine. I haven't read much more perceptive than the likes of Shooting An Elephant. They're brilliant for understanding Britain, or more specifically England, in the 1930s-40s, and of course colonialism
There's much I would want to quarrel with here but would you perhaps like to respond on just two points, one major and one minor although rather personal?
The major one: what do you make of Orwell's essay on Dickens? I think it demonstrates an almost complete failure to grasp what Dickens's fiction was about but would be very interested in your take on it.
The minor one: how do you manage to write (correctly I believe) that '1984' was published in 1948 and then in the next sentence state that Orwell's death in early 1950 came less than a year after that novel's publication, which would make the year of publication 1949? Do you perhaps have some problems with numbers? It's not so unusual, certainly in England, for great literary talent to be allied with poor mathematical/arithmetical skills eg. a well known journalist,who shall be nameless, happened to confess to me just a week ago that he had failed Maths O-Level (he's 65) five times. And I wouldn't have thought it was possible even to make that many attempts.
Thanks for pointing out my slip, which I have now corrected - 1984 was of course finished in 1948, not "published" then - it was published June 1949 and he died Jan 1950, hence "less than a year." As for the Dickens essay, I actually think Gissing is better on him than Orwell is. And I'm a great fan of the late John Carey. Also like John Mullan's recent book.
Thank you for the very swift response and fair enough that you don't touch on the personal query, which was a bit of a cheek on my part. I'm not a great fan of John Carey's 1973 book on Dickens but haven't read anything else he may have written on the author: John Mullan's book seems to me far better than Carey's, although I admire Carey's criticism in many other respects. I must revisit Gissing on Dickens.
Thank you for the long quote. I hadn’t seen it, & it does so capture both of them on little England-ism & their consciousness of what empire actually was.
And David Astor, the former Observer editor, is buried in the same graveyard. He had bought the Manor House in the village in the 1940s and arranged Orwell's burial.
As good as his books are, his essays really shine. I haven't read much more perceptive than the likes of Shooting An Elephant. They're brilliant for understanding Britain, or more specifically England, in the 1930s-40s, and of course colonialism
yes, I love those essays. The Lion & the Unicorn, too.
There's much I would want to quarrel with here but would you perhaps like to respond on just two points, one major and one minor although rather personal?
The major one: what do you make of Orwell's essay on Dickens? I think it demonstrates an almost complete failure to grasp what Dickens's fiction was about but would be very interested in your take on it.
The minor one: how do you manage to write (correctly I believe) that '1984' was published in 1948 and then in the next sentence state that Orwell's death in early 1950 came less than a year after that novel's publication, which would make the year of publication 1949? Do you perhaps have some problems with numbers? It's not so unusual, certainly in England, for great literary talent to be allied with poor mathematical/arithmetical skills eg. a well known journalist,who shall be nameless, happened to confess to me just a week ago that he had failed Maths O-Level (he's 65) five times. And I wouldn't have thought it was possible even to make that many attempts.
Thanks for pointing out my slip, which I have now corrected - 1984 was of course finished in 1948, not "published" then - it was published June 1949 and he died Jan 1950, hence "less than a year." As for the Dickens essay, I actually think Gissing is better on him than Orwell is. And I'm a great fan of the late John Carey. Also like John Mullan's recent book.
Thank you for the very swift response and fair enough that you don't touch on the personal query, which was a bit of a cheek on my part. I'm not a great fan of John Carey's 1973 book on Dickens but haven't read anything else he may have written on the author: John Mullan's book seems to me far better than Carey's, although I admire Carey's criticism in many other respects. I must revisit Gissing on Dickens.
Love his Essays like Such, such were the joys. Politics and the English Language, A nice cup of tea, Moon under the water, England your England
'' England is not the jewelled isle of Shakespeare 's much quoted passage..."
Thank you for the long quote. I hadn’t seen it, & it does so capture both of them on little England-ism & their consciousness of what empire actually was.