What do you think?
Rate this book
A Kind of Compulsion: 1903-1936
Volume 10 of The Complete Works of George Orwell
This volume begins with Orwell's illustrated letters home from prep school and the stories, poems and contributions to college publications he wrote at Eton. Then there are his articles and essays on poverty, censorship and imperialist exploitation first published in Paris in 1928-29, his early reviews, his first important essay, "A Hanging," and correspondence dealing with the publication of Down and Out in Paris and London and the censorship of Burmese Days , A Clergyman's Daughter , and Keep the Aspidistra Flying
.
This volume begins with Orwell's illustrated letters home from prep school and the stories, poems and contributions to college publications he wrote at Eton. Then there are his articles and essays on poverty, censorship and imperialist exploitation first published in Paris in 1928-29, his early reviews, his first important essay, "A Hanging," and correspondence dealing with the publication of Down and Out in Paris and London and the censorship of Burmese Days , A Clergyman's Daughter , and Keep the Aspidistra Flying
.
672 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
76 people want to read
About the author
George Orwell
1,280 books50.6k followersEric Arthur Blair was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to all totalitarianism (both fascism and stalinism), and support of democratic socialism.
Orwell is best known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), although his works also encompass literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in the industrial north of England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture.
Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"—describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices—is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink", and "thoughtcrime". In 2008, The Times named Orwell the second-greatest British writer since 1945.
Orwell is best known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), although his works also encompass literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in the industrial north of England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture.
Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"—describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices—is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink", and "thoughtcrime". In 2008, The Times named Orwell the second-greatest British writer since 1945.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 28, 2012
A Kind of Compulsion is Volume 10 of The Complete Works of George Orwell. The first nine volumes are Orwell’s books. Volumes 10-20 contain his letters, essays, poems, journalism, book reviews, movie reviews, diaries, drawings, tax records, long division calculations, grocery lists, ticket stubs, and sudoku puzzles. Okay, I’m exaggerating a little bit, but only a little (I’m not kidding about the long division).
This volume is aptly titled, because editor Peter Davison clearly had a kind of compulsion in trying to track down everything Orwell wrote. Ever. He then meticulously traced and verified it all, working out dates for undated material, identifying all of the people referenced in letters, analyzing Orwell’s writing in the Eton school paper to see if unsigned pieces were written by him, evaluating anything anyone who knew him had written or said about Orwell to help place material, and footnoting everything with all of this information. Davison faithfully notes where Orwell has crossed things out and misspelled words (Orwell apparently had trouble with the words “aggressive” and “address” his entire life). You can get a visual sense of the type of effort involved here by looking at Davison’s editing of Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Facsimile of the Extant Manuscript (my review has some pictures), where he valiantly deciphered handwriting and typescript. Extrapolate that to the thousands of pages involved in The Complete Works to get a sense of what a monumental task this was.
Volume 10 covers the years from 1903-1936, giving the widest variety of writing in The Complete Works. The first item is a 1911 letter from eight-year old Eric Blair in boarding school, writing home to his mother:
Dear Mother
I hope you are quite well, thanks for that letter you sent me I havent read it yet. I supose you want to know what schools like, its ? alright we have fun in the morning. When we are in bed.
from
E. Blair
There are articles from the Eton paper, short stories, newspaper pieces in French with corresponding English translations, and a play about Charles II that Orwell wrote for his students to perform when he was a teacher, with large sections in blank verse. Later letters involve the publication of his earlier novels and the changes he had to make to avoid libel charges (a very serious issue at the time that could involve jail sentences for writers, publishers, and even the printers), as well as his research for The Road to Wigan Pier.
I’ll conclude here with one of Orwell’s sketches for Burmese Days (handwritten in ink on reverse of Government of Burma paper), an epitaph for John Flory. I think it’s kind of catchy.
JOHN FLORY
Born 1890
Died of Drink 1927.
Here lies the bones of poor John Flory;
His story was the old, old story.
Money, women, cards & gin
Were the four things that did him in.
He has spent sweat enough to swim in
Making love tomarried stupid women;
He has known misery past thinking
In the dismal art of drinking.
O stranger, as you voyage here
And read this welcome, shed no tear;
But take the single gift I give,
And learn from me how not to live.
This volume is aptly titled, because editor Peter Davison clearly had a kind of compulsion in trying to track down everything Orwell wrote. Ever. He then meticulously traced and verified it all, working out dates for undated material, identifying all of the people referenced in letters, analyzing Orwell’s writing in the Eton school paper to see if unsigned pieces were written by him, evaluating anything anyone who knew him had written or said about Orwell to help place material, and footnoting everything with all of this information. Davison faithfully notes where Orwell has crossed things out and misspelled words (Orwell apparently had trouble with the words “aggressive” and “address” his entire life). You can get a visual sense of the type of effort involved here by looking at Davison’s editing of Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Facsimile of the Extant Manuscript (my review has some pictures), where he valiantly deciphered handwriting and typescript. Extrapolate that to the thousands of pages involved in The Complete Works to get a sense of what a monumental task this was.
Volume 10 covers the years from 1903-1936, giving the widest variety of writing in The Complete Works. The first item is a 1911 letter from eight-year old Eric Blair in boarding school, writing home to his mother:
Dear Mother
I hope you are quite well, thanks for that letter you sent me I havent read it yet. I supose you want to know what schools like, its ? alright we have fun in the morning. When we are in bed.
from
E. Blair
There are articles from the Eton paper, short stories, newspaper pieces in French with corresponding English translations, and a play about Charles II that Orwell wrote for his students to perform when he was a teacher, with large sections in blank verse. Later letters involve the publication of his earlier novels and the changes he had to make to avoid libel charges (a very serious issue at the time that could involve jail sentences for writers, publishers, and even the printers), as well as his research for The Road to Wigan Pier.
I’ll conclude here with one of Orwell’s sketches for Burmese Days (handwritten in ink on reverse of Government of Burma paper), an epitaph for John Flory. I think it’s kind of catchy.
JOHN FLORY
Born 1890
Died of Drink 1927.
Here lies the bones of poor John Flory;
His story was the old, old story.
Money, women, cards & gin
Were the four things that did him in.
He has spent sweat enough to swim in
Making love to
He has known misery past thinking
In the dismal art of drinking.
O stranger, as you voyage here
And read this welcome, shed no tear;
But take the single gift I give,
And learn from me how not to live.
December 19, 2011
This first volume of Orwell's letters and other writings begins with a note written to his mother from school when he was six years old and continues until he leaves for Spain to fight in the civil war. To read every scrap of writing Orwell put to paper for so many years impresses on the reader his immense skill with the English language and the strongly held opinions he formed very early in his school years.
August 18, 2020
This collection is wonderful. I read it in a day because I was so captured by it.
Of note - Orwell's breakdown of Ulysses made me realise I don't understand as much of that book as I thought I did.
Orwell thought A Clergyman's Daughter was "bollox". I found that hilarious because I absolutely loved it, whereas he liked Burmese Days and I found that a bore.
We're extremely lucky this collection was put together. Looking forward to reading volume 11 and beyond.
Of note - Orwell's breakdown of Ulysses made me realise I don't understand as much of that book as I thought I did.
Orwell thought A Clergyman's Daughter was "bollox". I found that hilarious because I absolutely loved it, whereas he liked Burmese Days and I found that a bore.
We're extremely lucky this collection was put together. Looking forward to reading volume 11 and beyond.
November 2, 2010
holyfuckingshit40000.blogspot.com
, 20 volume Orwell set. Brand new, at the College. Absolute political, prosaic, poetic, epistolary, and, of course, most importantly, proletarian dopeness. Orwell is also clearly a master poetic architect possessing and wielding, once again, his signature immensity of clarity. This one I found appropriate for the current autumnal/summer meteorological tumults:
Summer-like for an instant the autumn sun bursts out,
And the light through the turning elms is green and clear;
It slants down the path and the ragged marigolds glow
Fiery again, last flames of the dying year.
A blue-tit darts with a flash of wings, to feed
Where the coconut hangs on the pear tree over the well;
He digs at the meat like a tiny pickaxe tapping
With his needle-sharp beak as he clings to the swinging shell.
The he runs up the trunk, sure-footed and sleek like a mouse,
And perches to sun himself; all his body and brain
Exult in the sudden sunlight, gladly believing
That the cold is over and summer is here again.
But I see the umber clouds that drive for the sun,
And a sorrow no argument ever can make away
Goes through my heart as I think of the nearing winter,
And the transient light that gleams like the ghost of May;
And the bird unaware, blessing the summer eternal,
Joyfully labouring, proud in his strength, gay-plumed,
Unaware of the hawk and the snow and the frost-bound nights,
And of his death foredoomed.
Summer-like for an instant the autumn sun bursts out,
And the light through the turning elms is green and clear;
It slants down the path and the ragged marigolds glow
Fiery again, last flames of the dying year.
A blue-tit darts with a flash of wings, to feed
Where the coconut hangs on the pear tree over the well;
He digs at the meat like a tiny pickaxe tapping
With his needle-sharp beak as he clings to the swinging shell.
The he runs up the trunk, sure-footed and sleek like a mouse,
And perches to sun himself; all his body and brain
Exult in the sudden sunlight, gladly believing
That the cold is over and summer is here again.
But I see the umber clouds that drive for the sun,
And a sorrow no argument ever can make away
Goes through my heart as I think of the nearing winter,
And the transient light that gleams like the ghost of May;
And the bird unaware, blessing the summer eternal,
Joyfully labouring, proud in his strength, gay-plumed,
Unaware of the hawk and the snow and the frost-bound nights,
And of his death foredoomed.
May 29, 2010
How can I not give this twentieth part of a masterpiece of scholarship five stars? And that's without commenting on the author, which would be quite superfluous.
Get this, from an eight year old Eric Blair:
Dear Mother
I hope you are quite well, thanks for that letter you sent me I havent read it yet. I supose you want to know what schools like, its alright we have fun in the morning. When we are in bed.
from
E. Blair.
There are no less than eight footnotes to that, the first known example of the writing of one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century.
It gets better.
Get this, from an eight year old Eric Blair:
Dear Mother
I hope you are quite well, thanks for that letter you sent me I havent read it yet. I supose you want to know what schools like, its alright we have fun in the morning. When we are in bed.
from
E. Blair.
There are no less than eight footnotes to that, the first known example of the writing of one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century.
It gets better.
July 24, 2014
The first tome of the complete works (excluding the books/novels), it shows the development of Orwell as a writer. His style starts really showing at the middle of the book, and at the end is pretty much there.
The book encompasses at least half of his writing career - half of his books were written in this period. It ends with his leaving for Catalonia and the publication of "The road to Wigan pier".
The book encompasses at least half of his writing career - half of his books were written in this period. It ends with his leaving for Catalonia and the publication of "The road to Wigan pier".
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews