Smothered Under Journalism: 1946

by George Orwell, Peter Davison (Editor)

Orwell’s articles on The Intellectual Revolt his famous short essay Some Thoughts on the Common Toad , the radio play The Voyage of the Beagle , and his letter to Dwight Macdonald on the necessity for people to rid themselves of violent revolutionary leaders.

592 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Eric 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.

Reviews

[Sarah (Presto agitato)]

There has been a lot of discussion recently on Goodreads about the nature of the book review. Questions have popped up all over the site about what should and shouldn’t be included.

All of that talk prompted me to reread some of the work of one of my favorite book reviewers, George Orwell. He wrote hundreds of book reviews, many of which happened to be, at least potentially, off-topic.

I’ve been discouraged about what has been going on here on Goodreads, but Orwell’s essay “Confessions of a Book Reviewer” (full text here) cheered me up.

For example, he describes his prototype book reviewer as:

“…a man of 35, but looks 50. He is bald, has varicose veins and wears spectacles, or would wear them if his only pair were not chronically lost. If things are normal with him he will be suffering from malnutrition, but if he has recently had a lucky streak he will be suffering from a hangover. At present it is half past eleven in the morning, and according to his schedule he should have started work two hours ago; but even if he had made any serious effort to start he would have been frustrated by the almost continuous ringing of the telephone bell, the yells of the baby, the rattle of an electric drill out in the street, and the heavy boots of his creditors clumping up and down the stairs.” (Complete Works of George Orwell, Vol. XVIII, pg. 300).

As contentious as things have been here lately, at least it hasn’t gotten as bad as that.

Orwell did have some hope for the amateur reviewer:

“. . . a good deal of reviewing, especially of novels, might well be done by amateurs. Nearly every book is capable of arousing passionate feeling, if it is only a passionate dislike, in some or other reader, whose ideas about it would surely be worth more than those of a bored professional. But, unfortunately, as every editor knows, that kind of thing is very difficult to organize” (CW, Vol. XVIII, pg. 301).

When Orwell was busy predicting the future, he apparently didn’t envision Goodreads.

[Susan Paxton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent volume in the Complete Orwell. 1946 was productive for Orwell, at least until he made the mistake, eventually fatal, of going to Jura for a rest that was not a rest. There are a number of previously unseen letters here, as well as a radio script that suggests plays were not Orwell's best format, as well as a number of major and minor essays, and Orwell's Domestic Diary, all arranged in order of composition.

We have Peter Davison to thank for this majestic series: he died, not long before I started reading this volume, in August 2022, at the age of 95. We owe him more than anyone could ever tell him, and I hope that his work will be followed up and updated when possible.

[Richard Parfitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve just finished a collection of George Orwell’s essays and articles (Smothered Under Journalism), but in lieu of a straightforward review, I’m going to share instead two quotes that capture why I’ve enjoyed reading through his collected works in full. Most of us know about the politics, often caricatured (“1984 was a warning not a blueprint!!”), but Orwell was also funny, adroit, and a great lover of the outdoors. As the British summer arrives and the gardens bloom, these two examples, one more presented more playfully than the other, felt appropriate.
 
“So long as you are not actually ill, hungry, frightened or immured in a prison or a holiday camp, Spring is still Spring. The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it.”
"Still, when one considers their boldness, their fecundity, their power of living in almost any climate and on almost any kind of food, and above all their unquestioning loyalty to their own kind, one is left thinking that it is a good job that ants are not larger."

[Phil Barker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seems to have been a good year for George. The war is over. He is a successful writer: Animal Farm is selling, people are interested in his previous work. Even the title only refers to the period at the beginning of the book, and he is able to get away from the journalism for his first period in Jura--so the domestic diary is back with his setting up a veg plot, fishing, and generally living off-grid. During the year he can start to choose what he works on: no more book reviews, just critical essays, his "As I please" column, and making a start on Nineteen Eighty-four.
And yet... he is trying to find a mother for his son (how's this for a proposal: "what I am really asking you is would you like to be the widow of a literary man"). Also he writes near the end of the year "the creative impulse seems to last for about 15 years [...] between the ages of 30 and 45". Orwell had written his first book when he was 29 and was 43 when he wrote that.

[Vasil Kolev · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of very good essays and "As I please columns", some interesting letters, and the not-that-interesting Domestic Diary while he was resting at Jura (and where he wrote the great essay on Gulliver's travels).