- Confessions of a Book Reviewer
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"Confessions of a Book Reviewer" is a narrative essay published in 1946 by the English author George Orwell. In it he discusses the lifestyle of a book reviewer and criticises the practice reviewing almost every book published which gives rise to this lifestyle.
Contents
Background
Orwell started writing book reviews for Adelphi in 1930, and other publications for which he wrote reviews included New English Weekly, Horizon, New Statesman and Tribune. In 1940 he reviewed over 100 books. From 1945 to 1946 Orwell had kept up a high level of work, producing some 130 literary contributions. He had been seriously ill in February and was desperate to get away to Jura.[1]
The essay appeared in Tribune on 3 May 1946.
Summary
Orwell describes the lifestyle of a book reviewer living in a cold stuffy and untidy bedsitter, trying to motivate himself to start reviewing an assorted batch of books, working late into the night, and getting inspiration just in time to meet the copy deadline.
Orwell laments the attitude that every book deserves a review and asserts that in more than nine cases out of ten the book is worthless. The week-in week-out production of snippets reduces the book reviewer to the "crushed figure in a dressing gown". He notes that books on specialist subjects ought to be reviewed by experts, but for practical reasons they end up with the editor's "team of hacks". He would prefer to give very long reviews to the few books of merit and ignore the majority. His consolation is that a book reviewer is better off than a film critic.
See also
- Bibliography of George Orwell
References
- ^ D. J. Taylor Orwell:The Life Chatto & Windus 2003
External links
Works of George Orwell Novels Burmese Days (1934) · A Clergyman's Daughter (1935) · Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936) · Coming Up for Air (1939) · Animal Farm (1945) · Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)Nonfiction Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) · The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) · Homage to Catalonia (1938)Essays "A Hanging" (1931) · "The Spike" (1931) · "Bookshop Memories" (1936) · "Shooting an Elephant" (1936) · "Spilling the Spanish Beans" (1937) · "Boys' Weeklies" (1940) · "Inside the Whale" (1940) · "My Country Right or Left" (1940) · "England Your England" (1941) · "The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius" (1941) · "The Art of Donald McGill" (1940) · "Poetry and the Microphone" (1943) · "Raffles and Miss Blandish" (1944) · "Good Bad Books" (1945) · "Notes on Nationalism" (1945) · "Books v. Cigarettes" (1946) · "Confessions of a Book Reviewer" (1946) · "Decline of the English Murder" (1946) · "A Good Word for the Vicar of Bray" (1946) · "How the Poor Die" (1946) · "The Moon Under Water" (1946) · "A Nice Cup of Tea" (1946) · "Pleasure Spots" (1946) · "Politics and the English Language" (1946) · "The Politics of Starvation" (1946) · "Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels" (1946) · "The Prevention of Literature" (1946) · "Riding Down from Bangor" (1946) · "Second Thoughts on James Burnham" (1946) · "Some Thoughts on the Common Toad" (1946) · "Why I Write" (1946) · "Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool" (1947) · "The English People" (1947) · "Such, Such Were the Joys" (1952)Related articles "As I Please" · "London Letters" · Betrayal of the Left · Inside the Whale and Other Essays · Searchlight Books · Secker and Warburg · Victor Gollancz Ltd · Eileen O'Shaughnessy · Sonia Brownell · Orwell's list · Eric & Us · Why Orwell Matters · Orwell Award · Orwell Prize · OrwellianTexts · Quotes · Media Categories:- Essays by George Orwell
- 1946 works
- Essays about literature
- Works originally published in Tribune (magazine)
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