- Decline of the English Murder
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Decline of the English Murder 
Cover of 1965 Penguin UK EditionAuthor(s) George Orwell Cover artist Peter Blake Country England Language English Genre(s) Essays Publisher Penguin Books Publication date 1965 Published in
English1965 Media type Paperback Pages 188 + covers "Decline of the English Murder" is an essay by George Orwell, where he analysed the kinds of murders depicted in popular media, and why people like to read them. Tribune published it on 15 February 1946, and Secker and Warburg republished it after his death in Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays in 1952.
The essay is not essentially about murders, but about British habits; his essays in The Lion and the Unicorn epitomise much of what he felt. Orwell identified several common features to the perfect murder: middle class criminals; sex or respectability as motive; mostly poisoning; deaths slow to be seen as due to crime; a dramatic coincidence or unbelievable occurrence; domestic victims.
His essay Raffles and Miss Blandish also casts a light on how he thought an English Murder was in a different class from any other murder.
Orwell excluded Jack the Ripper as being "in a class by itself" and considered the cases of Dr. Palmer of Rugeley, Neill Cream, Mrs. Maybrick, Dr. Crippen, Frederick Seddon, Joseph Smith, Armstrong, Bywaters and Thompson and an unnamed case from 1919 where the accused was acquitted.[1]
Orwell then contrasted this with the Cleft Chin Murder, a recent murder during World War II, distinguished its by brutality, not emotion nor class. He suggested that people enjoyed the brutality because of the effects of the war, and that it would not be as remembered as the older cases.
The essay was later collected in a compilation entitled Decline of the English Murder and Other Essays, published by London's Penguin Group in 1965.
The essay's opening sentence pictures a typical working Englishman settling down with the News of the World after his Sunday lunch. The final issue of this newspaper in July 2011 quoted this sentence, claiming that Orwell had well described the sentiments of the nation. However, media pundit Max Atkinson argued that Orwell was in fact satirizing the sensationalist tabloids.[2]
References
- ^ Under British Law it would open him to a charge of libel had he named him.
- ^ de Castella, Tom (11 July 2011). "Was George Orwell a fan of the News of the World?". BBC News Magazine. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14106031. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
See also
- Bibliography of George Orwell
- Raffles and Miss Blandish
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 · OrwellianCategories:- Essays by George Orwell
- 1946 works
- Works originally published in Tribune (magazine)
- Essays in literary criticism
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