Inside the Whale and Other Essays
Encyclopedia
Inside the Whale and Other Essays is a book of essays written by George Orwell
in 1940
. It includes the eponymous essay Inside the Whale.
as a book of essays on 11 March 1940. Orwell refers to it as a "book" in part three of the essay. ("While I have been writing this book another European war has broken out."), as well as in letters he wrote to Geoffrey Gorer
and Humphry House, an English scholar, the following month. Gollancz initially printed 1,100 copies in March 1940, with some copies destroyed by Nazi bombing of England.
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
in 1940
1940 in literature
The year 1940 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Aldous Huxley is a screenwriter for the movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.*Jean-Paul Sartre is taken prisoner by the Germans....
. It includes the eponymous essay Inside the Whale.
Background
Inside the Whale was published by Victor GollanczVictor Gollancz
Sir Victor Gollancz was a British publisher, socialist, and humanitarian.-Early life:Born in Maida Vale, London, he was the son of a wholesale jeweller and nephew of Rabbi Professor Sir Hermann Gollancz and Professor Sir Israel Gollancz; after being educated at St Paul's School, London and taking...
as a book of essays on 11 March 1940. Orwell refers to it as a "book" in part three of the essay. ("While I have been writing this book another European war has broken out."), as well as in letters he wrote to Geoffrey Gorer
Geoffrey Gorer
Geoffrey Gorer, English anthropologist and author , noted for his application of psychoanalytic techniques to anthropology.He was educated at Charterhouse and at Jesus College, Cambridge. During the 1930s he wrote unpublished fiction and drama. His first book was The Revolutionary Ideas of the...
and Humphry House, an English scholar, the following month. Gollancz initially printed 1,100 copies in March 1940, with some copies destroyed by Nazi bombing of England.
Contents
- "Inside the WhaleInside the Whale"Inside the Whale" is an essay in three parts written by George Orwell in 1940. It is primarily a review of Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller with Orwell discursing more widely over English literature in the 1920s and 1930s...
" (1939) - Review of the work of Charles DickensCharles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
(1940) - "Boys' WeekliesBoys' Weeklies"Boys' Weeklies" is an essay by George Orwell in which he analyses those weekly story-paper publications for boys which were current around 1940...
" (1940)
Later version
A collection of essays with the same title was published in 1962 in the UK by Penguin Books. This edition was a reprint of an earlier collection entitled "Selected Essays" published in 1957. The collection contains the following essays:- "Inside the WhaleInside the Whale"Inside the Whale" is an essay in three parts written by George Orwell in 1940. It is primarily a review of Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller with Orwell discursing more widely over English literature in the 1920s and 1930s...
" - "Down the Mine" (a passage from The Road to Wigan PierThe Road to Wigan PierThe Road to Wigan Pier is a book by the British writer George Orwell, first published in 1937. The first half of this work documents his sociological investigations of the bleak living conditions amongst the working class in Lancashire and Yorkshire in the industrial north of England before World...
) - "England Your EnglandEngland Your England"England Your England" is an essay written by the British author George Orwell during The Blitz of 1941 as bombers of Nazi Germany flew overhead. It is his attempt to define British culture and the British people for the rest of the world as he fears that it might soon be wiped from earth by the...
" - "Shooting an ElephantShooting an Elephant"Shooting an Elephant" is an essay by George Orwell, first published in the literary magazine New Writing in the autumn of 1936 and broadcast by the BBC Home Service on 12 October 1948....
" - "Lear, Tolstoy and the FoolLear, Tolstoy and the Fool"Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool" is an essay by George Orwell. It was inspired by a critical essay on Shakespeare by Leo Tolstoy, and was first published in Polemic No. 7 ....
" - "Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's TravelsPolitics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels"Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels" is a critical essay published in 1946 by the English author George Orwell. The essay is a review of Gulliver's Travels with a discussion of its author Jonathan Swift...
" - "Politics and the English LanguagePolitics and the English Language"Politics and the English Language" is an essay by George Orwell criticizing "ugly and inaccurate" contemporary written English.Orwell said that political prose was formed "to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." Orwell believed...
" - "The Prevention of LiteratureThe Prevention of Literature"The Prevention of Literature" is an essay published in 1946 by the English author George Orwell. The essay is a concerned with freedom of thought and expression, particularly in an environment where the prevailing orthodoxy in left-wing intellectual circles is in favour of the communism of the...
" - "Boys' WeekliesBoys' Weeklies"Boys' Weeklies" is an essay by George Orwell in which he analyses those weekly story-paper publications for boys which were current around 1940...
"