Such, Such Were the Joys
Encyclopedia
"Such, Such Were the Joys" is a long autobiographical
essay
by the English
writer George Orwell
. It was probably composed in the early 1940s
, but it was first published by the Partisan Review
in 1952, two years after Orwell's death. In the piece, Orwell describes his experiences between the ages of eight and thirteen, in the years before and during World War I
, while a pupil at a preparatory school
: St Cyprian's
, in the seaside town of Eastbourne
, in Sussex
. The essay offers various reflections on the contradictions of the Edwardian
middle and upper class world-view, on the psychology of children, and on the experience of oppression and class conflict
. The veracity of the stories it contains about life at St. Cyprian's has been challenged by a number of commentors, including Orwell's contemporaries at the school and biographers, but its powerful writing and haunting observations have made it one of Orwell's most commonly anthologized
essays.
," one of William Blake
's Songs of Innocence
which Orwell's mother had read to him when they lived at Henley:
The allusion is never explained in Orwell's text, but it is grimly ironic
, since Orwell recollects his early boarding school
experiences with almost unrelieved bitterness. St Cyprian's was, according to him, a "world of force and fraud and secrecy," in which the young Orwell, a shy, sickly and unattractive boy surrounded by pupils from families much richer than his own, was "like a goldfish
" thrown "into a tank full of pike
." The piece fiercely attacks the cruelty and snobbery of both his fellow pupils and of his teachers (particularly the headmaster, Mr. Vaughan Wilkes, nicknamed "Sambo," and his wife Cicely, nicknamed "Flip").
Orwell describes the education he received as "a preparation for a sort of confidence trick," geared entirely towards maximizing his future performance in the admissions exams to leading English public schools
such as Eton
and Harrow
, without any concern for actual knowledge or understanding. Orwell also claims that he was accepted as a boarder
at St Cyprians –at half of the usual fees– so that he might earn a scholarship that would look good in the school's publicity, and that his training relied heavily on the use of beatings, while the rich boys received preferential treatment and were exempted from corporal punishment.
The essay lashes out at the hypocrisy of the Edwardian society in which Orwell grew up and in which a boy was "bidden to be at once a Christian
and a social success, which is impossible." A chapter is devoted to the puritanical attitudes towards sex at the time and to the frightful consequences of the discovery of what appears to have been a case of mutual masturbation among a group of boys at the school. On the other hand, Orwell describes the actual "pattern of school life" as
Orwell's story is also punctuated by anecdotes about the dirt and squalor surrounding him, such as the porridge
at the dining hall containing "more lumps, hairs and unexplained black things than one would have thought possible, unless someone were putting them there on purpose," a human turd floating in the Devonshire Baths
, and a new boy's teeth turning green because of neglect.
According to the essay, the main lesson that Orwell took away from St Cyprian's was that, for a weak and inferior person such as himself, "to survive, or at least to preserve any kind of independence, was essentially criminal, since it meant breaking rules which you yourself recognized," and that he lived in a world "where it was not possible [for him] to be good." In the piece, Orwell also seeks to illustrate the reflection that children live "in a sort of alien under-water world which we can only penetrate by memory or divination," and he wonders whether even in more modern times, without "God, Latin, the cane, class distinctions and sexual taboos," it might still be normal for schoolchildren to "live for years amid irrational terrors and lunatic misunderstandings."
s. These have selective entrance by examination and offer scholarships by competitive examination, which offset all or part of the fees. The curriculum in Orwell's time, and for long after, centred on the classics
. Prep schools
were established from the 19th century to prepare students for these examinations and to provide a broader-based education than the traditional crammer, offering sports and additional subjects. Prep school children were often boarders, starting as early as five or as late as twelve. Boarding was, and still is, for terms of three months. Eastbourne
was a popular town for preparatory schools at the turn of the 20th century because its bracing sea air was believed to be healthy, and by 1896, Gowland’s Eastbourne Directory listed 76 private schools for boys and girls. An Eton scholarship was most highly prized, not just for its financial value but because it provided access to the elite intellectual cadre of King's Scholar
s. One of the leading prep schools of the time, Summer Fields School
, set in the university town of Oxford and with which St Cyprian's eventually was to merge, won every year at least five of the available Eton scholarships.
Orwell's mother sent him (as Eric Blair) to board at St Cyprian's School
at the age of eight in 1911. The school had been founded twelve years earlier by the headmaster, Vaughan Wilkes, and his wife Cicely. It had moved into newly-built facilities in extended grounds in 1906. Although able to charge high fees for better-off parents, the Wilkes supported traditional families on lower incomes, particularly in the colonial service, by taking their children at considerably reduced fees, and Orwell was one of several beneficiaries, who also included Cyril Connolly
Alaric Jacob
and Walter Christie
. Mrs Wilkes spotted Orwell looking sad on his arrival and tried to comfort him, but noted "there was no warmth in him". Nor did he respond positively to being taken on a picnic the following day. Senior boys in Orwell's first year included Ian Fraser
and Bolo Whistler
. His early letters home report a normal catalogue of class placings, results of games, and school expeditions.
In September 1914 Cyril Connolly
arrived at the school and formed a close friendship with Orwell. The First World War had just broken out, and Orwell's patriotic poem written at school was published in the Henley and South Oxfordshire Standard
. The war made life difficult for the school - most of the teaching staff left to fight, although one staff member Charles Edgar Loseby
, later a Labour MP, returned for a period while recovering from being gassed in the trenches. The First World War had a significant effect in other ways - there was the increasing roll call of old boys killed in the trenches, Mr Wilkes spent his summer holidays driving ambulances in France, the boys knitted and put on entertainments for the injured troops camped nearby, and food shortages made feeding a challenge. Classics was taught by Mr Wilkes, while the formidable Mrs Wilkes taught English, history and scripture. The long-serving deputy, Robert Sillar, taught geography, drawing, shooting and nature studies and was highly regarded in old boys' accounts. Outings on the South Downs
were a regular part of school life, and Sillar led the boys on nature study expeditions. The school had instituted a Cadet Corps, in which Orwell was an active member. Orwell recalls stealing books off Connolly and Connolly describes how they reviewed each other's poetry. Cecil Beaton
vaguely recalled working on the school's war-time allotments with Orwell. During his time at school, Orwell surreptitiously collected the saucy seaside postcards that were later to figure in his essay The Art of Donald McGill
.
In 1916 Orwell came second in the Harrow History Prize
, had another poem published in the Henley and South Oxfordshire Standard, and with Connolly had his work praised by the external examiner Sir Charles Grant Robertson
. In 1916 Orwell won a scholarship to Wellington College
, a school with a military background appropriate for colonial service. Mr Wilkes also believed Orwell could win an Eton scholarship and would benefit from Eton College life and so he sat the Eton exam as well. Orwell headed the school prize list in 1916 with Classics, while Cyril Connolly won the English prize, Cecil Beaton won the drawing prize, Walter Christie won the history prize and Rupert Lonsdale
won the scripture prize. Henry Longhurst
, Lord Pollington
and Lord Malden
were among the winners of other class prizes. Other activities in which Orwell was involved included narrowly missing winning the diving competition, playing the part of Mr Jingles in the school play, and being commended as a useful member of the 1st XI cricket team. Although he had won an Eton scholarship, this was subject to a place becoming available. Instead of going to Wellington he stayed at St Cyprian's for an additional term in the hope that a place at Eton would materialise. As this had not happened by the end of term, he went on to Wellington in January. However, after he had been there for nine weeks, an Eton place became available.
, an autobiographical work by Cyril Connolly
, and at Connolly's request. Connolly, who had been Orwell's companion at St Cyprian's and later at Eton, had written an account of St Cyprian's which, though cynical, was fairly appreciative compared to Orwell's. In his letter to Warburg, Orwell wrote that he thought his essay "really too libellous to print", adding that it should be printed "when the people most concerned are dead". The libel report for Secker & Warburg, compiled after Orwell’s death, judged that well over thirty paragraphs were defamatory.
Sonia Orwell and Warburg both wanted to publish Such, Such Were the Joys immediately after Orwell's death, but Sir Richard Rees
, who was Orwell's literary executor violently disagreed. He considered the work "grossly exaggerated, badly written, and likely to harm Orwell’s reputation" and when Sonia insisted, he told her, "You’re completely nutty about St Cyprian's". Thereafter, Rees had no further involvement in publishing decisions. In 1952, within two years of Orwell's death a version was published in the USA in the Partisan Review
. In this version the school was referred to as "Crossgates" and the names of the headmaster and his wife altered to Mr and Mrs Simpson ("Sim" and his wife "Bingo"). Following Mrs Wilkes' death in 1967, "Such, Such Were the Joys" was published in the UK, but with only the name of the school and the proprietors in original form - the real names of his fellow pupils were still disguised. In the Completed Works edition (2000), the original text including all names has been restored.
Most biographers have to a greater or lesser extent concluded that "Such, Such Were the Joys" significantly misrepresents the school and exaggerates Orwell's suffering there. David Farrer, partner of Orwell's publishers, considered it a "gross distortion of what took place".
On Orwell's claimed state of misery, Jacintha Buddicom
, who knew him well at the time, also raised a strong challenge. She wrote "I can guarantee that the 'I' of Such, Such were the Joys is quite unrecognisable as Eric as we knew him then" and "He was a philosophical boy, with varied interests and a sense of humour- which he was inclined to indulge when referring to St Cyprian's in the holidays.
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
by the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
writer George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
. It was probably composed in the early 1940s
1940s
File:1940s decade montage.png|Above title bar: events which happened during World War II : From left to right: Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching "Omaha" Beach on "D-Day"; Adolf Hitler visits Paris, soon after the Battle of France; The Holocaust occurred during the war as Nazi Germany...
, but it was first published by the Partisan Review
Partisan Review
Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003, though it suspended publication between October 1936 and December 1937.-Overview:...
in 1952, two years after Orwell's death. In the piece, Orwell describes his experiences between the ages of eight and thirteen, in the years before and during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, while a pupil at a preparatory school
Preparatory school (UK)
In English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...
: St Cyprian's
St Cyprian's School
St Cyprian's School was an English preparatory school for boys, which operated in the early 20th century in Eastbourne, East Sussex. Like other preparatory schools, its purpose was to train pupils to do well enough in the examinations to gain admission to leading public schools, and to provide an...
, in the seaside town of Eastbourne
Eastbourne
Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...
, in Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
. The essay offers various reflections on the contradictions of the Edwardian
Edwardian period
The Edwardian era or Edwardian period in the United Kingdom is the period covering the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910.The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 and the succession of her son Edward marked the end of the Victorian era...
middle and upper class world-view, on the psychology of children, and on the experience of oppression and class conflict
Class conflict
Class conflict is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests between people of different classes....
. The veracity of the stories it contains about life at St. Cyprian's has been challenged by a number of commentors, including Orwell's contemporaries at the school and biographers, but its powerful writing and haunting observations have made it one of Orwell's most commonly anthologized
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
essays.
Summary and analysis
The title of the essay is taken from "The Echoing GreenThe Echoing Green
The Echoing Green is a poem by William Blake published in Songs of Innocence in 1789. The poem talks about merry sounds and images which accompany the children playing outdoors. Then, an old man happily remembers when he enjoyed playing with his friends during his own childhood...
," one of William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
's Songs of Innocence
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Songs of Innocence and of Experience is an illustrated collection of poems by William Blake. It appeared in two phases. A few first copies were printed and illuminated by William Blake himself in 1789; five years later he bound these poems with a set of new poems in a volume titled Songs of...
which Orwell's mother had read to him when they lived at Henley:
The allusion is never explained in Orwell's text, but it is grimly ironic
Irony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
, since Orwell recollects his early boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
experiences with almost unrelieved bitterness. St Cyprian's was, according to him, a "world of force and fraud and secrecy," in which the young Orwell, a shy, sickly and unattractive boy surrounded by pupils from families much richer than his own, was "like a goldfish
Goldfish
The goldfish is a freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae of order Cypriniformes. It was one of the earliest fish to be domesticated, and is one of the most commonly kept aquarium fish....
" thrown "into a tank full of pike
Esox
Esox is a genus of freshwater fish, the only living genus in the family Esocidae — the esocids which were endemic to North America, Europe and Eurasia during the Paleogene through present.The type species is E. lucius, the northern pike...
." The piece fiercely attacks the cruelty and snobbery of both his fellow pupils and of his teachers (particularly the headmaster, Mr. Vaughan Wilkes, nicknamed "Sambo," and his wife Cicely, nicknamed "Flip").
Orwell describes the education he received as "a preparation for a sort of confidence trick," geared entirely towards maximizing his future performance in the admissions exams to leading English public schools
Public School (UK)
A public school, in common British usage, is a school that is neither administered nor financed by the state or from taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of endowments, tuition fees and charitable contributions, usually existing as a non profit-making charitable trust...
such as Eton
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and Harrow
Harrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...
, without any concern for actual knowledge or understanding. Orwell also claims that he was accepted as a boarder
Boarder
A boarder may be a person who:*snowboards*skateboards*bodyboards*surfs*stays at a boarding house*attends a boarding school*takes part in a boarding attackThe term may also refer to*The Boarder...
at St Cyprians –at half of the usual fees– so that he might earn a scholarship that would look good in the school's publicity, and that his training relied heavily on the use of beatings, while the rich boys received preferential treatment and were exempted from corporal punishment.
The essay lashes out at the hypocrisy of the Edwardian society in which Orwell grew up and in which a boy was "bidden to be at once a Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and a social success, which is impossible." A chapter is devoted to the puritanical attitudes towards sex at the time and to the frightful consequences of the discovery of what appears to have been a case of mutual masturbation among a group of boys at the school. On the other hand, Orwell describes the actual "pattern of school life" as
Orwell's story is also punctuated by anecdotes about the dirt and squalor surrounding him, such as the porridge
Porridge
Porridge is a dish made by boiling oats or other cereal meals in water, milk, or both. It is usually served hot in a bowl or dish...
at the dining hall containing "more lumps, hairs and unexplained black things than one would have thought possible, unless someone were putting them there on purpose," a human turd floating in the Devonshire Baths
William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire
William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire KG, PC , styled as Lord Cavendish of Keighley between 1831 and 1834 and known as The Earl of Burlington between 1834 and 1858, was a British landowner, benefactor and politician.-Background and education:Cavendish was the son of William Cavendish, eldest...
, and a new boy's teeth turning green because of neglect.
According to the essay, the main lesson that Orwell took away from St Cyprian's was that, for a weak and inferior person such as himself, "to survive, or at least to preserve any kind of independence, was essentially criminal, since it meant breaking rules which you yourself recognized," and that he lived in a world "where it was not possible [for him] to be good." In the piece, Orwell also seeks to illustrate the reflection that children live "in a sort of alien under-water world which we can only penetrate by memory or divination," and he wonders whether even in more modern times, without "God, Latin, the cane, class distinctions and sexual taboos," it might still be normal for schoolchildren to "live for years amid irrational terrors and lunatic misunderstandings."
Background
Secondary education for the dominant classes in England since the early 19th century has been provided mainly by the fee-paying public schoolPublic School (UK)
A public school, in common British usage, is a school that is neither administered nor financed by the state or from taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of endowments, tuition fees and charitable contributions, usually existing as a non profit-making charitable trust...
s. These have selective entrance by examination and offer scholarships by competitive examination, which offset all or part of the fees. The curriculum in Orwell's time, and for long after, centred on the classics
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
. Prep schools
Preparatory school (UK)
In English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...
were established from the 19th century to prepare students for these examinations and to provide a broader-based education than the traditional crammer, offering sports and additional subjects. Prep school children were often boarders, starting as early as five or as late as twelve. Boarding was, and still is, for terms of three months. Eastbourne
Eastbourne
Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...
was a popular town for preparatory schools at the turn of the 20th century because its bracing sea air was believed to be healthy, and by 1896, Gowland’s Eastbourne Directory listed 76 private schools for boys and girls. An Eton scholarship was most highly prized, not just for its financial value but because it provided access to the elite intellectual cadre of King's Scholar
King's Scholar
A King's Scholar is a foundation scholar of one of certain public schools...
s. One of the leading prep schools of the time, Summer Fields School
Summer Fields School
Summer Fields is a boys' independent preparatory school based in Summertown, Oxford, England.-History:Originally called Summerfield, it became a Boys' Preparatory School in 1864 with seven pupils. Its owner, Archibald Maclaren, was a fencing teacher who ran a gymnasium in Oxford; he himself was...
, set in the university town of Oxford and with which St Cyprian's eventually was to merge, won every year at least five of the available Eton scholarships.
Orwell's mother sent him (as Eric Blair) to board at St Cyprian's School
St Cyprian's School
St Cyprian's School was an English preparatory school for boys, which operated in the early 20th century in Eastbourne, East Sussex. Like other preparatory schools, its purpose was to train pupils to do well enough in the examinations to gain admission to leading public schools, and to provide an...
at the age of eight in 1911. The school had been founded twelve years earlier by the headmaster, Vaughan Wilkes, and his wife Cicely. It had moved into newly-built facilities in extended grounds in 1906. Although able to charge high fees for better-off parents, the Wilkes supported traditional families on lower incomes, particularly in the colonial service, by taking their children at considerably reduced fees, and Orwell was one of several beneficiaries, who also included Cyril Connolly
Cyril Connolly
Cyril Vernon Connolly was an English intellectual, literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine Horizon and wrote Enemies of Promise , which combined literary criticism with an autobiographical exploration of why he failed to become the successful author of...
Alaric Jacob
Alaric Jacob
Harold Alaric Jacob was an English writer and journalist. He was Reuters correspondent in Washington in the 1930s, and a war correspondent during World War II in North Africa, Burma and Moscow.-Early life:...
and Walter Christie
Walter John Christie
Walter Henry John Christie CSI, CIE, OBE was a British colonial civil servant who played a key part in the independence of India and provided administrative continuity after independence....
. Mrs Wilkes spotted Orwell looking sad on his arrival and tried to comfort him, but noted "there was no warmth in him". Nor did he respond positively to being taken on a picnic the following day. Senior boys in Orwell's first year included Ian Fraser
Ian Fraser, Baron Fraser of Lonsdale
William Jocelyn Ian Fraser, Baron Fraser of Lonsdale CH CBE, , known as Ian Fraser, was a British Conservative Party politician, a Governor of the BBC, a successful businessman and the first person to be awarded a life peerage under the Life Peerages Act 1958.Fraser was blinded in World War I and...
and Bolo Whistler
Lashmer Whistler
General Sir Lashmer Gordon Whistler GCB, KBE, DSO & Two Bars, DL , known as Bolo, was a British army officer who served in the First and Second World Wars. In the Second World War he achieved senior ranks serving with Field Marshal Montgomery in North Africa and Europe...
. His early letters home report a normal catalogue of class placings, results of games, and school expeditions.
In September 1914 Cyril Connolly
Cyril Connolly
Cyril Vernon Connolly was an English intellectual, literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine Horizon and wrote Enemies of Promise , which combined literary criticism with an autobiographical exploration of why he failed to become the successful author of...
arrived at the school and formed a close friendship with Orwell. The First World War had just broken out, and Orwell's patriotic poem written at school was published in the Henley and South Oxfordshire Standard
Henley Standard
The Henley Standard is the main local newspaper in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England. It is published by the Higgs Group and is one of only a few privately-owned local newspapers in the UK...
. The war made life difficult for the school - most of the teaching staff left to fight, although one staff member Charles Edgar Loseby
Charles Edgar Loseby
Charles Edgar Loseby was a captain, lawyer and British politician being Member of Parliament for Bradford East.Before World War I, he was a teacher at St Cyprian's School, Eastbourne. He joined the army in September 1914 and went to serve in France...
, later a Labour MP, returned for a period while recovering from being gassed in the trenches. The First World War had a significant effect in other ways - there was the increasing roll call of old boys killed in the trenches, Mr Wilkes spent his summer holidays driving ambulances in France, the boys knitted and put on entertainments for the injured troops camped nearby, and food shortages made feeding a challenge. Classics was taught by Mr Wilkes, while the formidable Mrs Wilkes taught English, history and scripture. The long-serving deputy, Robert Sillar, taught geography, drawing, shooting and nature studies and was highly regarded in old boys' accounts. Outings on the South Downs
South Downs
The South Downs is a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east. It is bounded on its northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose...
were a regular part of school life, and Sillar led the boys on nature study expeditions. The school had instituted a Cadet Corps, in which Orwell was an active member. Orwell recalls stealing books off Connolly and Connolly describes how they reviewed each other's poetry. Cecil Beaton
Cecil Beaton
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, CBE was an English fashion and portrait photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre...
vaguely recalled working on the school's war-time allotments with Orwell. During his time at school, Orwell surreptitiously collected the saucy seaside postcards that were later to figure in his essay The Art of Donald McGill
The Art of Donald McGill
"The Art of Donald McGill" is a critical essay first published in 1941 by the English author George Orwell. It discusses the genre of English saucy seaside postcards that were sold mostly in small shops in British coastal towns, and particularly the work of its prime exponent, Donald McGill...
.
In 1916 Orwell came second in the Harrow History Prize
Harrow History Prize
The Harrow History Prize or the Townsend Warner Preparatory Schools History Prize is a prestigious annual history competition for children at British preparatory schools. It currently attracts around 800 entrants each year.-History:...
, had another poem published in the Henley and South Oxfordshire Standard, and with Connolly had his work praised by the external examiner Sir Charles Grant Robertson
Charles Grant Robertson
Sir Charles Grant Robertson CVO , was a British academic historian. He was a Fellow of All Soul's College, Oxford and Vice-chancellor of the University of Birmingham.-Biography:...
. In 1916 Orwell won a scholarship to Wellington College
Wellington College, Berkshire
-Former pupils:Notable former pupils include historian P. J. Marshall, architect Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, impressionist Rory Bremner, Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge, author Sebastian Faulks, language school pioneer John Haycraft, political journalist Robin Oakley, actor Sir Christopher...
, a school with a military background appropriate for colonial service. Mr Wilkes also believed Orwell could win an Eton scholarship and would benefit from Eton College life and so he sat the Eton exam as well. Orwell headed the school prize list in 1916 with Classics, while Cyril Connolly won the English prize, Cecil Beaton won the drawing prize, Walter Christie won the history prize and Rupert Lonsdale
Rupert Lonsdale
Rupert Philip Lonsdale was a British submarine commander, prisoner of war and Anglican clergyman. He was forced to surrender his boat in World War II after he had succeeded in rescuing her and her crew from the sea bed after she struck a mine. He was honourably acquitted at the inevitable...
won the scripture prize. Henry Longhurst
Henry Longhurst
Henry Carpenter Longhurst was a renowned British golf writer and commentator. During World War II, Longhurst was also a Member of Parliament for Acton in west London, England.-Biography:...
, Lord Pollington
Earl of Mexborough
Earl of Mexborough, of Lifford in the County of Donegal, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1766 for John Savile, 1st Baron Pollington, Member of Parliament for Hedon and New Shoreham...
and Lord Malden
Reginald Capell, 9th Earl of Essex
Reginald George de Vere Capell, 9th Earl of Essex was a British Peer.-Biography:Capell was the son of Algernon George de Vere Capell, 8th Earl of Essex and Mary Eveline Stewart Freeman. He had the courtesy title Viscount Malden, and was known as Reggie Malden. . He was educated at St Cyprian's...
were among the winners of other class prizes. Other activities in which Orwell was involved included narrowly missing winning the diving competition, playing the part of Mr Jingles in the school play, and being commended as a useful member of the 1st XI cricket team. Although he had won an Eton scholarship, this was subject to a place becoming available. Instead of going to Wellington he stayed at St Cyprian's for an additional term in the hope that a place at Eton would materialise. As this had not happened by the end of term, he went on to Wellington in January. However, after he had been there for nine weeks, an Eton place became available.
Publication
On sending the typescript to Warburg, Orwell stated that he had written the "long autobiographical sketch" partly as a "sort of pendent" to the publication in 1938 of Enemies of PromiseEnemies of Promise
Enemies of Promise is a critical and autobiographical work written by Cyril Connolly and first published in 1938.It comprises three parts, the first dedicated to Connolly's observations about literature and the literary world of his time, the second a listing of adverse elements that affect the...
, an autobiographical work by Cyril Connolly
Cyril Connolly
Cyril Vernon Connolly was an English intellectual, literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine Horizon and wrote Enemies of Promise , which combined literary criticism with an autobiographical exploration of why he failed to become the successful author of...
, and at Connolly's request. Connolly, who had been Orwell's companion at St Cyprian's and later at Eton, had written an account of St Cyprian's which, though cynical, was fairly appreciative compared to Orwell's. In his letter to Warburg, Orwell wrote that he thought his essay "really too libellous to print", adding that it should be printed "when the people most concerned are dead". The libel report for Secker & Warburg, compiled after Orwell’s death, judged that well over thirty paragraphs were defamatory.
Sonia Orwell and Warburg both wanted to publish Such, Such Were the Joys immediately after Orwell's death, but Sir Richard Rees
Sir Richard Rees, 2nd Baronet
Sir Richard Lodowick Edward Montagu Rees, 2nd Baronet was a British diplomat, writer and painter.Rees was the son of Sir John Rees, 1st Baronet and his wife Mary Catherine Dormer. He was educated at West Downs School, Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge...
, who was Orwell's literary executor violently disagreed. He considered the work "grossly exaggerated, badly written, and likely to harm Orwell’s reputation" and when Sonia insisted, he told her, "You’re completely nutty about St Cyprian's". Thereafter, Rees had no further involvement in publishing decisions. In 1952, within two years of Orwell's death a version was published in the USA in the Partisan Review
Partisan Review
Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003, though it suspended publication between October 1936 and December 1937.-Overview:...
. In this version the school was referred to as "Crossgates" and the names of the headmaster and his wife altered to Mr and Mrs Simpson ("Sim" and his wife "Bingo"). Following Mrs Wilkes' death in 1967, "Such, Such Were the Joys" was published in the UK, but with only the name of the school and the proprietors in original form - the real names of his fellow pupils were still disguised. In the Completed Works edition (2000), the original text including all names has been restored.
Most biographers have to a greater or lesser extent concluded that "Such, Such Were the Joys" significantly misrepresents the school and exaggerates Orwell's suffering there. David Farrer, partner of Orwell's publishers, considered it a "gross distortion of what took place".
Reaction from contemporaries
Of his contemporaries, Cecil Beaton wrote of the piece "It is hilariously funny, but it is exaggerated". Connolly, on reviewing Stansky & Abraham's interpretation, wrote "I was at first enchanted as by anything which recalls one's youth but when I went to verify some references from my old reports and letters I was nearly sick... In the case of St Cyprian's and the Wilkes whom I had so blithely mocked I feel an emotional disturbance... The Wilkeses were true friends and I had caricatured their mannerisms (developed as a kind of ritual square-bashing for dealing with generations of boys) and read mercenary motives into much that was just enthusiasm" Walter Christie and Henry Longhurst went further and wrote their own sympathetic accounts of the school in response to Orwell's and voiced their appreciation for the formidable Mrs Wilkes. Robert Pearce, researching the papers of another former pupil, made a comprehensive study from the perspective of the school, investigating school records and other pupils' accounts. While some features were universal features of Prep school life, he concluded that Orwell's depiction bore little relation to reality and that Orwell's defamatory allegations were unsupportable. Davison writes 'If one is looking for a factual account for life at St Cyprian's, this is not the place to seek it."On Orwell's claimed state of misery, Jacintha Buddicom
Jacintha Buddicom
Jacintha Buddicom was a poet and a childhood friend of George Orwell .Buddicom was born at Plymouth but moved with her family to Shiplake, Berkshire. There she first met Eric Blair in the summer of 1914 when he was standing on his head in a field at the bottom of the Buddicoms' garden...
, who knew him well at the time, also raised a strong challenge. She wrote "I can guarantee that the 'I' of Such, Such were the Joys is quite unrecognisable as Eric as we knew him then" and "He was a philosophical boy, with varied interests and a sense of humour- which he was inclined to indulge when referring to St Cyprian's in the holidays.
External links
- Full text
- Hugh Kenner "The Politics of the Plain Style" New York Times, New York, N.Y.: Sep 15, 1985. p. BR1