"Confessions of a Book Reviewer" is a narrative
essay
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...
published in 1946 by the English
author
An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states:
"''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
George Orwell. In it, he discusses the lifestyle of a
book review
__NOTOC__
A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and merit.
A book review may be a primary source, opinion piece, summary review or scholarly revie ...
er and criticises the practice of reviewing almost every book published, which gives rise to this lifestyle.
Background
Orwell started writing book reviews for ''
Adelphi'' in 1930, and other publications for which he wrote reviews included ''
New English Weekly
''The New English Weekly'' was a leading British review of "Public Affairs, Literature and the Arts."
It was founded in April 1932 by Alfred Richard Orage shortly after his return from Paris. One of Britain's most prestigious editors, Orage had ed ...
'', ''
Horizon'', ''
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...
'' and ''
Tribune
Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on th ...
''. 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.
[D. J. Taylor ''Orwell:The Life'' Chatto & Windus 2003]
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
The bibliography of George Orwell includes journalism, essays, novels, and non-fiction books written by the British writer Eric Blair (1903–1950), either under his own name or, more usually, under his pen name George Orwell. Orwell was a pro ...
References
External links
Text of ''Confessions of a Book Reviewer''
Essays by George Orwell
1946 essays
Essays about literature
Works originally published in Tribune (magazine)
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