"Raffles and Miss Blandish" is an essay by the English writer

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalit ...

first published in ''

Horizon The horizon is the apparent line that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This line divides all viewing directions based on whether i ...

'' in October 1944 as "The Ethics of the Detective Story from Raffles to Miss Blandish".

Dwight Macdonald Dwight Macdonald (March 24, 1906 – December 19, 1982) was an American writer, editor, film critic, social critic, literary critic, philosopher, and activist. Macdonald was a member of the New York Intellectuals and editor of their leftist mag ...

published the essay in ''

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

'' in November 1944. It was reprinted in '' Critical Essays'', London, 1946. The essay contrasts the

A. J. Raffles Arthur J. Raffles (usually called A. J. Raffles) is a fictional character created in 1898 by E. W. Hornung, brother-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Raffles is, in many ways, an inversion of Holmeshe is a "gentle ...

crime stories with the 1939 novel '' No Orchids for Miss Blandish'' by the crime writer

James Hadley Chase James Hadley Chase (24 December 1906 – 6 February 1985) was an English writer. While his birth name was René Lodge Brabazon Raymond, he was well known by his various pseudonyms, including James Hadley Chase, James L. Docherty, Raymond ...

and observes the "immense differences in moral atmosphere". In the semi-pornographic crime novel Orwell decries the breaking down of all taboos as the author attracts readers by violence, cruelty and sexual sadism. Orwell argues a direct connection between pornography and power worship. He refers to "realism", meaning the doctrine that might is right, by writing "The growth of 'realism' has been the great feature of the intellectual history of our own age. It is important to notice that the cult of power tends to be mixed up with a love of cruelty and wickedness ''for their own sakes''.'

Bernard Crick Sir Bernard Rowland Crick (16 December 1929 – 19 December 2008) was a British political theorist and democratic socialist whose views can be summarised as "politics is ethics done in public". He sought to arrive at a "politics of action", as ...

, ''Orwell, A Life'', p.469 Orwell further notes that ''No Orchids for Miss Blandish'' is written in the American language and that many people were under the impression that it was an American book. "Evidently there are great numbers of English people who are partly Americanised in language, and one ought to add, in moral outlook. In America, both in life and fiction, the tendency to tolerate crime, even to admire the criminal so long as he is successful, is very much more marked."

References

External links

Full text of the essay at the Orwell Foundation
Essays by George Orwell 1944 essays Essays in literary criticism {{lit-essay-stub

See also

References

External links