George Orwell: A Life in Letters (90 page)

18 Percy Street

London W1

Chère Madame Davet,

I’m writing to you on behalf of my husband, George Orwell, who is rather ill at the moment and so isn’t strong enough to write himself. He has asked me to apologise for his long delay in replying to your letter, but it only reached him two days ago.

I think you will have heard about my husband from our friends Alexei and John Russell
¹
—he is still ill etc. We hope to go to Switzerland soon, as it really isn’t possible to get over this disease in England.

My husband asks me to thank you most sincerely for all the trouble you have taken on his behalf. He hopes as much for your sake as for his own that the translation of
Homage to Catalonia
will finally appear.
²
As for your article, he has absolutely nothing interesting to say about his life, but in any case this letter will probably arrive too late to be of much help.

He asks me to send you his best wishes for the New Year, and hopes very much to be able to come and see you when he is in Paris again.

Je vous prie de croire, chère Madame, a l’expression de mes sentiments les meilleurs.

Sonia Orwell

[XX, 3716, pp. 185-6; handwritten; translation of French original]

1
.
John Russell (1919–2008;
CBE
, 1975), art critic, then married to Alexandrine Apponyi (dissolved 1950), worked at the Ministry of Information, 1941
–43, and for Naval Intelligence, 1943–46. He was art critic of the
Sunday Times
, 1949–74, and later for the
New York Times
.
In 1958, he was a witness at Sonia’s marriage to Michael Pitt-Rivers.

2
.
Madame Davet’s translation of
Homage to Catalonia
was published in 1955. It included Orwell’s corrections and the re-arrangement of chapters as he had requested. The changes were only made in the English text in 1986 (see VI, pp. 25
1–61).

Orwell’s Death

Having married Sonia Brownell on 13 October 1949, Orwell hoped to be well enough to recuperate in Switzerland, and friends (especially booksellers) raised funds to enable him to make the journey. However, early on Saturday 21
January 1950 he died, his beloved fishing rods standing in the corner of his hospital room. His funeral service was arranged by Malcolm Muggeridge at Christ Church, Albany Street, London, NW1. He had asked to be buried, not cremated, and David Astor arranged for that to take place at All Saints, Sutton Courtney, Berkshire. His headstone is inscribed simply: ‘Here Lies Eric Arthur Blair’ with his dates of birth and death.

New Textual Discoveries

Proof copy of
A Clergyman’s Daughter

When I edited
A Clergyman’s Daughter
in 1982–3, it was known that a proof copy of the novel existed but attempts to see it failed. It recently came to light and is now in the possession of Mr Richard Young. I am deeply grateful to him
for allowing me to see it and for providing the following commentary and readings:

The proof appears to be a late stage of the novel’s development. It would seem that most of the re-writing of this work was done in manuscript prior to the production of the extant proof. Nevertheless the proof does contain a number of late changes. The most significant of these is to change the character of Mr Blifil-Gordon, the Conservative candidate, so as to remove any trace that he is a Jew who had converted to Roman Catholicism. This was undoubtedly for fear of libel. Below I give the location of this proof text by page and line (e.g. 13/19) followed by the proof’s reading in bold; then after the square bracket the equivalent
Collected Works
reading. Pagination and lineation are the same for the
Complete Works
and Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics editions.

1
3/19:
Catkin Palm
] Catkin and Palm

19/21:
But Mr Blifil-Gordon the proprietor of the sugar beet refinery
] But Mr Cameron the Secretary of the Knype Hill Conservative Club

33/27:
Even more Jewish in appearance than his father
] Given to the writing of sub-Eliot vers libre poems

38/29:
And to think that that scum of the ghetto
] And to think that that low born hound

38/31:
For the beastliest type the world has yet produced give me the Roman Catholic Jew
] And that suit he is wearing is an offence in itself

123/26:
Lord Snowdon
] Lord Snowden

125/22:
Consideration of your a
] Consideration, your a

232/2:
Peg’s Paper
] Get hold of – all these filthy (
Peg’s Paper
goes between ‘of’ and ‘all’)

289/31:
English Review
]
London Mercury

Proof Copy of
Keep the Aspidistra Flying

As for
A Clergyman’s Daughter,
when editing the
Complete Works
in 1982–3, I was unable to inspect this proof and I am very grateful to Mr Richard Young, who now owns these proofs, for generously providing this commentary and information:

It is both known and obvious that many changes were made to this novel at the proof stage (more so than for
A Clergyman’s Daughter –
see
10.1.35
). A large number of these changes were restored in the preparation of the
Collected Works
edition by examination of the files of Victor Gollancz. This proof reveals significant further changes relating mainly to the quoting of product names and contemporary advertisements in the novel which were obviously changed or omitted at a late stage. As Orwell was very sensitive to this ‘mutilation’ it would be good if these readings could be restored. Below I give the locations of this proof text by pages and lines (e.g. 19/22) followed by the proof’s reading in bold; then after the square bracket the equivalent
Collected Works
reading. Pagination and lineation are the same for the
Complete Works
and Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics editions.

19/22
and
21/19:
Q.T. Sauce
] QT Sauce

25/1
, 26/10, 57/6
and
26, 271/7 a
nd
28:
Rose of Sharon Toilet Requisites Co.
] Queen of Sheba Toilet Requisites Co.

26/14
and
27/12:
Kissprufe Naturetint
] Sexapeal Naturetint

144/32, 145/7
and
20,
and
146/1:
Riverside Hotel
] Ravenscroft Hotel

222/27:
The shop was in the desolate stretch of road south of Waterloo Bridge
]
The shop was in the Waterloo Road

224/29:
A cut-price undertaker
] A smartish undertaker

262/18:
Have a Camel
]
deleted after
Flick, flick

263/1:
the following paragraph appears after
Flick, flick. Guinness is good for you!

Night-starvation – let Horlick’s be your guardian. She
said
‘
Thanks awfully for the lift’ but she
thought
‘
Poor boy, why doesn’t somebody tell him?’ How a woman of thirty-two stole her young man from a girl of twenty. Silkyseam – the smooth sliding bathroom tissue. Halitosis is ruining his career. Now I’m schoolgirl complextion all over. Kiddies clamour for their Breakfast Crisps. Pyorrhea? Not me! Are you a Highbrow? Dandruff is the reason.

This proof version contains the Horlick’s night-starvation line and the other ads are in a different order to the
CW
text. I guess that the order given here is the original reading.

Chronology

7 January 1857
: Orwell’s father, Richard Walmesley Blair born at Milborne St Andrew, Dorset. His father, Thomas Arthur Blair, was Vicar of Milborne St Andrew.

19 May 1875
: Orwell’s mother, Ida Mabel Limouzin, born at Penge, Surrey.

15 June 1897
: Richard Blair, an officer in the Opium Department of the Indian Civil Service and Ida Limouzin married at St John in the Wilderness, Naini Tal, India (Bowker, p. 8).

21
April 1898
: Marjorie Francis Blair born, Gaya, Bengal.

25 June 1903
: Eric Arthur Blair born, Motihari, Bengal.

1904
: Ida Blair returns to live in England with Marjorie and Eric at Henley-on-Thames.

Summer 1907
: Richard Blair spends three months’ leave at Henley.

6 April 1908
: Avril Nora Blair born.

1908–1
911
: Attends a Roman Catholic day-school run by Ursuline nuns, as did his sisters (Bowker, pp. 21–2).

September
1
911–December 1916
: Boards at St Cyprian’s private preparatory school, Eastbourne.

1912
: Richard Blair retires as sub-deputy agent in the Opium Department and returns to England. The family moves to Shiplake, Oxfordshire, probably early in December.

Summer 1914
: Makes friends with the Buddicom family, especially Jacintha.

2 October 1914
: Poem: ‘Awake! Young Men of England’ published in
Henley and South Oxfordshire Standard –
Orwell’s first appearance in print (as Eric Blair).

1915–autumn 1917
: The Blairs move back to Henley-on-Thames.

1 July 1916
: The Battle of the Somme was launched at 7.30 a.m. On that day 19,2
40 men were killed or died of wounds; 35,493 wounded; 2,152 missing; and 585 taken prisoner; Total:
57,470
for virtually no advance [Martin Middlebrook,
The First Day of the Somme
(1971; 2001), p. 263].

21 July 1916
: Poem: ‘Kitchener’ (which Orwell himself submitted) published in
Henley and South Oxfordshire Standard.

Lent Term 1917
: At Wellington College as a scholar.

May 1917–December 1921
: At Eton as a King’s Scholar. Contributes to
The Election Times
and
College Days
.

13 September 1917
: Orwell’s father commissioned as 2
^nd
Lieutenant; posted to 51
^st
(Ranchi) Indian Pioneer Company, Marseilles. He soon became the youngest 2
nd
Lieutenant in the British Army. Orwell’s mother starts work for the Ministry of Pensions in London.

October–November 19
17
: Battle of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres) in which Fredric Warburg, Orwell’s later publisher and member of his HG platoon, fought.

9 December 1919
: Orwell’s father relinquishes his commission and returns to London.

December 1921
: The Blairs move to Southwold on the Suffolk coast.

October 1922–December 1927
: Orwell serves in the Indian Imperial Police, Burma.

Autumn 1927
: First expeditions into the East End of London whilst on leave from Burma.

Spring 1928
: About this time lives for a while as a tramp.

Spring 1928 to late
1929
: Lives in working-class district of Paris; five articles published in French journals; writes one or two novels (he gives both figures); he destroys both.

March 1929
: Admitted to Hôpital Cochin, Paris with ‘une grippe’. (See ‘How the Poor Die’,
Now,
1946.)

Autumn 1929
: Works as kitchen porter and dishwasher, probably at Hôtel Lotti or Crillon.

1930–31
: Lives with his parents at Southwold but goes off tramping with down-and-outs in London. Starts writing what will become
Down and Out in Paris and London.

April 1931
: ‘The Spike’ published in
The Adelphi
.

August 1931
: ‘A Hanging’ published in
The Adelphi
.

September 1931
: Revised version of
Down and Out
rejected by Jonathan Cape.

Autumn 1931
: Picks hops in Kent (see
A Clergyman’s Daughter
). Starts
Burmese Days.