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Jonfaith's Reviews > An Age Like This: 1920-1940
An Age Like This: 1920-1940 (The Collected Essays, Journalism & Letters, Vol. 1)
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In Moulmein, in lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people – the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me.
Circumstances colluded yesterday for me to read almost all of this compendium. I joined the ranks of countless undergrads by finally reading "A Hanging". Noteworthy are reviews which address Melville and Stendhal; even greater is the essay on Dickens. There are also fascinating letters to Runciman and Spender. A transformation from aspiring left leaning professional writer to Socialist but Anti-Communist journalist is depicted without undue commentary. Unfortunately for myself there is also a cluster of laborious didactic pieces on the situation in Spain during its Civil War. This is resolved as Orwell heads home after Spain only to discover that he's tubercular and he and his wife then consequently winter in Morocco. He's still there during the Munich appeasement and the conversion to political animal becomes complete. It is strange how the seminal essay Inside The Whale was always familiar by title to me personally but alas not by argument. That was certainly a joy to engage.
Circumstances colluded yesterday for me to read almost all of this compendium. I joined the ranks of countless undergrads by finally reading "A Hanging". Noteworthy are reviews which address Melville and Stendhal; even greater is the essay on Dickens. There are also fascinating letters to Runciman and Spender. A transformation from aspiring left leaning professional writer to Socialist but Anti-Communist journalist is depicted without undue commentary. Unfortunately for myself there is also a cluster of laborious didactic pieces on the situation in Spain during its Civil War. This is resolved as Orwell heads home after Spain only to discover that he's tubercular and he and his wife then consequently winter in Morocco. He's still there during the Munich appeasement and the conversion to political animal becomes complete. It is strange how the seminal essay Inside The Whale was always familiar by title to me personally but alas not by argument. That was certainly a joy to engage.
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Reading Progress
June 6, 2020
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Started Reading
June 6, 2020
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June 7, 2020
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6.79%
"I do not know what tramps would do without tea, or rather the stuff they miscall tea. It is their food, their medicine, their panacea for all evils. Without the half gallon or so of it that they suck down a day, I truly believe they could not face their existence."
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June 7, 2020
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29.09%
"In my capacity as a reader I applaud the Penguin Books; in my capacity as writer I pronounce them anathema."
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June 8, 2020
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June 8, 2020
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