Mount TBR #40

I read this book for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge hosted over at My Reader’s Block from January 1 – December 31, 2015. The challenge is to read books that you already own.

The Crystal Spirit: A Study of George Orwell - George Woodcock

Woodcock knew George Orwell during and after WWII when they worked for the BBC. Woodcock immigrated to BC, Canada and wrote this book in the mid-1960s. When it was first published, it won Governor General's Award, a prize for academic and artistic accomplishments.

This interesting overview consists of a few biographical details, personal reminiscence, and old-time literary criticism before Theory made that field unintelligible to lay members of the public. Woodcock helpfully provides criticism of A Clergyman’s Daughter and Keep the Aspidistra Flying, novels that we are gratefully relieved of the burden of reading. He writes readable appreciations of  Burmese Days, the essays such as Charles Dickens and Such, Such were the Days, Animal Farm and 1984.

Well worth reading for people who like antique lit crit.