A Clergyman’s Daughter: Orwell’s Experimental Novel

Abstract

In January 1934 Orwell went to live with his parents in South-wold, to recover from the pneumonia which had forced him to resign his teaching job. Here he worked on A Clergyman’s Daughter, which he completed by October. Since his return from Burma and Paris he had gone tramping and hop-picking, had briefly slept out on the streets and had even been arrested. He had written essays about these experiences and now tried to combine documentary and autobiographical essays with fiction.

The trivial round, the common task Will furnish all we ought to ask.

John Keble, The Christian Year³⁶