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Some Thoughts on the Common Toad
A collection of essays that looks at, among others, the joys of spring (even in London), the picture of humanity painted by Gulliver and his travels, and the strange benefit of the doubt that the public permit Salvador Dali. It also includes an essay on the delights of English Cooking and an account of killing an elephant in Burma.
Some Thoughts on the Common Toad
A Good Word for the Vicar of Bray
In Defence of English Cooking
Shooting An Elephant
Benefit of Clergy
In Defence of PG Wodehouse
Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels
Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool
Some Thoughts on the Common Toad
A Good Word for the Vicar of Bray
In Defence of English Cooking
Shooting An Elephant
Benefit of Clergy
In Defence of PG Wodehouse
Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels
Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool
115 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1947
32 people are currently reading
1352 people want to read
About the author
George Orwell
1,257 books50.5k followersEric Arthur Blair was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to all totalitarianism (both fascism and stalinism), and support of democratic socialism.
Orwell is best known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), although his works also encompass literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in the industrial north of England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture.
Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"—describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices—is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink", and "thoughtcrime". In 2008, The Times named Orwell the second-greatest British writer since 1945.
Orwell is best known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), although his works also encompass literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in the industrial north of England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture.
Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"—describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices—is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink", and "thoughtcrime". In 2008, The Times named Orwell the second-greatest British writer since 1945.
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March 9, 2024
What is the first sign of Spring to you?
Perhaps it is new work schedules, or sports fixtures. Perhaps time to book a Summer holiday, or make some home improvements. What about when you were a child? As a child, I knew Spring had arrived when the corner shop across the road from Primary school started stocking whips and tops—or marbles—or jacks. Nobody knew what it would be, but suddenly the playground would be filled with children playing the latest craze. Conker season had come and gone last year, and the bright blaze of Christmas had faded. This latest game was exciting and new.
When George Orwell was a child, he used to go on long rambles through the fields around Henley-on-Thames, and on the South Downs near Eastbourne. As we begin Some Thoughts on the Common Toad we see him in a rare nostalgic mood, thinking back to his childhood, and his fascination with the humble toad in Spring. “Unlike the skylark and the primrose” he says, the toad “has never had much of a boost from poets.” He accepts that for many of us, snowdrops and crocuses—or songbirds such as cuckoos and thrushes—might have more appeal.
As I look out of the window now, I see the snowdrops have hidden again, but the daffodils in my garden have burst into full flower. This hopeful sign of Spring makes me smile, just as the “hosts of golden daffodils” did the poet William Wordsworth, and their simple sunny trumpets have cheered many millions of people over the years. But for George Orwell, it is toads which herald the Spring:
“Something—some kind of shudder in the earth, or perhaps merely a rise of a few degrees in the temperature—has told him that it is time to wake up”.
Have you ever seen a toad? The image I have in my mind comes from illustrations in books, or wildlife programmes on the television, but there was one occasion when I came eyeball to eyeball with one, sleeping in my flowerbed:
“his eyes look abnormally large … a toad has about the most beautiful eye of any living creature. It is like gold, or more exactly it is like the golden-coloured semi-precious stone which one sometimes sees in signet-rings, and which I think is called a chrysoberyl.”
Eye of a Natterjack Toad - wiki - Joxerra Aihartza
I did not know that it was a toad, however. I was contentedly sitting on the ground, trying to break up the clayey soil which had caked over the long Winter months, ready to plant afresh. I only use a short garden fork, since I’m a weedy sort of person, and can’t get the savage downward thrust needed from on high. Hence I was close to the earth, poised to give another sharp attack under the foliage of the daffodils, when something moved! I could not for the moment think what it could be, and all of a sudden found myself standing up a few feet away. Taking a deep breath and collecting myself a little, I examined it more closely, to find what I thought was a huge frog, squatting in the flowerbed.
Now I wasn’t sure it was a good idea to pick it up, as I thought I might have read somewhere that you could damage its skin. Neither did I really fancy having it hopping about—or on top of—me as I worked. So in the true English way, I went inside to have a nice cuppa, to recover from my close escape from inadvertently committing a rather gruesome toadicide, and to think what to do. When I returned, it had disappeared, hopefully to a nearby garden pond.
George Orwell describes how the sleepy toad will emerge from the hole in which it has buried itself, and make its way to the nearest patch of water. He talks of the singlemindedness of the toads in Spring, and how they cling to other toads en masse, but eventually sort themselves out into couples, and how long strings of spawn are laid, winding in and out of the reeds and soon becoming invisible:
“A few more weeks, and the water is alive with masses of tiny tadpoles which rapidly grow larger, sprout hind-legs, then forelegs, then shed their tails: and finally, about the middle of the summer, the new generation of toads, smaller than one’s thumb-nail but perfect in every particular, crawl out of the water to begin the game anew.”
Collecting frogspawn is a delight for children, either at home or at school, where it then lends itself to a study of the life-cycle of the frog. Excited children armed with jam jars and nets on sticks, are taken to the local pond to collect a little pondwater and frogspawn, to be transferred to larger tanks back in the classroom. It makes for a great seasonal topic, as long as the emerging tadpoles are kept a close eye on and returned to the wild in good time, or before you know it you will have lots of little blobs with legs jumping around …
And I’m reminded of another occasion. Many children used to collect frogspawn for themselves, accompanied by their parents to a likely area. We were talking about this with friends, who unaccountably began smirking at each other. Puzzled, we demanded to know why. Apparently they had had the same conversation with a elderly relative, who was nostalgically remembering past times. Dreamy-eyed, she recalled:
“Oh yes, we always used to have a bucket of sperm in the corner every Spring, when my children were young.”
This was too much for the husband and his oldest son, who couldn’t help but meet each other’s eyes … but they did manage to escape out of the room before finally bursting into tears of helpless laughter. My friend was left to smother her giggles, hide her blushes and smooth over the moment until they could return more sober-faced. We were told that their aged aunt never did realise what she had said.
George Orwell knows though, that not everyone is able to see, or wants to watch toads in Spring. When he wrote this essay, it was 1946, and he was living in North London with the rubble and remains of the Blitz all round him. It would take a long time for some areas to be rebuilt after the air raids of World War II. Yet Nature takes no notice of such things, and Nature’s resurgence carries on undeterred, even in small ways such as: “a brighter blue between the chimney pots …
Indeed it is remarkable how Nature goes on existing unofficially, as it were, in the very heart of London. I have seen a kestrel flying over the Deptford gasworks, and I have heard a first-rate performance by a blackbird in the Euston Road.”
It is satisfying to think, he says, that “none of them pays a halfpenny of rent.”
Ah, we think. George Orwell is back on his usual stomping ground now, criticising some area of society or capitalism. But no he isn't, or not yet. The wonders of nature, he says can be found in the most unlikely areas:
“Suddenly, towards the end of March, the miracle happens and the decaying slum in which I live is transfigured. Down in the square the sooty privets have turned bright green, the leaves are thickening on the chestnut trees, the daffodils are out, the wallflowers are budding, the policeman’s tunic looks positively a pleasant shade of blue, the fishmonger greets his customers with a smile, and even the sparrows are quite a different colour, having felt the balminess of the air and nerved themselves to take a bath, their first since last September.”
What had actually prompted this eulogy to Nature, was a stinging accusation from his public of being “bourgeois”, (which was quite possibly the worst insult George Orwell could think of being called!) More used to reading his articles on politics for his “As I Please” regular feature in “The Tribune” newspaper, some disgruntled readers had sent letters of complaint about an article he published on 21st January 1944. So what was so objectionable to these readers? It was the fact that George Orwell had referred to some rambling roses, which he had planted at the cottage where he had lived before the war. He was criticised for his “bourgeois nostalgia”. Clearly this must have irritated him, but it led to this little gem of an essay. Defiantly he posits the question:
“Is it wicked to take a pleasure in Spring and other seasonal changes?”
and takes issue with both sides, as he often does. He criticises those who find it reprehensible to gain pleasure from simple things in Nature, because it: “does not cost money and does not have what the editors of left-wing newspapers call a class angle”. He says that he has received abusive letters, accusing him of being “sentimental”. The idea behind this, he says, is a disapproval of enjoying anything:
“People, so the thought runs, ought to be discontented, and it is our job to multiply our wants and not simply to increase our enjoyment of the things we have already.”
The other factor at work is that “this is the age of machines and that to dislike the machine, or even to want to limit its domination, is backward-looking, reactionary and slightly ridiculous.”
This, he says, is often backed up by the statement that only people in urban areas profess to love Nature—yet they can have no idea what Nature is really like. Country people, they say, see it from a strictly utilitarian point of view.
Oddly, this myth pertains even now, even though it is as he says “demonstrably false”. People who live in the country are just as likely to love nature. George Orwell points to the proliferation of nature from Medieval literature to Oriental Art. An enthusiasm for Nature is there throughout all history and all peoples. Yet the political discontented who “groan[..] under the shackles of the capitalist system”, frown on a love of nature, as being sentimental. And for those whose watchword is progress at any price, the appreciation of nature is seen as reactionary, in a machine age. George Orwell protests:
“If we kill all pleasure in the actual process of life, what sort of future are we preparing for ourselves? If a man cannot enjoy the return of spring, why should he be happy in a labour-saving Utopia? What will he do with the leisure that the machine will give him? ”
If we kept a love of the simple things in Nature: of trees and fishes, butterflies and toads, George Orwell believed it would make “a peaceful and decent future a little more probable” in the immediate aftermath of post-war London. George Orwell thinks how many times he has watching the toads mating, or hares having a boxing match in the young corn. He revels in the delights of nature, despite “all the important persons who would stop me enjoying this if they could …
the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it.”
After reading this article, the much-loved poet John Betjeman wrote George Orwell an appreciative letter, saying: “I have always thought you were one of the best living writers of prose.” He had “enjoyed and echoed every sentiment” of Some Thoughts on the Common Toad.
Nature appreciation might not be something you usually associate with the feisty orator George Orwell. It may not seem to fit his agenda to expose and fight societal injustices. But in Some Thoughts on the Common Toad, he has both written a paean to Spring and to Nature, and true to type also made a good case for defying those who wish to kill any joy in life—from whichever misguided standpoint.
For whatever is happening in the world, and whatever injustices we need to oppose, nevertheless it is still true, as George Orwell says:
“Spring is here … and they can’t stop you enjoying it.”
Perhaps it is new work schedules, or sports fixtures. Perhaps time to book a Summer holiday, or make some home improvements. What about when you were a child? As a child, I knew Spring had arrived when the corner shop across the road from Primary school started stocking whips and tops—or marbles—or jacks. Nobody knew what it would be, but suddenly the playground would be filled with children playing the latest craze. Conker season had come and gone last year, and the bright blaze of Christmas had faded. This latest game was exciting and new.
When George Orwell was a child, he used to go on long rambles through the fields around Henley-on-Thames, and on the South Downs near Eastbourne. As we begin Some Thoughts on the Common Toad we see him in a rare nostalgic mood, thinking back to his childhood, and his fascination with the humble toad in Spring. “Unlike the skylark and the primrose” he says, the toad “has never had much of a boost from poets.” He accepts that for many of us, snowdrops and crocuses—or songbirds such as cuckoos and thrushes—might have more appeal.
As I look out of the window now, I see the snowdrops have hidden again, but the daffodils in my garden have burst into full flower. This hopeful sign of Spring makes me smile, just as the “hosts of golden daffodils” did the poet William Wordsworth, and their simple sunny trumpets have cheered many millions of people over the years. But for George Orwell, it is toads which herald the Spring:
“Something—some kind of shudder in the earth, or perhaps merely a rise of a few degrees in the temperature—has told him that it is time to wake up”.
Have you ever seen a toad? The image I have in my mind comes from illustrations in books, or wildlife programmes on the television, but there was one occasion when I came eyeball to eyeball with one, sleeping in my flowerbed:
“his eyes look abnormally large … a toad has about the most beautiful eye of any living creature. It is like gold, or more exactly it is like the golden-coloured semi-precious stone which one sometimes sees in signet-rings, and which I think is called a chrysoberyl.”
Eye of a Natterjack Toad - wiki - Joxerra Aihartza
I did not know that it was a toad, however. I was contentedly sitting on the ground, trying to break up the clayey soil which had caked over the long Winter months, ready to plant afresh. I only use a short garden fork, since I’m a weedy sort of person, and can’t get the savage downward thrust needed from on high. Hence I was close to the earth, poised to give another sharp attack under the foliage of the daffodils, when something moved! I could not for the moment think what it could be, and all of a sudden found myself standing up a few feet away. Taking a deep breath and collecting myself a little, I examined it more closely, to find what I thought was a huge frog, squatting in the flowerbed.
Now I wasn’t sure it was a good idea to pick it up, as I thought I might have read somewhere that you could damage its skin. Neither did I really fancy having it hopping about—or on top of—me as I worked. So in the true English way, I went inside to have a nice cuppa, to recover from my close escape from inadvertently committing a rather gruesome toadicide, and to think what to do. When I returned, it had disappeared, hopefully to a nearby garden pond.
George Orwell describes how the sleepy toad will emerge from the hole in which it has buried itself, and make its way to the nearest patch of water. He talks of the singlemindedness of the toads in Spring, and how they cling to other toads en masse, but eventually sort themselves out into couples, and how long strings of spawn are laid, winding in and out of the reeds and soon becoming invisible:
“A few more weeks, and the water is alive with masses of tiny tadpoles which rapidly grow larger, sprout hind-legs, then forelegs, then shed their tails: and finally, about the middle of the summer, the new generation of toads, smaller than one’s thumb-nail but perfect in every particular, crawl out of the water to begin the game anew.”
Collecting frogspawn is a delight for children, either at home or at school, where it then lends itself to a study of the life-cycle of the frog. Excited children armed with jam jars and nets on sticks, are taken to the local pond to collect a little pondwater and frogspawn, to be transferred to larger tanks back in the classroom. It makes for a great seasonal topic, as long as the emerging tadpoles are kept a close eye on and returned to the wild in good time, or before you know it you will have lots of little blobs with legs jumping around …
And I’m reminded of another occasion. Many children used to collect frogspawn for themselves, accompanied by their parents to a likely area. We were talking about this with friends, who unaccountably began smirking at each other. Puzzled, we demanded to know why. Apparently they had had the same conversation with a elderly relative, who was nostalgically remembering past times. Dreamy-eyed, she recalled:
“Oh yes, we always used to have a bucket of sperm in the corner every Spring, when my children were young.”
This was too much for the husband and his oldest son, who couldn’t help but meet each other’s eyes … but they did manage to escape out of the room before finally bursting into tears of helpless laughter. My friend was left to smother her giggles, hide her blushes and smooth over the moment until they could return more sober-faced. We were told that their aged aunt never did realise what she had said.
George Orwell knows though, that not everyone is able to see, or wants to watch toads in Spring. When he wrote this essay, it was 1946, and he was living in North London with the rubble and remains of the Blitz all round him. It would take a long time for some areas to be rebuilt after the air raids of World War II. Yet Nature takes no notice of such things, and Nature’s resurgence carries on undeterred, even in small ways such as: “a brighter blue between the chimney pots …
Indeed it is remarkable how Nature goes on existing unofficially, as it were, in the very heart of London. I have seen a kestrel flying over the Deptford gasworks, and I have heard a first-rate performance by a blackbird in the Euston Road.”
It is satisfying to think, he says, that “none of them pays a halfpenny of rent.”
Ah, we think. George Orwell is back on his usual stomping ground now, criticising some area of society or capitalism. But no he isn't, or not yet. The wonders of nature, he says can be found in the most unlikely areas:
“Suddenly, towards the end of March, the miracle happens and the decaying slum in which I live is transfigured. Down in the square the sooty privets have turned bright green, the leaves are thickening on the chestnut trees, the daffodils are out, the wallflowers are budding, the policeman’s tunic looks positively a pleasant shade of blue, the fishmonger greets his customers with a smile, and even the sparrows are quite a different colour, having felt the balminess of the air and nerved themselves to take a bath, their first since last September.”
What had actually prompted this eulogy to Nature, was a stinging accusation from his public of being “bourgeois”, (which was quite possibly the worst insult George Orwell could think of being called!) More used to reading his articles on politics for his “As I Please” regular feature in “The Tribune” newspaper, some disgruntled readers had sent letters of complaint about an article he published on 21st January 1944. So what was so objectionable to these readers? It was the fact that George Orwell had referred to some rambling roses, which he had planted at the cottage where he had lived before the war. He was criticised for his “bourgeois nostalgia”. Clearly this must have irritated him, but it led to this little gem of an essay. Defiantly he posits the question:
“Is it wicked to take a pleasure in Spring and other seasonal changes?”
and takes issue with both sides, as he often does. He criticises those who find it reprehensible to gain pleasure from simple things in Nature, because it: “does not cost money and does not have what the editors of left-wing newspapers call a class angle”. He says that he has received abusive letters, accusing him of being “sentimental”. The idea behind this, he says, is a disapproval of enjoying anything:
“People, so the thought runs, ought to be discontented, and it is our job to multiply our wants and not simply to increase our enjoyment of the things we have already.”
The other factor at work is that “this is the age of machines and that to dislike the machine, or even to want to limit its domination, is backward-looking, reactionary and slightly ridiculous.”
This, he says, is often backed up by the statement that only people in urban areas profess to love Nature—yet they can have no idea what Nature is really like. Country people, they say, see it from a strictly utilitarian point of view.
Oddly, this myth pertains even now, even though it is as he says “demonstrably false”. People who live in the country are just as likely to love nature. George Orwell points to the proliferation of nature from Medieval literature to Oriental Art. An enthusiasm for Nature is there throughout all history and all peoples. Yet the political discontented who “groan[..] under the shackles of the capitalist system”, frown on a love of nature, as being sentimental. And for those whose watchword is progress at any price, the appreciation of nature is seen as reactionary, in a machine age. George Orwell protests:
“If we kill all pleasure in the actual process of life, what sort of future are we preparing for ourselves? If a man cannot enjoy the return of spring, why should he be happy in a labour-saving Utopia? What will he do with the leisure that the machine will give him? ”
If we kept a love of the simple things in Nature: of trees and fishes, butterflies and toads, George Orwell believed it would make “a peaceful and decent future a little more probable” in the immediate aftermath of post-war London. George Orwell thinks how many times he has watching the toads mating, or hares having a boxing match in the young corn. He revels in the delights of nature, despite “all the important persons who would stop me enjoying this if they could …
the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it.”
After reading this article, the much-loved poet John Betjeman wrote George Orwell an appreciative letter, saying: “I have always thought you were one of the best living writers of prose.” He had “enjoyed and echoed every sentiment” of Some Thoughts on the Common Toad.
Nature appreciation might not be something you usually associate with the feisty orator George Orwell. It may not seem to fit his agenda to expose and fight societal injustices. But in Some Thoughts on the Common Toad, he has both written a paean to Spring and to Nature, and true to type also made a good case for defying those who wish to kill any joy in life—from whichever misguided standpoint.
For whatever is happening in the world, and whatever injustices we need to oppose, nevertheless it is still true, as George Orwell says:
“Spring is here … and they can’t stop you enjoying it.”
March 2, 2022
My thoughts are only on the title essay which is available online.
The title essay, "Some Thoughts on the Common Toad," expresses Orwell's delight with the coming of spring. The hibernating common toad emerges from a hole in the ground, and heads for the nearest source of water. Soon it's mating season for the toads, and the water is later swarming with tadpoles.
The essay was written in 1946--the first spring after years of war. The miracle of new life in the springtime was even more appreciated in that context. Orwell goes on to notice that enjoyment of spring is free. Birds, the blue sky, and some foliage can be found by anyone, even in the city. In an industrial age when machines are supposed to be admired, he gets more pleasure from his love of nature.
"I think that by retaining one's childhood love of such things as trees, fishes, butterflies and--to turn to my first instance--toads, one makes a peaceful and decent future a little more probable, and that by preaching the doctrine that nothing is to be admired except steel and concrete, one merely makes it a little surer that human beings will have no outlet for their surplus energy except in hatred and leader worship."
The title essay, "Some Thoughts on the Common Toad," expresses Orwell's delight with the coming of spring. The hibernating common toad emerges from a hole in the ground, and heads for the nearest source of water. Soon it's mating season for the toads, and the water is later swarming with tadpoles.
The essay was written in 1946--the first spring after years of war. The miracle of new life in the springtime was even more appreciated in that context. Orwell goes on to notice that enjoyment of spring is free. Birds, the blue sky, and some foliage can be found by anyone, even in the city. In an industrial age when machines are supposed to be admired, he gets more pleasure from his love of nature.
"I think that by retaining one's childhood love of such things as trees, fishes, butterflies and--to turn to my first instance--toads, one makes a peaceful and decent future a little more probable, and that by preaching the doctrine that nothing is to be admired except steel and concrete, one merely makes it a little surer that human beings will have no outlet for their surplus energy except in hatred and leader worship."
May 16, 2019
Curiously enough, I have not known till now that Orwell is one of the writers that I might admire with least reserve, and his books (my reads collection is increasing consistently) make impossible for me to grow tired of reading them. I found his new collection of essays fantastic. There is nothing lacking from what he knows best to express in a very direct, comprehensive and argumentative manner.
What’s very interesting, also highly rewarding, is that, even if I have read this small book already, I feel it very natural to go back and read it again, its fascination seems inexhaustible. I learned to appreciate his words as extremely valuable, not only from enjoying them as per mood-wise, but, surprisingly or not, in most of the expressed, I feel in a relationship of agreement with the author.
≪ Certainly, we ought to be discontented, we ought not simply to find out ways of making the best of a bad job, and yet IF WE KILL ALL PLEASURE IN THE ACTUAL PROCESS OF LIFE, what sort of future are we preparing for ourselves?
If a man cannot enjoy the return of spring, why should he be happy in a labour-saving Utopia? What will he do with the leisure that the machine will give him? I have always suspected that if our economic and political problems are ever really solved, life will become simpler instead of more complex, and that the sort of pleasure one gets from finding the first primrose will loom larger than the sort of pleasure one gets from eating an ice to the tune of a Wurlitzer.
I think that by retaining one’s childhood love of such things as trees, fishes, butterflies and-to return to my first instance- toads, one makes a peaceful and decent future a little more probable, and that by preaching the doctrine that nothing is to be admired except steel and concrete, one merely makes it a little surer that human beings will have no outlet for their surplus energy except in hatred and leader worship. ≫
Despite, I feel yet apparently, showing some(times) belligerent impressions, still Orwell does not waste words, and all his phrases and similar touches over potent and interesting themes do not lose any fighting thoughts and feelings, as for their intrinsic merits. It is really fascinating to read his argumentations, and somehow to lead you to further intriguing thoughts, making it a very stimulating environment for increased intellectual curiosity.
Moreover, there is not needed to fully be in agreement with the author’s stated opinions, while you just simply can take delight in his work, as such. For example, in his essay ‘Politics vs Literature: An Examination of Gulliver’s Travels’, even if I don’t fully concord with his views, still I find it highly challenging and entertaining to try to grasp the bigger picture that Orwell is brushing on.
≪ Swift is not actually inventing anything he is merely leaving something out. Human behaviour, too, especially in politics, is as he describes it, although it contains other more important factors which he refuses to admit. So far as we can see, both horror and pain are necessary to the continuance of life on this planet, and it is therefore open to pessimists like Swift to say: ‘If horror and pain must always be with us, how can life be significantly improved?’. His attitude is in effect the Christian attitude, minus the bribe of a ‘next world’ – which, however, probably has less hold upon the minds of believers than the conviction that this world is a vale of tears and the grave is a place of rest.
It is, I am certain, a wrong attitude, and one which could have harmful effects upon behaviour; but something in us responds to it, as it responds to the gloomy words of the burial service and the sweetish smell of corpses in a country church. ≫
≪ It is often argued, at least by people who admit the importance of subject-matter, that a book cannot be ‘good’ if it expresses a palpably false view of life. We are told that in our own age, for instance, any book that has genuine literary merit will also be more or less ‘progressive’ in tendency. This ignores the fact that throughout history a similar struggle between the progress and reaction has been raging, and that the best books of any one age have always been written from several different viewpoints, some of them palpably more false than others. In so far as the writer is a propagandist, the most one can ask of him is that he shall genuinely believe in what he is saying, and that it shall not be something blazingly silly.
Swift did not possess ordinary wisdom, but he did possess a terrible intensity of vision, capable of picking out a single hidden truth and then magnifying it and distorting it. The durability of Gulliver’s Travels goes to show that if the force of belief is behind it, a world-view which only just passes the test of sanity is sufficient to produce a great work of art. ≫
Of course, during my childhood times, I have read Gulliver’s Travels and fully enjoyed it but I have learned presently that I was completely out of the horizon with regard to understanding it in a similar fashion as Orwell did comment on it. I got it as a simple story, absurd and, more or less, seeing some anti-human implications.
I cherish and hold as best from this short collection the following essays:
‘In defence of P.G. Wodehouse’
‘Politics vs Literature: An Examination of Gulliver’s Travels’
‘Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool’
‘Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali’
What’s very interesting, also highly rewarding, is that, even if I have read this small book already, I feel it very natural to go back and read it again, its fascination seems inexhaustible. I learned to appreciate his words as extremely valuable, not only from enjoying them as per mood-wise, but, surprisingly or not, in most of the expressed, I feel in a relationship of agreement with the author.
≪ Certainly, we ought to be discontented, we ought not simply to find out ways of making the best of a bad job, and yet IF WE KILL ALL PLEASURE IN THE ACTUAL PROCESS OF LIFE, what sort of future are we preparing for ourselves?
If a man cannot enjoy the return of spring, why should he be happy in a labour-saving Utopia? What will he do with the leisure that the machine will give him? I have always suspected that if our economic and political problems are ever really solved, life will become simpler instead of more complex, and that the sort of pleasure one gets from finding the first primrose will loom larger than the sort of pleasure one gets from eating an ice to the tune of a Wurlitzer.
I think that by retaining one’s childhood love of such things as trees, fishes, butterflies and-to return to my first instance- toads, one makes a peaceful and decent future a little more probable, and that by preaching the doctrine that nothing is to be admired except steel and concrete, one merely makes it a little surer that human beings will have no outlet for their surplus energy except in hatred and leader worship. ≫
Despite, I feel yet apparently, showing some(times) belligerent impressions, still Orwell does not waste words, and all his phrases and similar touches over potent and interesting themes do not lose any fighting thoughts and feelings, as for their intrinsic merits. It is really fascinating to read his argumentations, and somehow to lead you to further intriguing thoughts, making it a very stimulating environment for increased intellectual curiosity.
Moreover, there is not needed to fully be in agreement with the author’s stated opinions, while you just simply can take delight in his work, as such. For example, in his essay ‘Politics vs Literature: An Examination of Gulliver’s Travels’, even if I don’t fully concord with his views, still I find it highly challenging and entertaining to try to grasp the bigger picture that Orwell is brushing on.
≪ Swift is not actually inventing anything he is merely leaving something out. Human behaviour, too, especially in politics, is as he describes it, although it contains other more important factors which he refuses to admit. So far as we can see, both horror and pain are necessary to the continuance of life on this planet, and it is therefore open to pessimists like Swift to say: ‘If horror and pain must always be with us, how can life be significantly improved?’. His attitude is in effect the Christian attitude, minus the bribe of a ‘next world’ – which, however, probably has less hold upon the minds of believers than the conviction that this world is a vale of tears and the grave is a place of rest.
It is, I am certain, a wrong attitude, and one which could have harmful effects upon behaviour; but something in us responds to it, as it responds to the gloomy words of the burial service and the sweetish smell of corpses in a country church. ≫
≪ It is often argued, at least by people who admit the importance of subject-matter, that a book cannot be ‘good’ if it expresses a palpably false view of life. We are told that in our own age, for instance, any book that has genuine literary merit will also be more or less ‘progressive’ in tendency. This ignores the fact that throughout history a similar struggle between the progress and reaction has been raging, and that the best books of any one age have always been written from several different viewpoints, some of them palpably more false than others. In so far as the writer is a propagandist, the most one can ask of him is that he shall genuinely believe in what he is saying, and that it shall not be something blazingly silly.
Swift did not possess ordinary wisdom, but he did possess a terrible intensity of vision, capable of picking out a single hidden truth and then magnifying it and distorting it. The durability of Gulliver’s Travels goes to show that if the force of belief is behind it, a world-view which only just passes the test of sanity is sufficient to produce a great work of art. ≫
Of course, during my childhood times, I have read Gulliver’s Travels and fully enjoyed it but I have learned presently that I was completely out of the horizon with regard to understanding it in a similar fashion as Orwell did comment on it. I got it as a simple story, absurd and, more or less, seeing some anti-human implications.
I cherish and hold as best from this short collection the following essays:
‘In defence of P.G. Wodehouse’
‘Politics vs Literature: An Examination of Gulliver’s Travels’
‘Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool’
‘Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali’
June 19, 2022
Orvels nenoliedzami raksta ļoti prasmīgi, tomēr šis eseju krājums man bija īsta cīņa, par spīti tā mazajam izmēram. Lai cik argumentēti bija viņa viedokļi un dziļa tēmas izpēte, es te lielākoties garlaikojos un cīnījos ar sevi. Pārsteidzošā kārtā interesantākā eseja man šķita tā par Vudhauzu, lai arī Vudhauza daiļrade man nepatīk tieši necik. Bet stāsts par viņa krišanu negodā, jo brāļošanās ar nacistu radio nekad nav laba doma, lai cik attālināts no realitātes cilvēks būtu, jā, nu tas bija vienlaikus izklaidējoši un saturīgi.
March 13, 2014
This is an excellent collection of George Orwell’s essays spotlighting some of his simplest pieces among his more thoughtful. Some Thoughts on the Common Toad is a very straightforward essay celebrating the joys of Springtime in England while A Good Word for the Vicar of Bray discusses Orwell’s views on gardening and its rewarding spiritual value as plants endure over time. In Defence of English Cooking is a slightly humorous look at foreigners, and Britons’, perceptions of British cooking, talking about its uniqueness in the world and some of his favourite dishes.
This was the first time I read his famous essay Shooting An Elephant and felt somewhat underwhelmed by it. It’s a memoir of the time Orwell was in Burma as a police officer and had to shoot a tearaway elephant in front of hundreds of native onlookers. I’m currently reading Burmese Days and the essay is a good accompaniment to the novel as it affirms the tense relationship between Imperial Britain in the colonies, particularly the natives’ perceptions of British rule. But it’s a surprisingly simplistic essay – he shoots an elephant.
The most entertaining essay was Benefit of Clergy which is Orwell’s review of Salvador Dali’s autobiography. Entertaining because I knew nothing about Dali and was shocked to discover what a lunatic the man was! When he wasn’t assaulting women of all ages, he was indulging his morbid sexual tastes like necrophilia! The details of his life are extraordinary in themselves but Orwell turns his review into an argument for appreciating art but disliking it at the same time – recognising the talent and value of art but also acknowledging that some of it, especially Dali’s, is disgusting and vile, as well as the way the public will give Dali the benefit of the doubt because he’s a great artist.
His essay, In Defence of PG Wodehouse, discusses the bizarre scandal that led to Wodehouse’s exile from Britain from the Second World War to the end of his life. Wodehouse had been captured by the Nazis in 1941 and, for a few days during his imprisonment, he was allowed to write and broadcast a series of comedic observations on the radio which were picked up in Britain. This led to the belief that he was somehow colluding with the Nazis and the British government branded him a traitor as a result.
Orwell looks at the matter, explaining Wodehouse’s innocence due to his naivety and outdated worldview as shown in his quaint but archaic novels, as well as how Wodehouse could’ve been so stupid to have done this in the first place. It’s a fascinating, clear-minded look at something that was blown out of all proportion by an hysterical public.
His review of Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels was erudite and insightful as he used the book to look at Swift’s politics and worldview and how humanity is portrayed in his famous novel. His essay on Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool is probably the best in this collection. It examines Tolstoy’s pamphlet critiquing Shakespeare’s play King Lear whose poorly made arguments Orwell proceeds to pull apart. Orwell then goes on to look at the similarities between Lear’s life and Tolstoy’s when he wrote the pamphlet, particularly Tolstoy’s extreme religious outlook (which was vastly hypocritical – advocating strict celibacy when vigorously practicing the opposite!) and then takes a broader look at religion itself, giving us gems like:
“The humanist attitude is that the struggle must continue and that death is the price of life”
And
“Ultimately it is the Christian attitude which is self-interested and hedonistic, since the aim is always to get away from the painful struggle of earthly life and find eternal peace in some kind of heaven or nirvana”
Orwell’s essays are always worth reading for their insight, intelligence and wisdom, and whether or not you’re interested in the subject, Orwell is able to make you care about it and do so in a clear, approachable and understandable way. This collection is no different and contains some fantastic gems that make this book well worth picking up.
This was the first time I read his famous essay Shooting An Elephant and felt somewhat underwhelmed by it. It’s a memoir of the time Orwell was in Burma as a police officer and had to shoot a tearaway elephant in front of hundreds of native onlookers. I’m currently reading Burmese Days and the essay is a good accompaniment to the novel as it affirms the tense relationship between Imperial Britain in the colonies, particularly the natives’ perceptions of British rule. But it’s a surprisingly simplistic essay – he shoots an elephant.
The most entertaining essay was Benefit of Clergy which is Orwell’s review of Salvador Dali’s autobiography. Entertaining because I knew nothing about Dali and was shocked to discover what a lunatic the man was! When he wasn’t assaulting women of all ages, he was indulging his morbid sexual tastes like necrophilia! The details of his life are extraordinary in themselves but Orwell turns his review into an argument for appreciating art but disliking it at the same time – recognising the talent and value of art but also acknowledging that some of it, especially Dali’s, is disgusting and vile, as well as the way the public will give Dali the benefit of the doubt because he’s a great artist.
His essay, In Defence of PG Wodehouse, discusses the bizarre scandal that led to Wodehouse’s exile from Britain from the Second World War to the end of his life. Wodehouse had been captured by the Nazis in 1941 and, for a few days during his imprisonment, he was allowed to write and broadcast a series of comedic observations on the radio which were picked up in Britain. This led to the belief that he was somehow colluding with the Nazis and the British government branded him a traitor as a result.
Orwell looks at the matter, explaining Wodehouse’s innocence due to his naivety and outdated worldview as shown in his quaint but archaic novels, as well as how Wodehouse could’ve been so stupid to have done this in the first place. It’s a fascinating, clear-minded look at something that was blown out of all proportion by an hysterical public.
His review of Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels was erudite and insightful as he used the book to look at Swift’s politics and worldview and how humanity is portrayed in his famous novel. His essay on Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool is probably the best in this collection. It examines Tolstoy’s pamphlet critiquing Shakespeare’s play King Lear whose poorly made arguments Orwell proceeds to pull apart. Orwell then goes on to look at the similarities between Lear’s life and Tolstoy’s when he wrote the pamphlet, particularly Tolstoy’s extreme religious outlook (which was vastly hypocritical – advocating strict celibacy when vigorously practicing the opposite!) and then takes a broader look at religion itself, giving us gems like:
“The humanist attitude is that the struggle must continue and that death is the price of life”
And
“Ultimately it is the Christian attitude which is self-interested and hedonistic, since the aim is always to get away from the painful struggle of earthly life and find eternal peace in some kind of heaven or nirvana”
Orwell’s essays are always worth reading for their insight, intelligence and wisdom, and whether or not you’re interested in the subject, Orwell is able to make you care about it and do so in a clear, approachable and understandable way. This collection is no different and contains some fantastic gems that make this book well worth picking up.
December 14, 2018
Ehhh... This was alright. The weakest of the Penguin Great Ideas essay collections in my opinion. Shooting an Elephant and Some Thoughts on the Common Toad were BRILLIANT essays... The rest I couldn't fully appreciate because I didn't read the works they were referencing to (Tolstoy, King Lear, Gulliver's Travels, Wodehouse etc.).
December 16, 2023
3.75⭐️
Orwell is a fantastic author as always. I’ve read 6 of his works now: 1984, keep the aspidistras flying, animal farm, why I write, notes on nationalism, and now this. It was 115 pages & had multiple essays. The title name, common toad was the most forgettable essay. It was just appreciating a toad 😂 I really did hate Gulliver travel & it’s good to see Orwell be scathing on the story & it’s authour’s morals & world view 😂 despite this he loves the book & makes a good discussion on whether we can separate the art from the artist and if that affects how good a book is. The story Lear, Tolstoy & the fool: Surprised Tolstoy hated Shakespeare so much 😂 I enjoyed this one a lot. Shooting an 🐘 was an interesting read. In defence of English cooking, which in my opinion is indefensible lol. I am open to trying redcurrant Jam though. Benefits of clergy: some notes on Salvador dali. Def unhinged & narcissistic cause omg i didn’t know he attacked humans & animals. He talks about signs of sexual perversion, necrophilia, & obsession with poop?? And he admitted to the necrophilia obsession? Ahhhh 😭 the idea of art for arts sake & if artists would be held to a moral standard. Def an interesting read as well. If you enjoy Orwell’s work and short essays, def give this a try
Orwell is a fantastic author as always. I’ve read 6 of his works now: 1984, keep the aspidistras flying, animal farm, why I write, notes on nationalism, and now this. It was 115 pages & had multiple essays. The title name, common toad was the most forgettable essay. It was just appreciating a toad 😂 I really did hate Gulliver travel & it’s good to see Orwell be scathing on the story & it’s authour’s morals & world view 😂 despite this he loves the book & makes a good discussion on whether we can separate the art from the artist and if that affects how good a book is. The story Lear, Tolstoy & the fool: Surprised Tolstoy hated Shakespeare so much 😂 I enjoyed this one a lot. Shooting an 🐘 was an interesting read. In defence of English cooking, which in my opinion is indefensible lol. I am open to trying redcurrant Jam though. Benefits of clergy: some notes on Salvador dali. Def unhinged & narcissistic cause omg i didn’t know he attacked humans & animals. He talks about signs of sexual perversion, necrophilia, & obsession with poop?? And he admitted to the necrophilia obsession? Ahhhh 😭 the idea of art for arts sake & if artists would be held to a moral standard. Def an interesting read as well. If you enjoy Orwell’s work and short essays, def give this a try
December 31, 2024
yes, yes, yes! more relevant than ever, re: climate change - the importance of maintaining our appreciation for small moments (particularly our time with nature) in the face of, and in defiance of, autocrats and billionaires, and in preparation for (here's hoping) the turn of our society towards a quieter, more nature-filled future. very short. on project gutenberg for free. would recommend!
p.s. this is just a review of the title essay!
p.s. this is just a review of the title essay!
May 29, 2021
Some Thoughts on Some Thoughts On The Common Toad:
I read Orwell’s 1984 last year after a friend had recommended it profusely. To put it simply, my mind was blown. I had loved the book in its totality and all the individual concepts it was made of. I saw this book randomly on a website and the title instantly caught my eye because I like frogs, toads, snakes, reptiles in general. Looking down at the author, I was sure to add it to the basket.
There are eight essays in the book:
Some Thoughts on the Common Toad, In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse, A good Word for the Vicar of Bray, Politics vs literature: An Examination of ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool, Shooting an Elephant, In Defence of English Cooking, Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali.
The titular essay was extremely pleasing for me and certainly a favourite even though the others were equally great.
The point is that the pleasures of spring are available to everybody, and cost nothing. Even in the most sordid street the coming of spring will register itself by some sign or other, if it is only a brighter blue between the chimney pots or the vivid green of an elder sprouting on a blitzed site.
Orwell also shows how something as natural and beautiful as spring can be frowned upon by capitalists as anything that gives humans pleasure without money must certainly be avoided in a capitalistic society.
I think that by retaining one’s childhood love of such things as trees, fishes, butterflies and to return to my first instance – toads, one makes a peaceful and decent future a little more probable, and that by preaching the doctrine that nothing is to be admired except steel and concrete, one merely makes it a little surer that human beings will have no outlet for their surplus energy except in hatred and worship.
Other ideas that you will encounter in these essays are the definition of art, the distinction between the art and the artist, a candid incident about reluctantly shooting an elephant in Burma, an honourable suggestion about planting trees every time you commit an antisocial act, Tolstoy’s denouncement of Shakespeare and Orwells’s analysis of said denouncement, and a few words in favour of the English cooking.
It is a short book brimming with Orwell’s thoughts and ideas. I really enjoyed it and learnt many new things.
I read Orwell’s 1984 last year after a friend had recommended it profusely. To put it simply, my mind was blown. I had loved the book in its totality and all the individual concepts it was made of. I saw this book randomly on a website and the title instantly caught my eye because I like frogs, toads, snakes, reptiles in general. Looking down at the author, I was sure to add it to the basket.
There are eight essays in the book:
Some Thoughts on the Common Toad, In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse, A good Word for the Vicar of Bray, Politics vs literature: An Examination of ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool, Shooting an Elephant, In Defence of English Cooking, Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali.
The titular essay was extremely pleasing for me and certainly a favourite even though the others were equally great.
The point is that the pleasures of spring are available to everybody, and cost nothing. Even in the most sordid street the coming of spring will register itself by some sign or other, if it is only a brighter blue between the chimney pots or the vivid green of an elder sprouting on a blitzed site.
Orwell also shows how something as natural and beautiful as spring can be frowned upon by capitalists as anything that gives humans pleasure without money must certainly be avoided in a capitalistic society.
I think that by retaining one’s childhood love of such things as trees, fishes, butterflies and to return to my first instance – toads, one makes a peaceful and decent future a little more probable, and that by preaching the doctrine that nothing is to be admired except steel and concrete, one merely makes it a little surer that human beings will have no outlet for their surplus energy except in hatred and worship.
Other ideas that you will encounter in these essays are the definition of art, the distinction between the art and the artist, a candid incident about reluctantly shooting an elephant in Burma, an honourable suggestion about planting trees every time you commit an antisocial act, Tolstoy’s denouncement of Shakespeare and Orwells’s analysis of said denouncement, and a few words in favour of the English cooking.
It is a short book brimming with Orwell’s thoughts and ideas. I really enjoyed it and learnt many new things.
December 31, 2024
ja die gerüchte sind wahr, ich bin george orwell apologist, ich möchte ihn resurrecten, mit ihm kaffee trinken und eine unterhaltung führen was wollt ihr tun
some thoughts on the common toad kriegt 5 sterne<3
some thoughts on the common toad kriegt 5 sterne<3
July 4, 2025
If only I were a common toad, Id go through a phase of intense sexiness every spring
May 13, 2021
2.5 stars. This was my least favourite of the Penguin Great Ideas George Orwell essay collections I've read, as it was a bit of a mixed bag. Some of the essays were as interesting as normal- e.g. Shooting an Elephant, In Defense of English Cooking, Notes on Salvador Dali, etc. I love how Orwell's essays give me tiny glimpses of the sociocultural landscape of the first half of the 20th century, while still being really entertaining.
It was just unfortunate that the 2 longest essays in this collection were on topics that didn't interest me. One was about Leo Tolstoy's dislike of Shakespeare's work, particularly looking at King Lear. As I've never read/ seen King Lear this was only very mildly interesting to me. The other long essay was interpreting Jonathan Swift's political views by looking at Gulliver's Travels. Having never read Gulliver's Travels and knowing nothing of the political climate in the 1720's, this was totally lost on me. I only read half that essay as I was getting nothing from it.
It was just unfortunate that the 2 longest essays in this collection were on topics that didn't interest me. One was about Leo Tolstoy's dislike of Shakespeare's work, particularly looking at King Lear. As I've never read/ seen King Lear this was only very mildly interesting to me. The other long essay was interpreting Jonathan Swift's political views by looking at Gulliver's Travels. Having never read Gulliver's Travels and knowing nothing of the political climate in the 1720's, this was totally lost on me. I only read half that essay as I was getting nothing from it.
August 8, 2023
The first essay, the one on the common toad, is great though!
July 12, 2022
Orwell's esseys are extremely interesting and a document of his time. Highly recommended.
October 19, 2025
I read Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm when I was about 14, loved them, and promptly never read anything by Orwell ever again. On the strength of this essay collection, that appears to have been a mistake, because in his nonfiction he remains a sharp thinker and a compelling writer.
My favorite essays here are the first two. “Some Thoughts on the Common Toad” is a lovely little reflection on the value of enjoying nature in spite of a chaotic world. “In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse” is an insightful take on an author I enjoy and the relative culpability of his broadcasts as a Nazi internee.
The other three pieces of cultural criticism, on Swift, Tolstoy, and Dali, dragged a bit, as I was less interested in the subject matter, but came around to making interesting points by the end. Respectively, they dealt with how an author with a faulty worldview can produce a great work, Tolstoy’s hatred of Shakespeare as an example of the tyranny of the morally superior, and the merits of applying an ethical lens when assessing art.
“Shooting an Elephant” is a sad look at how colonialism dehumanizes the colonizer as well as the colonized, at a micro scale. The other two essays in here are short, and nice enough as well. Also, this is a charming edition – truthfully, I bought it mostly for the toads on the cover. 4.5 stars.
My favorite essays here are the first two. “Some Thoughts on the Common Toad” is a lovely little reflection on the value of enjoying nature in spite of a chaotic world. “In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse” is an insightful take on an author I enjoy and the relative culpability of his broadcasts as a Nazi internee.
The other three pieces of cultural criticism, on Swift, Tolstoy, and Dali, dragged a bit, as I was less interested in the subject matter, but came around to making interesting points by the end. Respectively, they dealt with how an author with a faulty worldview can produce a great work, Tolstoy’s hatred of Shakespeare as an example of the tyranny of the morally superior, and the merits of applying an ethical lens when assessing art.
“Shooting an Elephant” is a sad look at how colonialism dehumanizes the colonizer as well as the colonized, at a micro scale. The other two essays in here are short, and nice enough as well. Also, this is a charming edition – truthfully, I bought it mostly for the toads on the cover. 4.5 stars.
Read
February 28, 2023“I think that by retaining one’s childhood love of such things as trees, fishes, butterflies and - to return to my first instance - toads, one makes a peaceful and decent future a little more probable, and by that preaching the doctrine that nothing is to be admired except steel and concrete, one merely makes it a little surer that human beings will have no outlet for their surplus energy except in hatred and leader-worship (…) The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going around the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove op the process, are able to prevent it.”
Read
April 8, 2023Jeg skippa noen av tekstene i denne samlinga (har aldri hørt om P. G. Wodehouse og syns derfor det er forsvarlig å overse den 30 sider lange teksten om ham) men ellers var det spennende lesing. Redaktøren(e) av boka har gjort et ganske labert forsøk på å finne noe tematisk kobling eller rød tråd i valg av tekstene, så man finner derfor både meta-kritikk av Tolstoy OG kjærlighetsbrev til det britiske kjøkken i én og samme bok. Særlig likte jeg «shooting an elephant», en gjenfortelling av en hendelse fra Orwells liv som konstabel i Burma som kan tolkes som en slags allegorisk fortelling om det britiske imperiet og Asia. Orwell diskuterer det problematiske forhold mellom Dalis kunst og Dali som menneske, som likner på nådagens Kanye West-debatt, hvor han kommer med noen interessante tanker.
July 21, 2021
Personally, I am a fan of Orwell and his non-fiction works so knew I’d enjoy this but perhaps I should have read the literature he references in this book to enjoy it more. None the less, the first essay is immaculate and possibly one of my favourite descriptions of spring.
March 15, 2022
I like how George Orwells brain works
January 17, 2023
slightly traumatised by the Dali essay at the end but excellent overall collection as always
September 22, 2023
Solid 6.5/10. Do love Orwell
November 3, 2024
this is not an overreaction
December 23, 2025
3.5 but I rounded up because it deserves more than 3.
June 5, 2025
maybe 3.5? a few of them were really good, but Tolstoy and Gullivers Travels dragged on a bit. always always love Orwell’s style though, what an intelligent man
May 29, 2025
A great essay that highlights the importance of being good stewards of our natural resources and enjoying the world around you.
October 16, 2025
Some Thoughts on The Common Toad by George Orwell is the thirty first of The Essays - you find this collection in the 917th place on The Greatest Books of All Time site, nevertheless, the algorithm changes the places in the hierarchy, ergo you could see a different structure, I don’t know what data is used, however, if it takes into account the ‘reading public’, then the chefs d’oeuvre will descend from the top spots, and the likes of The Da Vinci Code will dominate the front rows, and they will become the “GOAT” – that notwithstanding, you have more than five thousand reviews on books from the aforementioned site and others, with notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other lists waiting for you on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... if you are interested
The Essays of Geroge Orwell https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... are fantastic, and alas, they will soon be over for this reader, I have read thirty one now, and that means about twenty hours of listening to the mesmerizing audio book, and there are only about five hours left
I agree with Geroge Orwell completely on the main issue of Some Thoughts on The Common Toad, incidentally, I was not worried about a text dealing with such small, neglected (as the author indeed says) animal, I have a couple in the small ‘pond’ in the garden, perhaps three-square meters in area, and I like them so much
Superman that I am, I saved one from the cats, there are more than ten cats roaming here – I can see that this is moving away from the Essay, and the lines will be about how I enjoyed nature, and not what Orwell has to say about it, he is right, pleasures of nature do not cost anything, and things have changed in the meantime
In this essay, we read that decades ago, there was a backlash when nature was celebrated, because it was conserved passe, retrograde, that was the age of the machine, why talk about soil and flowers, when they had to admire progress, that would be the cars and the rest of it, we have seen the pollution and Climate Change
Unless of course, we are not from the MAGA https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... lunatic asylum, those hoodlums deny that the planet is warming, have promoted this fool at the top of the free world, are against vaccines, but for a deluge of machine guns, and so much more
Let me stop this, before it gets me in trouble again: believing in freedom of expression, I had this attitude in my notes, and then some MAGA hated it, flagged me, and I got kicked out of Goodreads, where I used to have more than four thousand reviews, I had to return, and to work a lot to get them back from my blogs
Indeed, now there are more than three thousand on my profile, but it took many days to get there, and besides, a thousand or so may be gone, I am still digging, but new ‘gems’ are harder to find- and now for my love of nature, which is so similar to what George Orwell expressed in his Some Thoughts on The Common Toad
My daughter was born in 2001, she was just a few months old when 9/11 happened, and we saw this in the middle of…Nature, well sort of, we had just moved to Rasnov aka Rosenau, a small town in the middle of Romania, some 160 kilometers north of Bucharest, we had abandoned the capital and chose the forest
It is true that we had been forced to a great extent – there is a sort of a spoiler alert many lines above, when I realized I digress or worse, so you had been warned, in case you are thinking of having me banned, again 😊- because we had stayed in the center of the capital, in my mother’s flat, and spend a lot to upgrade it
Only she decided at the end of this massive, exorbitant (with hindsight, and knowing the result) operation to have us out, so we little money left, we could not buy, or do something worthwhile in the big city and thus settled in the ‘countryside’, there will be more about this in future notes, meaning less about the subject and more about innuendo
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence
Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
The Essays of Geroge Orwell https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... are fantastic, and alas, they will soon be over for this reader, I have read thirty one now, and that means about twenty hours of listening to the mesmerizing audio book, and there are only about five hours left
I agree with Geroge Orwell completely on the main issue of Some Thoughts on The Common Toad, incidentally, I was not worried about a text dealing with such small, neglected (as the author indeed says) animal, I have a couple in the small ‘pond’ in the garden, perhaps three-square meters in area, and I like them so much
Superman that I am, I saved one from the cats, there are more than ten cats roaming here – I can see that this is moving away from the Essay, and the lines will be about how I enjoyed nature, and not what Orwell has to say about it, he is right, pleasures of nature do not cost anything, and things have changed in the meantime
In this essay, we read that decades ago, there was a backlash when nature was celebrated, because it was conserved passe, retrograde, that was the age of the machine, why talk about soil and flowers, when they had to admire progress, that would be the cars and the rest of it, we have seen the pollution and Climate Change
Unless of course, we are not from the MAGA https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... lunatic asylum, those hoodlums deny that the planet is warming, have promoted this fool at the top of the free world, are against vaccines, but for a deluge of machine guns, and so much more
Let me stop this, before it gets me in trouble again: believing in freedom of expression, I had this attitude in my notes, and then some MAGA hated it, flagged me, and I got kicked out of Goodreads, where I used to have more than four thousand reviews, I had to return, and to work a lot to get them back from my blogs
Indeed, now there are more than three thousand on my profile, but it took many days to get there, and besides, a thousand or so may be gone, I am still digging, but new ‘gems’ are harder to find- and now for my love of nature, which is so similar to what George Orwell expressed in his Some Thoughts on The Common Toad
My daughter was born in 2001, she was just a few months old when 9/11 happened, and we saw this in the middle of…Nature, well sort of, we had just moved to Rasnov aka Rosenau, a small town in the middle of Romania, some 160 kilometers north of Bucharest, we had abandoned the capital and chose the forest
It is true that we had been forced to a great extent – there is a sort of a spoiler alert many lines above, when I realized I digress or worse, so you had been warned, in case you are thinking of having me banned, again 😊- because we had stayed in the center of the capital, in my mother’s flat, and spend a lot to upgrade it
Only she decided at the end of this massive, exorbitant (with hindsight, and knowing the result) operation to have us out, so we little money left, we could not buy, or do something worthwhile in the big city and thus settled in the ‘countryside’, there will be more about this in future notes, meaning less about the subject and more about innuendo
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence
Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
February 7, 2017
It is always such a delicious treat when you tread into the unknown realms of well-known writers. It is hardly possible to meet (amongst readers mostly, but also some non-readers) anyone who is not familiar with Orwell's work; 1984 and Animal Farm come to mind. But it is books like 'Some Thoughts on the Common Toad' that perhaps many people are unaware even of its existence.
Well, as unknown as it is, I believe such books that collect letters, articles or essays of authors that display a more accurate representation of their writers. Although I say with honest admittance that I did not expect much from this book, it is safe to say that few books have given me the kind of enjoyment this book has.
The range of subjects the selected articles of Orwell's that are collected in this book discusses are so random and mostly unconnected to a degree that manages to conjure feelings equivalent to random conversations with your best friend. Orwell makes you think, wonder, laugh and sometimes be bewildered by what he is saying.
This book has only enlarged my appetite for more of Orwell's books that are collected articles, and without a doubt they are the next on my list to be read. So straightforward, simple and genuine are Orwell's words that a mere 115 pages plunges you deep into Orwell's mind, swimming and diving in his thoughts that are so blatantly put forward in this book. Read this and you became immediately acquainted with Orwell; and addicted.
Well, as unknown as it is, I believe such books that collect letters, articles or essays of authors that display a more accurate representation of their writers. Although I say with honest admittance that I did not expect much from this book, it is safe to say that few books have given me the kind of enjoyment this book has.
The range of subjects the selected articles of Orwell's that are collected in this book discusses are so random and mostly unconnected to a degree that manages to conjure feelings equivalent to random conversations with your best friend. Orwell makes you think, wonder, laugh and sometimes be bewildered by what he is saying.
This book has only enlarged my appetite for more of Orwell's books that are collected articles, and without a doubt they are the next on my list to be read. So straightforward, simple and genuine are Orwell's words that a mere 115 pages plunges you deep into Orwell's mind, swimming and diving in his thoughts that are so blatantly put forward in this book. Read this and you became immediately acquainted with Orwell; and addicted.
March 16, 2016
This collection is part of Penguin's Great Ideas series, which I am steadily working my way through (previously I have read Thomas Paine's pamphlet "Common Sense" - review here). I adore these little publications; the cover designs by David Pearson are some of the best he has ever done, and the full series is a great overview of some of the most influential essays and manifestos in (mostly) Western history.
Some Thoughts On the Common Toad is one of four George Orwell collections included in this project, and contains eight articles written between 1944 and 1947. Spoiler alert: the titular essay is not actually about toads - it's about capitalism. ...And toads.
Read More
Some Thoughts On the Common Toad is one of four George Orwell collections included in this project, and contains eight articles written between 1944 and 1947. Spoiler alert: the titular essay is not actually about toads - it's about capitalism. ...And toads.
Read More
January 27, 2013
The thing about Orwell and his narrative essays is that they make me slightly twitchy. Twitchy in the sense that I want to get up, put on an Orwell hat and rip out some essays. He makes me want to write, but write like a boss.
How can he not, with stuff like this casually fronting up a piece about Salvador Dali's salacious autobiography: 'Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful.' Orwell goes on to say that, even if Dali's entire book was nothing more than fabrication designed to shock and offend, that intention itself is an autobiographical revelation about the writer's character, and is accordingly valuable.
That's Orwell. Spitting out wisdom like well-aimed cherry pips. Well worth reading for thinking types.
How can he not, with stuff like this casually fronting up a piece about Salvador Dali's salacious autobiography: 'Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful.' Orwell goes on to say that, even if Dali's entire book was nothing more than fabrication designed to shock and offend, that intention itself is an autobiographical revelation about the writer's character, and is accordingly valuable.
That's Orwell. Spitting out wisdom like well-aimed cherry pips. Well worth reading for thinking types.
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