A Clergyman's Daughter is a 1935 novel by English author George Orwell. It tells the story of Dorothy Hare, the titular clergyman's daughter, whose life is turned upside down when she suffers an attack of amnesia. It is Orwell's most formally experimental novel, featuring a chapter written entirely in dramatic form, but he was never satisfied with it and he left instructions that after his death it was not to be reprinted. Despite these instructions, Orwell did consent to the printing of cheap editions "of any book which may bring in a few pounds for my heirs" following his death.
First US edition cover, the novel published in America with a slight change of title as The Clergyman's Daughter
Eric 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 totalitarianism, and support of democratic socialism.
Press card portrait, 1943
Orwell's birthplace in Motihari, Bihar, India
Blair family home at Shiplake, Oxfordshire
Blair's time at St. Cyprian's inspired his essay "Such, Such Were the Joys".