Victor Gollancz’s publishing concern was a relatively recent venture and he was naturally cautious knowing that an ill-advised publication resulting in legal proceedings could easily ruin his company. However, Victor Gollancz was reluctant to publish Burmese Days because he feared publication would provoke legal actions of libel and deformation from colonial administrators. It followed then, that Gollancz would be the obvious choice to publish Orwell’s first novel. Orwell’s life-long literary agent Leonard Moore had placed Down and out in Paris and London with Victor Gollancz knowing the publisher would be sympathetic to the tenor of the book. He had previously published articles and reviews under his real name of Eric Blair. In 1933, Gollancz had published Down and out in Paris and London, Owell’s account of living in poverty which was notable, for among other things, as the first publication to appear under his pseudonym, George Orwell. Although Burmese Days was his first novel, it was not his first book. As with many first novels, publication was far from straightforward. The novel draws heavily on his experiences while serving in the Indian Imperial Police in Burma from 1922 to 1927, an important period in his formative political development. October 2014 marks the 80 th anniversary of the publication of George Orwell’s first novel Burmese Days.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |