A Clergyman's Daughter

I am not too sure about this one. I didn't detest it, parts I enjoyed, parts I didn't enjoy. It doesn't come across a a well constructed novel - it more moves from setting to setting as a means of reaching its conclusion- rather clunkily. Often the means of those transitions come across as unrealistic, or too coincidental to be viable.

It was an early novel of Orwell's, and one he himself wasn't proud of. I guess he was still developing his writing abilities. But for me it wasn't a disaster as a novel.

There are some good plot outlines in other reviews, better than I will cobble together, but for me, the basic stages of the novel and the way they were written was quite varied:
- Knype Hill, Suffolk, the fictional backwater where Dorothy lives under the control of her father - a horrifically mundane existence devoid of any joy - very well described, to such a point that if it was 2 or 3 pages longer I would probably have given up reading the novel, as it was sucking the life out of me.
- The travelling to, and hop picking - much more interesting, and very well described - probably the more interesting time in the novel for me.
- Homeless in London - terrible. Written as a play script, it basically degenerated to gibberish for me. I skipped over most of this. (I realise this was probably a writing device to demonstrate the frantic and confusing situation for Dorothy, but it was unreadable.)
- Teaching at Ringwood House - another interesting episode in the novel, well describing the situation.
- The return to Knype Hill, Suffolk.

On balance, 3 stars from me.