ABSTRACT
Of how many contemporary English writers can it be said-and I am here not referring to deliberate eccentricity-that each page or paragraph bears the unmistakable imprint of their style? Since George Orwell rigorously avoided mannerism, it is the more remarkable that one can say this about almost anything he wrote. It is especially remarkable in these days, because even cursory reading of the current English literary output suggests strongly that most of the writers have read far too much, whether of each other’s writings or of Times Lit. Supp. leaders. The result is a type of literary criticism or of social reportage which might be by anybody or appear anywhere, interchangeably in the Sunday Times or the New Statesman, in Time and Tide or (at least on occasions) in Tribune.
