Perspective

The book was commissioned by the Left Book Club and has a specific political goal—to illustrate the terrible conditions endured by the working class poor of England. The Left Book Club was ostensibly an apolitical, left leaning organization. However, it did have a thinly-veiled dedication for Socialism and openly admired Communism as then practiced in Russia. The book was sold as a selection-of-the-month to Left Book Club members and was also made available to the general public at a higher price. The club fostered numerous discussion groups throughout Great Britain where the text was undoubtedly discussed in detail. The Left Book Club editors were thoroughly pleased with Part I of Orwell's book which was an emotionally charged eye-witness description of poverty obtaining in northern England and the conditions experienced by millions of working-class peoples. The editors were less than pleased with Part II of the book...