Archive discovery confirms George Orwell really lived the low life for his reportage
This article originally appeared on Culture24.
An archive discovery gives credence to the idea of "honest George" Orwell, the writer who lived the low life for the sake of his reportage
George Orwell's press card photograph© By Branch of the National Union of Journalists (BNUJ). (http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/) [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsNow a court record, unearthed in a London archive detailing George Orwell's 1931 conviction for being ‘drunk and incapable’, confirms his account of one such experience in his 1932 essay, Clink.
The document, which is the subject of a University College London paper published this week in the journal Notes and Queries, is the first solid external evidence of any of Orwell’s ‘down and out’ experiences and backs up his published account of the incident.
On Saturday December 19 1931, Orwell set out to be arrested, in the hope he might be sent to prison and be able to write about it.
According to the essay he downed four or five pints and the best part of a bottle of whisky, and was picked up and taken to Bethnal Green police station.
On arrest, he gave the pseudonym Edward Burton and told police that he worked as a fish porter at Billingsgate Market and had “gone on the razzle” after a windfall of six shillings.
On Monday, he was taken to Old Street Police Court to be seen by a magistrate. Despite saying he was unable to pay the six-shilling fine, his time in custody was seen as enough to spare him further incarceration.
One might wonder how, given such a prodigious alcohol intake, Orwell remembered some of the finer details of the escapade, but study author Dr Luke Seaber (UCL English), who says he felt “rather excited” when he unearthed the record in the London Metropolitan Archives, believes it effectively corroborates Orwell’s account.
Orwell's experience informed many of his works© Penguin BooksA closer look at the court records also confirms other accounts in Orwell’s essay, such as, “the ugly Belgian youth charged with obstructing traffic with a barrow”, who emerges as number 16 from the court record, Pierre Sussman, aged 20, pleading guilty to obstructing Shoreditch High Street with a costerbarrow.
“This document demonstrates that his writing about this experience is as near to 100% accurate reportage as possible,” adds Seaber. “The few minor mistakes seem honest, as they are exactly the sort of thing one might get wrong when listening to people in a cell.”
However, it appears Orwell wasn’t above combining material gathered at different moments into one account. He relates one conversation between two cellmates, ‘Charlie’ and ‘Snouter’.
“No document can ever fully answer the question of how reliable an author is in his or her reportage,” says Seaber. “No records will ever suffice to put an end to the critical debates over whether certain pieces by Orwell should be classified as fact, fiction, or a mixture of the two.
“However, the record does at least shed some light on these vexed questions. Let us hope there are more such documents out there in the archives.”
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