A Clergyman’s Daughter

What It's About

Dorothy Hare is the dutiful, overworked daughter of a self-absorbed rector in the small English town of Knype Hill. Trapped in a life of parish errands, debt-collecting, and quiet self-denial, she suffers a sudden loss of memory and finds herself, days later, destitute in London with no idea how she got there. What follows takes her through hop-picking in the Kent countryside, a night among London's homeless in Trafalgar Square, and a spell teaching at a shabby, exploitative private school, before circumstances draw her back to her father's household and the narrow world she started from.

Key Concepts

The novel is as much a portrait of poverty and English social hierarchy as it is a character study. Orwell uses Dorothy's journey to examine the mechanics of destitution, the hypocrisies of institutional religion, and the stifling respectability expected of women in her position. A notably experimental chapter set in Trafalgar Square, written largely in play-script form, reflects the influence of Joyce's Ulysses. Orwell himself later regarded the book poorly and reportedly did not want it reprinted, considering it a rushed and overly imitative early work.

About the Author

George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, an English novelist, essayist, and journalist. Educated at Eton, he served with the Imperial Police in Burma before returning to Europe, where his experiences of poverty and social inequality shaped much of his early writing. He remains one of the most widely read English-language writers of the twentieth century.