A really very interesting read from Orwell, consisting of three long essays on literary topics. The first, on Henry Miller and his Tropic of Cancer, suffered a little from the fact that I've never read Miller and so lacked a literary context, but Orwell's method of talking around a book instead of on it is enough to follow along, and I enjoyed the sheer breadth of his critical review here. The second piece (and my favourite) was on Charles Dickens, who I am familiar with and greatly enjoy, and Orwell picks out his strengths and limitations here and made me think of Dickens in a different way, which is really all that can be asked of criticism - the expansion of impression. I'll certainly be keeping this essay in mind when next reading Dickens (I'm hoping to get through Great Expectations this month). The last essay, on the various boys-own weeklies, is notable largely for the very strong implication that this particular media is kept so vacuous in order to produce generations of loyal and unquestioning proles, essentially. All I can think reading this was that it's a pity Orwell's not around today to do a follow-up - it would be interesting to see what he thought of Ms Marvel, for instance, and how she compares with Billy Bunter as a mirror for a wanted world.