What Shall I Read Next?

What did a standard reference work used by librarians throughout Britain in the later part of the twentieth century say about George Orwell? Which of his books did it identify for special attention?

F. (Frank) Seymour Smith was head librarian of Finchley library when he produced What Shall I Read Next? in 1953. It was a sequel to An English Library, his list of 1300 Victorian and Edwardian classics, first issued for the National Book League in 1943 with an Introduction by Edmund Blunden. Seymour Smith explained the intention of his second book not merely as a list in which the twentieth century succeeded the nineteenth:

‘Some will find it useful merely as a shopping list, reminding them of books they know something about already, and serving as a remembrancer. To others, and particularly to younger readers, it may introduce books which have so far escaped their notice. It is hoped, too, that for booksellers and librarians it will have a practical use as a desk-book, for answering enquiries, for serving as a check list for stock, and for use as a reference book when memory fails’.

Frank Seymour Smith went on to a senior position in W H Smith, the newsagents and booksellers, and was the father of the polymath Martin Seymour Smith. As a reference work, particularly for librarians making recommendations the book remained a useful tool, so much so, that in 2011 it was re-issued as a paperback by its original publisher, the Cambridge University Press.

What Shall I Read Next? is divided into the twelve areas given on the dust-jacket (actually, fourteen within, as some sections are divided). The work of George Orwell is listed and – usually – praised in four of those sections, with seven of his books identified specifically. Seymour Smith does not name the first three pre-war novels, nor The Road to Wigan Pier.

Here are Seymour Smith’s Orwell recommendations given verbatim, and the sections in which they are listed:-

Autobiography:

Down and Out in Paris and London

An unusual record of the early years of a man of talent and character down on his luck, but ready to take a turn at anything to earn a living and gain experience of life. In parts a grim and realistic story. (Page 7)

Essays, Belles Lettres and Literary Criticism:

Critical Essays

The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius

“One of the most moving and yet incisive portraits of the English character, and a minor classic in itself” (Arthur Koestler)

Shooting An Elephant

A last collection of essays contributed to journals from 1931 to 1949. A third are from the series I Write As I Please which gave stimulating pleasure to readers of the Tribune; others are reminiscences of life and experience in Burma before 1939. (Page 44)

Novels:

Animal Farm

A fable, and an amusing, keen piece of satire. Revolting against the farmer, the animals run their farm themselves on the most approved and up-to-date ideological methods, inspired, no doubt, by the antics of certain well-known experiments in government in this century. It is agreed, however, that although all animals are equal, ‘some are more equal than others’. Alas, the modern Swift cannot exaggerate. Truth outdistances the wildest jests of both Low and the best satiric novelists of our time.

Coming Up For Air

1984 (i.e. Nineteen Eighty-Four)

With Brave New World and Ape and Essence, 1984 must take its place amongst the most horrifying novels of fantasy nearly coming true ever written. Totalitarianism pursued to its extremes; text-book rationalism for humans worked out like a theorem in algebra. The death of a society of human beings for the sake of the machine. See, however, E M Forster’s terrifying fable The Machine Stops, in his collected stories, for a ray of hope. (Pages 95-96)

Social and Political History:

Homage to Catalonia

A combatant’s account of the Civil War in Spain. Orwell fought against Franco as a British volunteer. His vivid book is of permanent value. (Page 130)

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What Shall I Read Next? 20^th Century English Books: A personal selection by F. Seymour Smith

Published for the National Book League by the Cambridge University Press, 1953

Re-issued in 2011, ISBN13: 9780521155458

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