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Some Thought on the Common Toad

George Orel

1903-1950

Geor g e Orwell

Some Thoughts on the Common Toad

PENGUIN BOOKS - GREAT IDEAS

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'Some Thoughts on the Common Toad' frst published 1946

'In Defnce of P G. Wodehouse' frst published 1945

' Good Word fr the Vicar of Bray' frst published 1946

'Politics vs Uterarure: A Examination of Gullivr's Trals' frst published 1946 'Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool' frst published 1947

'Shooting an Elephant' f published 1940

'In Defnce of English Cooking' first published 1945

'Beneft of Clery: Some Notes on Salvador Dali' frst published 1944 T selection published in Penguin Books 2010

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Copyright ©The Estate of Sona Brownell Orell, 1984

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Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consen[ in a frm of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser ISBN: 978-o-I41-I9I17-

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Content

Some Thoughts on the Common Toad 1 In Defence of P G. Wodehouse ₇

A Good Word for the Vcar of Bray 28

Politics vs Literature: A Examination of Gulliver's Travels 34

Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool 62

Shooting an Elephant 8 7

In Defence of English Cooking 98

Beneft of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali 102

Some Thoughts on the Common To ad Before the swallow before te dafodil, and not much later than the snowdrop, the common toad salutes the coming of spring afer his own fashion, which is to emerge fom a hole in the ground, where he has lai bured since the previous au t , and crawl as rapidly as possible towards the nearest suitable patch of water. Something - some kind of shudder in the earth, or perhaps merely a rise of a few degrees in the temperature -has told him that it is time to wake up: though a few toads appear to sleep the clock round and miss out a year fom time to time - at any rate, I have more than once dug them up, alive and apparently well, in the middle of summer.