"Some Thoughts on the Common Toad" is an

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal ...

published in 1946 by the English

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalita ...

. It is a eulogy in favour of spring. The essay first appeared in ''

Tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on the ...

'' on the 12 April 1946, and was reprinted in ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...

'' 20 May 1946. An abridged version, "The Humble Toad", appeared in ''World Digest'' in March 1947.The Orwell Prize: "Some Thoughts on the Common Toad"
Retrieved 17 June 2013.

Background

Orwell loved the natural world from his childhood, when he rambled in the fields around

Henley-on-Thames Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, west of Maidenhead, southeast of Oxford and west of London (by road), near the tripoint of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and ...

and on the

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the ea ...

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the l ...

. His letters and diaries reveal his careful observation of the nature surrounding him and of field expeditions throughout his life, even when he was in

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the no ...

or at the sanatorium in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

in 1938. Orwell had been disappointed by earlier letters of complaint to ''Tribune'' when he ventured into nature-related topics, instead of hard politics. An "

As I Please "As I Please" was a series of articles written between 1943 and 1947 for the British left-wing newspaper ''Tribune'' by author and journalist George Orwell. On resigning from his job at the BBC in November 1943, Orwell joined ''Tribune'' as liter ...

" article published on 21 January 1944 that referred to rambler roses that he had planted at the cottage in which he had lived before the war had brought correspondence criticising his

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. Th ...

nostalgia.

Summary

Orwell describes the emergence from hibernation of the

common toad The common toad, European toad, or in Anglophone parts of Europe, simply the toad (''Bufo bufo'', from Latin ''bufo'' "toad"), is a frog found throughout most of Europe (with the exception of Ireland, Iceland, and some Mediterranean islands), in ...

and its procreative cycle and offers it as an alternative to the

skylark ''Alauda'' is a genus of larks found across much of Europe, Asia and in the mountains of north Africa, and one of the species (the Raso lark) endemic to the islet of Raso in the Cape Verde Islands. Further, at least two additional species are ...

and

primrose Primrose may refer to: Botany * Primulaceae, a family of flowering plants * ''Primula vulgaris'', commonly known as the primrose (also called the common primrose or English primrose) * ''Oenothera'', commonly known as evening primrose, a plant gen ...

as a less-conventional example of the coming of spring. Orwell points out that the pleasures of spring are available to everybody, cost nothing and can be appreciated in the town as much as the country. However, Orwell is concerned with feelings in some groups that there is something reprehensible in enjoying nature. For the political discontent groaning under the

capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, pri ...

system, the love of nature seems sentimental, and others seem to see the appreciation of nature as

reactionary In political science, a reactionary or a reactionist is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the '' status quo ante'', the previous political state of society, which that person believes possessed positive characteristics abs ...

in a machine age. Orwell dismisses those ideas and argues that retaining a childhood love of nature makes a peaceful and decent future more likely.

Extracts

How many times have I stood watching the toads mating, or a pair of hares having a boxing match in the young corn, and thought of all the important persons who would stop me enjoying this if they could. But luckily they can't.... The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it.

Reactions

The article prompted an appreciative letter from

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architectu ...

on April 18, 1946 that said, "I have always thought you were one of the best living writers of prose," He praised Orwell that he had "enjoyed and echoed every sentiment" of his thoughts on the common toad.''Collected Works: Smothered Under Journalism'', p.241

References

{{Crimethink Essays by George Orwell 1946 essays Works originally published in Tribune (magazine)

Background

Summary

Extracts

Reactions

See also

References