Lewis, Wyndham
Apes of God. Arco Publishers, 1955. 8vo, org. cloth in dj. Signed limited edition, no. 655 of 1000.
Orwell, George
The Road to Wigan Pier. Victor Gollancz, 1937. 8vo, org. wrappers. Left Book Club Edition. "Not for sale to the Public." With loosely inserted Club membership application.
Two of the more brutal eviscerations of their own class and circle of the 1930s. Whilst Lewis used obvious farce to poke the sacred cows of the Bloomsbury set, Orwell turned dramatically from reporting to a heart-felt attack on what would now be called 'champagne socialists' - those who were all in favour of the working man so long as they did not have to smell him. The critique was so potentially damaging to the book's very readership that Gollancz spent sometime undermining his author in the foreword. One uses humorous exaggeration, the other honest self-criticism, but both cut into the cant and self-delusion of their own readers. [2]