Orwell’s Nose: A Pathological Biography

As the title suggests, this entertaining and scholarly, if somewhat eccentric, biography examines the life and works of George Orwell through the lens of his olfactory preoccupations. Sutherland (A Little History of Literature) lost his sense of smell in 2012, just as he was embarking on his research for this book. One can’t help but imagine that this sensory loss primed him to see scent writ bold wherever he looked, but the case he makes for taking this angle is largely convincing. What emerges is a rigorous, rollicking, and at times ribald portrait of the author, from his childhood “born into a class neurotic about sanitation” to the “lower-class smell” of his barracks as a British colonial policeman in Burma and his eventual marriage and purchase of “a grand building, still smelling of oats and horse piss.” The text is peppered with references to Orwell’s troubling sexual history, which includes one attempted rape; Sutherland suggests plausibly that the smell of parks and greenery triggered Orwell’s libido. The overall depiction is diligently researched and scrupulously evenhanded, with the two authors’ (perhaps) shared fixation providing a unique scaffolding for a fresh look at a luminary of English letters. [em](Sept.) [/em]