This satiric social fiction is both a gem and a disappointment after a half-century. Orwell's wit is priceless-and ruthless-as he describes rural Church of England parish life, the transitory culture of the hops harvest, a brothel's soiled linen, not to mention when his heroine hobnobs with the homeless of Trafalgar Square on a bitter winter's night or bullies bored students in a fourth-rate private school: "Last term the girls had behaved badly, because she had started If you have to teach children garbage, however, you must not regard them as human beings.... You must first and foremost instruct them.