Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1934

Tropic of Cancer is a difficult book to place on its merits, because its major merit applied with greatest force to the world in which it first appeared and as the world has changed since then, those merits have lost all their power and most of their value. Most of what's left of ToC for contemporary readers is Miller's egotism and crudity. Orwell's review of ToC is worth revisiting, if only to re-situate it in its time and place, under the light of a very perceptive critic. Orwell liked and appreciated it, largely because he saw Miller as the only author of his time who was legitimately happy.