Orwell took little care of his manuscripts. He didn't anticipate that collectors of such things would pay real money for them, and that universities would think it a privilege to turn a writer's bits and pieces into an archive. The typescript used in the printing of Nineteen Eighty-Four is in the Orwell Archive at University College London. There are also preliminary drafts of the novel - pages of handwritten and typewritten material, with corrections and additions - which correspond to a little less than half of the published text: 44 per cent, according to Peter Davison's estimate. These have now been published in an opulent edition: the right-hand pages of the book give a full-size photograph of the material, the left-hand pages contain Professor Davison's transcription, laboriously deciphered, the cancellings in nearly every case recovered. Orwell's typescript is given in roman, his manuscript in italic script. The book is far too big to be held in the hand; it is for consultation on a large desk, the pages to be turned with due appreciation of the craft of editor and printer. The work of printing and binding was done in Italy by Imago Publishing Ltd, Thame.

LRB 20 December 1984 | PDF Download