The essay “Such, Such Were the Joys” was written and revised by George Orwell during the final decade of his life but was published only posthumously in 1952, in the American journal Partisan Review. Born in India in 1903 to an English family stationed in the British Civil Service, Orwell (whose real name was Eric Arthur Blair) moved with his family back to England at a young age, where he attended St Cyprian’s Preparatory School (which features in “Such, Such Were the Joys”) before moving on to the prestigious public school Eton. After graduation, he served for a time in the Indian Imperial Police, before returning to England and pursuing a career as a writer. He eventually became a moderately successful nonfiction writer before moving on to novels, of which Animal Farm (published in 1945) and 1984 (published in 1949) made him world famous. His essay “Such, Such Were the Joys” was written in the context of a postwar Britain looking to transition to a more equitable political and educational climate. It relates a young Orwell’s negative experiences at a conservative British preparatory school, exploring themes of Classism in Great Britain, The Normalization of Abuse, and A Child’s Worldview.

This guide refers to the version of the essay published in the 2020 Penguin Classics edition of collected works by George Orwell titled Orwell’s England.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide include descriptions of child abuse. Furthermore, a key figure is nicknamed “Sambo”; while readers may know this term as a derogatory racial term, the nickname does not relate to ethnicity.

Orwell opens the first section of his essay by relating the first memory of his time at St Cyprian’s Preparatory School that comes back to his adult mind: an anecdote of anxiety-induced bed-wetting. The anecdote is related from the point of view of a distressed young Orwell, who vainly attempts to control this unconscious disorder but fails to do so. He is punished for this by the administrators of the school, first by the headmaster’s wife, Mrs. Cicely Wilkes (nicknamed “Flip”), who openly mocks young Orwell’s disorder in front of a stranger, and then by the headmaster himself, Mr. Vaughan Wilkes (nicknamed “Sambo”), who gives Orwell a physical beating with a riding crop. Following the beating, young Orwell bravely remarks to another student that it didn’t hurt, only to be overheard by Flip. She sends him back inside the headmaster’s office, where he receives a far more brutal beating in which the riding crop is broken. Orwell concludes the section by suggesting that the physical abuse, though horrible, ironically did bring a stop to his bed-wetting, if only “at a heavy price” (369).

The essay transitions to its second section, in which Orwell details some background information about St Cyprian’s. The preparatory school is, at its heart, a profit-driven enterprise, and its headmaster, Sambo, is interested in two related goals. The first is to attract students from the aristocratic upper class of British society to the school, and the second is to “train up pupils to win scholarships” to the most prestigious public schools (known as “private schools” in US English) in the country (370). Since meeting the second goal helps St Cyprian’s achieve the first, the school sometimes recruits gifted students from middle-class backgrounds on a scholarship basis to boost examination results. The young Orwell himself is part of such a “scholarship class.” Due to this status, he is manipulated into believing that he must be grateful to Sambo and Flip and repay them with good exam results. This sense of indebtedness fosters hatred for Sambo and Flip in the young Orwell. Yet, because the two manipulate him effectively, he still seeks to please them and fully believes in the worldview he has been indoctrinated into.

The essay’s third section begins with a description of the few pleasant memories Orwell has of his time at St Cyprian’s. Standing out among these is a memory of butterfly hunting. His enjoyment is tempered by Flip, who suggests the activity is childish and pointless. This segues into a memory of Sambo likewise shaming young Orwell for having a chronic respiratory issue, which Sambo derisively refers to as a “stomach cough,” on the theory that it results from Orwell overeating. Orwell next goes on to describe the harsh conditions at the preparatory school. Hard beds, malnourishment, and filthy amenities lead to a miserable experience for the students, to the point that many completely neglect hygiene and resort to stealing food late at night. Despite such circumstances, Flip and Sambo manipulate the students into believing that such abuse is a normal state of affairs. Flip, in particular, is adept at this. Orwell reveals that the students’ true feeling toward their superiors is hatred.

The fourth section of the essay details an anecdote in which the young Orwell has been wrongly accused of being part of an incident of mutual masturbation. Both Flip and Sambo utilize all their manipulative skills to shame Orwell and the other students implicated in the incident, indoctrinating them to believe that their natural impulses have brought forth a terrible violation of the “temple of the body” (387). One student in particular is beaten and expelled for his part in the incident, and the young Orwell assumes that this student’s life is ruined forever. He is surprised when, a few months later, he happens to pass the same student while out on a walk. The former student now appears happier and healthier than ever, and this chance observation has a lasting effect on the young Orwell. Though he still accepts the basic premises of the worldview he has been indoctrinated into, his fear and shame of not living up to its standards have been lessened.

In the fifth section of his essay, Orwell contemplates the lasting effects St Cyprian’s had on its students. As a microcosm of the classist structure of British society, it reinforced the idea that one’s worth is tied to one’s income and that success can only be achieved by abusing and manipulating others weaker than oneself. The intense focus on preparation for public school exams left students without the benefit of any practical education, to the point that they have no capacity for critical thought. From Orwell’s point of view, these effects have resulted in a feeling of ambiguous hatred and a sense “of guilt and inevitable failure” (396). A final anecdote is given in which the young Orwell avenges a bully by hitting him when his back is turned. Though cowardly, the act works in that Orwell is not bullied again. The lesson that Orwell takes away is clear: “Break the rules, or perish” (398). At the close of the section, Orwell relates his departure from St Cyprian’s, in which Flip manipulates him one last time into believing that his future holds nothing but failure.

The sixth and final section of the essay questions whether the educational system in Britain has progressed since Orwell’s days at St Cyprian’s. Orwell concludes that although the worst aspects of the old preparatory schools have largely disappeared, they still exist and are inherently prone to abuse. In light of this, Orwell argues that preparatory schools should be phased out in favor of local schools where children return home each night to their parents. Orwell concludes the essay by remarking on how the “terrible, all-powerful monsters” who were Flip and Sambo now seem nothing more to him than “a couple of silly, shallow, ineffectual people” (405). With such a sentiment in mind, Orwell declares that St Cyprian’s is “out of [his] system for good” (405).