A Clergyman's Daughter

A Clergyman's Daughter is George Orwell's novel about Dorothy Hare, the overburdened daughter of an English rector. An episode of amnesia takes her away from parish duties into precarious work, homelessness, and school teaching. These changes of setting expose the distance between social respectability and the conditions endured by vulnerable people. Dorothy's return does not simply restore her former confidence: questions of belief and obligation remain unresolved. The novel combines social observation with an examination of a conscience trying to sustain purposeful action when the familiar grounds of certainty have been shaken.