Inside the Whale was published by Victor Gollancz as a book of essays on 11 March 1940.

"), as well as in letters he wrote to Geoffrey Gorer and Humphry House, an English scholar, the following month.

A collection of essays with the same title was published in 1962 in the UK by Penguin Books.

[2] This edition was a reprint of an earlier collection entitled Selected Essays published in 1957.

The collection contains the following essays: The back cover of the 1962 edition notes that the front cover is a photograph of a selection of books from George Orwell's personal library.