A Collection of Essays by George Orwell (EPUB)

Description

The collected nonfiction of George Orwell, written in the clear-eyed and uncompromising style that garnered him a devoted following.George Orwell, one of the most thought-provoking and vivid essayists of the twentieth century, used pen and paper to fight the injustices of his time. He covers everything from his youth schooling and the writing profession to his thoughts on the Spanish Civil War and British imperialism in this collection of articles. The pieces collected here contain both the lesser-known and the more well-known, making it a great collection for both new and long-time Orwell fans.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐George Orwell is most famous for his novels “1984” and “Animal Farm,” but was a superb essayist as well. In this collection of essays from the 1930s and 1940s, Orwell holds forth on a wide range of topics.The reader learns much about the author’s home country of England in this book. Orwell remembers his challenges as a child in an English boarding school–some of his travails there came as a result of the country’s class system, a topic that the author also takes up in a lengthier essay about his homeland later in the book. Orwell notes some ways in which England had changed since the early nineteenth century.During his early life, Britain still had its empire (although Orwell wondered in these pages how long it would last), and the reader gets a look at what imperialism really looked like on the ground in an essay that tells the story of an elephant being shot and killed in Burma.Politics was at the forefront of world events in the Thirties and Forties, with free societies attempting to defend themselves against various forms of totalitarianism. Orwell speaks here of the world’s trajectory during this time, and in these essays touches on Gandhi, the Spanish Civil War, authoritarianism, left-wing thought, and what was happening to the concept of objective truth in the West.The author’s insights into human nature were keen, with great observations here on what it was like to be a child, characteristics of various stages of life, humor, crime, power in interpersonal relations, class, and other aspects of life.Orwell also examined the writing of other authors such as Dickens and Kipling, described the state of boys’ weeklies, wrote an essay on language, and offered his thoughts on the motivation of writers.Most people likely do not even know that Orwell was such a prolific essayist, but those who make that discovery and read this collection will likely find that they enjoy his work in that arena as much as they enjoyed his novels.

⭐As others have noted elsewhere very few intellectuals got right the threat of both Nazism and Communism. Even fewer realized how their corruption of the English language made possible the rise of totalitarian regimes. Orwell stands almost alone for doing both. His essays also stand alone in understanding human nature from the ways of mass movements to the minds of children. He also explains better than most how evil ideas start in our desires but are given real power only when we allow through laziness the corruption of our minds. Read Orwell if you want to understand why Trump matters!

⭐I had read several of these selections years ago and returned this book to the shelf but when I recently saw a reference to his essay on Dickens I pulled it back down and have not been able to stop reading it. I initially picked this up again as a complimentary read to Ackroyd’s biography of Charles Dickens and became completely absorbed in Orwell’s dissection of Dickens from social, political and personal viewpoints. Orwell’s thought provoking and penetrating analysis captures so much about Dickens and his work in such a compact and lucid style that even his references to some of Dickens’ novels that I haven’t yet read were interesting and illuminating. Of course there is much more here than just literary criticism. George Orwell wrote incisive non-fiction and throughout this collection of essays on a variety of people and ideas his world view and experiences color and inform his writing.

⭐I picked this book up on the recommendation of someone whose thinking I really respect. As I began reading, I had no idea what to expect. Pretty early in the book, I dog-eared a page because it possessed a really penetrating insight. By the time I finished reading, the upper corner of the closed book was substantially thicker than the rest because of all the dog-eared pages. The thinking laid out in this book is that good; that clear; that unique.Orwell wrote most of these essays in the 1930s and 1940s, but his thinking and insights read as if they came from someone looking directly at our world today. Aside from that, these are clearly the writings of a balanced thinker, someone who could mentally stand apart from the times he lived in and the popular thought of his day. Orwell sees through and beyond the surface motivations of society and more interestingly, of himself, and comments clearly and precisely on what he sees.Reading these essays dropped me right into the times in which Orwell lived and simultaneuosly displayed an absolutely timeless thought process. If you enjoy clear, detached thinking and writing, these assays are a must for you. Very highly recommended.

⭐Orwell writes so well you want to give him a standing ovation. This collection contains several classic essays — “Shooting an Elephant”, “Politics and the English Language”, “Such, Such were the Joys” (memories of his schooldays) — as well as amazing pieces on Dickens, Kipling, and the state of literature in the 1930s (“Inside the Whale”). Whether writing about the English national character, analyzing the content and effect of popular comics for boys, or explaining his own compulsion to write, Orwell is always engaging and writes in clear, crisp prose that most essayists can only aspire to.These extraordinary essays will sweep away any niggling resentment of Orwell you might feel because you were forced to read “Animal Farm” and/or “1984” in high school, and inspire you to seek out more of his work.This is a great collection.

⭐If you only read his novels, you would be missing several dimensions of the man. The first essay sets the tone with an amusing and critical appraisal of his schooling experiences which also exposes his understandable sensitivity to the class consciousness which he shared with many of his countrymen and time. Re-reading his novels after reading this collection gives them a more interesting personal tint.

⭐A classic but not uplifting in anyway but a good read. This book however is very small compared with other books

⭐A perfect addition to my library to aid me in my research.

⭐scuffed front cover, red marks on the back, poor quality cover. embarrassed to give as a present.

⭐Good quality hardback book. Only problem the book is tiny and the text size miniscule too. Should be sold with a magnifying glass.

⭐Paper quality ok. Print is little awkward. About writer nothing more can be added to his greatness.

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