Customer Reviews

A Collection of Essays

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Note that all the essays in this collection are available online, most of them at multiple sites.

This sample of Orwell's essays is representative but perhaps a little too small. At least two other essays, "A Hanging" and "Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool" should have been included.

"Such, Such Were the Joys" is a moving reminiscence of boarding school, where Orwell had a miserable time as a frail student on "reduced fees".

"Charles Dickens" is a long piece of literary-social criticism. It is insightful on Dickens the man and his politics, and how they relate to his work. Orwell notes the class limitations on Dickens's outlook, but feels that in spite of them, Dickens is a "free intelligence".

"Rudyard Kipling" is an essay in the same style. Orwell admits Kipling's faults but feels that despite them, he produced better poetry than most of his contemporaries. This is put down to his writing about/for a class with a sense of responsibility.

"The Art of Donald McGill", "Raffles and Miss Blandish" and "Boys' Weeklies" are essays that analyse public sentiment through a survey of popular literature and art. These essays are the best in the genre, and definitely among Orwell's best essays.

"Inside the Whale" is an essay about contemporary (1920-1940) serious literature. Parts I and III praise Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer; part II reviews literature between the wars. The image of a transparent whale (inside which Henry Miller sits) is arresting, but this essay is not otherwise a very good one. Orwell says several obvious or false things about 1920s writers, misrepresents the Auden group, and is somewhat hyperbolic about Henry Miller.

"England your England" is an essay about the English national spirit, and is very revealing about Orwell's own patriotism.

"Looking Back on the Spanish War" -- Orwell fought with a Trotskyist militia in Spain; his experiences are recounted in Homage to Catalonia. This is a brief reminiscence. Hopefully it will inspire you to read the book.

"Politics and the English Language" has been very influential; its thesis is that the use of cliches and euphemisms leads to muddy thinking which makes totalitarianism bearable. It includes his six rules of good writing. Orwell also makes this point in the brilliant appendix to 1984.

"Marrakech" and "Shooting an Elephant" are essays about colonialism. The latter describes it from much closer range; it describes an experience Orwell had as a colonial administrator in Burma and is one of his most famous essays.

"Reflections on Gandhi" discusses Gandhi's personal ethics and political philosophy. Orwell's critique of Gandhi is memorable:

"The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty, that one does not push asceticism to the point where it makes friendly intercourse impossible, and that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one's love upon other human individuals. No doubt alcohol, tobacco, and so forth, are things that a saint must avoid, but sainthood is also a thing that human beings must avoid."

"Why I Write" is an account of Orwell's development as a writer. Orwell claims that the political purpose was foremost in all his writing, and ends this essay with the famous aphorism that "good prose is like a windowpane."

Orwell was anti-fascist as the last reviewer wrote, but he was also anti-communist,having seen it first hand in Spain. His life as an author was quite dymnamic. You can see a change in his politics from book to book. His early death leads you to wonder what Orwell would have written about the space age. This book is so well written that you will find enjoyment in subjects that you care nothing about. His Essays on Dickens and Kipling were more insightful than the semester in college I spent on 19th century English Literature.

His reflections on Ghandi expose the flaws that most Ghandi fans ignore or hide. He then goes on to celebrate the man for his virtues.

His look at Henry Miller was amazing. Orwell saw through the shock value of Miller's 1930s autobiography and recognized great writing when his contemporaries dismised the work as pornography.

Orwell's easy language coupled with genius-level insight make this a book to read again and again.

If you want to find out about Europe in the first half of the 20th century, this is the book you should book. These 300 pages offer excellent value for money; Orwell writes about the most diverse aspects of life: elitist literature and pulp magazines, the horrors of boarding schools or what it felt like to be a colonial officer in Burma. What he writes is full of insight and first-hand experience. You will find yourself telling others about what you have learned from this collection.

Orwell's style is not just transparent "like a window pane"; it is just beautiful in its rhythms and deadpan humour. - My personal recommendation is the essay on "Boys' Weeklies". These magazines did not only inspire Rowlings' Harry Potter, but seem to have been an early form of the theatre of the absurd as well...

The only setback of this edition is that it does not say where the essays where first published.

This is one of the four or five books which, of all the books I've read, have become indispensable to me. Orwell's fiction is sometimes clumsy, but his non-fiction is unerring. In this form, he is better than the people he praises. He is thorough without being boring (better than Huxley), insightful without being abstract (better than Eliot), instricate without abstrusion (better than Joyce), and honest without over-stating the obscene (better than Miller). He is always aware that there are two sides to a debate, and he is skilled at addressing both while furthering his own arguments. He is, for me, one of the defining authors of the human condition, especially regarding what it means to be human in Western society in the current age.

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.

George Orwell writes with the stinging clarity of a freezing cold morning or burning summer sun. This book is worth reading just for the essay "Politics and the English Language" which, apart from pointing out how language is used to manipulate us, gives practical guidelines on the art of good writing.

Orwell is important as the writer and political thinker who had the courage to look at the most difficult and uncomfortable realities, and write about them honestly even when they involved himself and his own nation. This ability was displayed in the essay ' Shooting an Elephant' where he carries out the imperative of his colonial official task, and at the same time understands the wrong he is doing. It is displayed in his depicting the poverty and neglect in his own England. It is displayed in his seeing the Soviet totalitarian system for what it is, and his understanding the danger to all of mankind, from doublespeak,doublethink, thoughtcontrol. It is displayed in his looking at the idealistic Gandhi and seeing how a pretence of perfection can lead to a certain kind of inhumanity. It is daring in whatever he writes to write clearly the plain truth- and to work very hard to make sure his language communicates and does not obfuscate.
Orwell is important because he gives the example of the writer as courageous investigator of reality, and worker for the overall human good.

Orwell was not only a keen observer of human nature and somebody who had the guts and foresight to condemn extremism from all corners he was also essentially a great humanitarian. The care he takes in using discriminating language and urging others to do so is a great legacy and one we are in dire need of today in this era of thoughtless engineering and sloganeering and aliteracy among the literate. His disemination of Gandhi and his sceptical stance towards hero worship is also badly in need of being reread and rejuvinated. All saints should be pronounced guilty until proven innocent would be a laudable addition to public life, or church for that matter. Orwell is without missionary zeal except when it comes to writing itself which he describes as a disease as well as a cure and a matter of seriousness for soul evaluation.
Anything penned by the man who gave us the following explanation for fascism is worth contemplating:
"The dog which performs his tricks because he is afraid of the whip is not yet well trained enough. The really well trained dog does his somersaults without being asked to perform."

Orwell is as likely to go down in history as an essayist as he is as a novelist. The clarity of his style is matched only by the clarity of his thought. Orwell's belief in using language correctly, in order to transmit ideas, rather than to obscure them, is as essential to his idea of freedom as is democracy. He thought that the English language was in a bad way and set about to correct it in `Politics & the English Language.' "The English language," says Orwell," becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.... Modern English is full of bad habits...If one gets rid of these habits one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step towards political regeneration." Lazy language - pretentious diction, meaningless words, and cliché - was a mask for lazy thinking. He would have been aghast at the abundance of modern jargon or the `spin' put on news stories by politicians today, both of which is to either hide up the paucity of genuine ideas or to mislead the public. For Orwell, to speak, and just as importantly, to write, clearly are important for the political process. These ideas were, of course, to feed into his novel, 1984, with its use of Double Speak, to say one thing while thinking another. We recognise these words and phrases all too well: People's Democracies for Communist dictatorship; pacification for mass murder and terror; We, the people for We, the ruling elite; and Protecting democracy for Defending our financial interests.

These essays, written in the 1930s and 40s, capture the era perfectly. His subject matter ranges widely and there is much here to chew over. It doesn't matter whether he is talking about the outdated jingoism of Rudyard Kipling, the true nature of British imperialism in India, the slightly obscene picture postcards of Donald McGill, the brutality and snobbishness of English Public schools, the lack of radicalism in Charles Dickens, or the horror of an execution that Orwell witnessed, all are brought vividly to life by the clarity of his writing, his keenness of intellect, and his eye for detail. Orwell will be remembered because he not only articulated the times in which he lived but also because he was a genuine literary artist.

For anyone who's thought how George Orwell thought and wrote, this is the book for you. In it he explains why he writes, the influence of politics in the English Language, and comments on Charles Dickens and Rudyard Kipling. This is excellent reading for anyone seriously considering to become a writer. Also included are essays about his early childhood, his career as a police officer for the British Empire in India, as well as reflections on Gandhi. His essay "Politics and the English Language" in the collection is probaly one of his most interesting. In it he shows how langauge can be manipulated in order to suit some persons agenda. He exposes common faults that people fall prey to, such as pretentios diction (Choosing words that have an implied connotation or are euphanisms designed to obscure meaning), dying metaphors ("no axe to grind"), and others. The collection is an excellent piece of work that's ideas still hold true today. As a writer, his essay on "Politics and the English Language" has been not only insightful, but helpful as well. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in George Orwell's life, or in writing. -Hans Chen