Essays (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)

~ George Orwell (Author), Bernard Crick (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Orwell is the most influential political writer of the twentieth century . . . He gives us a gritty, personal example of how to engage as a writer in politics." ?New York Review of Books

"[Orwell] evolved, in his seemingly offhand way, the clearest and most compelling English prose style this century . . . But of course he was more than just a great writer. We need him today because [of] his passion for the truth." ?The Sunday Times (London)

"Had Orwell lived to a full term, he might well have gone on to become the greatest modern literary critic in the language. But he lived more than long enough to make writing about politics a branch of the humanities, setting a standard of civilized response to the intractably complex texture of life." ?The New Yorker

"The real reason we read Orwell is because his own fault-line, his fundamental schism, his hybridity, left him exceptionally sensitive to the fissure?which is everywhere apparent?between what ought to be the case and what actually is the case. He says the unsayable."
?Financial Times

"Orwell was the conscience of his generation." ?V. S. Pritchett


-- Review

“Orwell is the most influential political writer of the twentieth century…He gives us a gritty, personal example of how to engage as a writer in politics.” –New York Review of Books

“[Orwell] evolved, in his seemingly offhand way, the clearest and most compelling English prose style this century…But of course he was more than just a great writer. We need him today because [of] his passion for the truth.” –The Sunday Times (London)

“Had Orwell lived to a full term, he might well have gone on to become the greatest modern literary critic in the language. But he lived more than long enough to make writing about politics a branch of the humanities, setting a standard of civilized response to the intractably complex texture of life.” –The New Yorker

“The real reason we read Orwell is because his own fault-line, his fundamental schism, his hybridity, left him exceptionally sensitive to the fissure–which is everywhere apparent–between what ought to be the case and what actually is the case. He says the unsayable.” –Financial Times

“Orwell was the conscience of his generation.” –V. S. Pritchett --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

These essays, reviews and articles illuminate the life and work of one of the most individual writers of this century - a man who created a unique literary manner from the process of thinking aloud and who elevated political writing to an art.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (June 29, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141183063
• ISBN-13: 978-0141183060
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,276,006 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

99 of 101 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Orgy of Orwell, October 17, 2002

By	Wuddus (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essays (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics) (Hardcover)

This is quite simply the most comprehensive one-volume edition of Orwell's essays available. It includes the greatest hits one would expect ("Shooting An Elephant," "Such, Such Were the Joys," "My Country Right Or Left," etc.) and (amazingly!) well over two hundred others. Such inclusiveness almost belies the title "Selected Essays." Especially welcome are the many selections from Orwell's column "As I Please"--delightfully informal excursions that range in gravity from meditations on totalitarianism to quirky reviews of then-contemporary literary phenoms. Thankfully, they're all unabridged and are based on the unexpurgated texts issued by Secker & Warburg just a few years ago. John Carey provides a lengthy and nuanced introduction, and there's even a rather full Chronology that puts Orwell into a useful historical context. All of this is offered in a surprisingly compact edition with a readable-but-elegant typeface and very good paper--no mean feat for a book of over a thousand pages!

One's only real regret is that there isn't an index, not even of titles. Fishing through the table of contents for old favorites is cumbersome, and the failure of the publishers to provide running heads on the pages means you can't really just flip through to find what you're looking for.

Nevertheless, this is a long overdue and wonderfully produced collection of one of our most readable, thoughtful, and unpretentious writers. If you're a fan of Orwell, no other collection can possibly do--and if you're not, this is the perfect way to get to know him. For me, at least, this will provide bedside reading for a long time to come.

73 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An almost-but-frustratingly-not-quite excellent collection, June 29, 2004

By	K. (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essays (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics) (Hardcover)

It's a little unfair to try and assign a grade to a life-spanning collection of essays like this one. By its very nature it has to run the gamut from Orwell's five-star smash hits like 'How the Poor Die', 'Politics versus Literature', and, of course, 'Politics and the English Language', through light, whimsical pieces such as 'Good Bad Books' or 'A Nice Cup of Tea', all the way to mechanical hackwork or tedious, failed conceits. (In the latter case I am thinking particularly of Orwell's 'Imaginary Interview' with Jonathan Swift, a style which has never, to my knowledge, been well done.) One can't very well assess the book as a whole, because it isn't. On the other hand, there is this to say: when Orwell is good, he is very good, and even when he is bad, he remains highly readable.

The collection, as a collection, is not as good. I do not want it thought that I am saying this is not a worthwhile book: it is. Simply by being an easily obtainable hardcover collection of Orwell's short and medium-length prose, it does a valuable service. Before this book came out, the only way to get a comprehensive collection of Orwell's essays in hardcover was to find a set of the four-volume "Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters" on the second-hand market, and the price demanded for that grows more exorbitant every year.

However, there are three major problems with the compilation. One is only slightly irritating, but the other two genuinely harm the utility of the book.

1. No page headings- This has been mentioned by other reviewers. The page headers say only "Essays", where in most other collections they would make mention of the essay you are currently reading. (This is true even of other Everyman's Library titles.) Because most of the pieces are short, you can easily flip back a page or two to find the title, but this grows tiresome fairly quickly, all the more so for the fact that the omission is so pointless.

2. No index of titles- This, to be fair, is not a fault of this one book. Rather, it is common to all Everyman's Library prose collections; I own volumes by Ernest Hemingway and Oscar Wilde, otherwise excellent, with the same problem. Because all the pieces are arranged chronologically, it is frustratingly hard to locate a specific essay; one has to guess where it fell in Orwell's career, turn to the table of contents, and run one's finger down the pages until one finds it. As the table of contents is seven pages long, this is inexcusably poor book design. My copy now sports Post-It notes sticking out the top for easy location of the major essays.

3. Footnotes- Orwell's footnotes have been converted into endnotes, and moved to the back of the book. This is not merely a case of editing for no good reason: it is plain wrong. Orwell's footnotes were invariably parenthetical, comprising asides from and elucidations of the main text; moreover, there are only thirty-eight of them in the book. There is no excuse for not putting them at the bottom of the page, where they belong. There they can be seen in the context of the essays, without requiring you to stop in mid-paragraph and flip to the back of a two-and-a-half-inch-thick book.

Other reviewers and the book's own publicity hype tout this as "the best one-volume collection of Orwell available". It is not, not by a long shot. It is certainly the most comprehensive. However, the _best_ one-volume Orwell is the "Collected Essays" which was first published in 1961 and has subsequently been reprinted many times. It is inexplicably hard to obtain in the U.S., but can be had from amazon.co.uk under the title "George Orwell: Essays". It gathers all of Orwell's major pieces without the ephemera; for the already dedicated Orwellphile, it is a delight to have all 80 numbers of 'As I Please' in one place, but for the reader new to Orwell, they are clutter.

Instead, this is the book you buy to keep on your bookshelf for the rest of your life and wear out with frequent consultation. It is a reference volume; the only time one might try to read it cover-to-cover would be on a very long flight. (I have done this, with great success.)

The most frustrating thing about this collection is how close it came to indispensibility. Had it been slightly better designed and edited, it would have been _the_ collection of Orwell's essays, required purchasing for every serious Orwell fan. (Save, perhaps, the manic completists who will settle for nothing less than the twenty-volume "Collected Works.") It is still worth your money, but so little effort would be required to make even more valuable that one must wonder why that effort was not invested.

Overall: A-, 9/10.

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great essayist...poorly laid-out edition, July 3, 2003

By	Jay Gerber (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essays (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics) (Hardcover)

These three stars don't reflect my opinion of Orwell as an essayist. Anyone who has read Orwell's non-fiction knows that he is one of this century's greatest journalists/essayists. The poor rating targets the layout of the volume.

It's an insult to a writer of Orwell's stature to have put together such an extensive volume (1,424 pages!) of his best work so amaturishly. There's no index, no notes section and no specification of which essay you're on at the head of the page. The table of contents is practially useless, as most of the essays are numbered.

Physically, the book is beautiful: a matte cover, with a great portrait of Orwell, cream-wove paper, sewn binding and a sewn in bookmark. But it is in no way user friendly. If you're looking to dive into Orwell's essays and journalism check out the David R. Godine editions.