Non-Fiction Books
Renowned urban artist Shepard Fairey's new look for Orwell's classic account of life on the streets To be poor and destitute in 1920s Paris and London was to experience life at its lowest ebb. George Orwell, penniless and with nowhere to go, found himself experiencing just this as he wandered the streets of both capitals in search of a job. By day, he tramped the streets, often passing time with 'screevers' or street artists, drunks and other hobos. At night, he stood in line for a bed in a 'spike' or doss house, where a cup of sugary tea, a hunk of stale bread and a blanket were the only sustenance and comfort on offer. Down and Out in Paris and London is George Orwell's haunting account of the streets and those who have no choice but to live on them.
Before he authored the dystopian 1984 and the allegorical Animal Farm, George Orwell was a journalist, reporting on England's working class — an investigation that led him to examine democratic socialism. In the 1930s, the Left Book Club, a socialist group in England, sent George Orwell to investigate the poverty and mass unemployment in the industrial north of England. Once there, he went beyond the requests of the book club, to investigate the employed as well. Orwell chose to live as the coal miners did — sleeping in foul lodgings, subsisting on a meager diet, struggling to feed a family on a dismal wage, and going down into the hellish, backbreaking mines. What Orwell saw clarified his feelings about socialism, and in The Road to Wigan Pier, he pointedly tells why socialism, the only remedy to the shocking conditions he had witnessed, repelled "so many normal decent people." "Orwell's code was a simple one, based on truth and 'deceny'; he was important — and original — because he insisted on applying that code to his own Socialist comrades as well as to the class enemy...It is the best sociological reporting I know."—The New Yorker
'Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic Socialism as I understand it'. Thus wrote Orwell following his experiences as a militiaman in the Spanish Civil War, chronicled in Homage to Catalonia. Here he brings to bear all the force of his humanity, passion and clarity, describing with bitter intensity the bright hopes and cynical betrayals of that chaotic episode: the revolutionary euphoria of Barcelona, the courage of ordinary Spanish men and women he fought alongside, the terror and confusion of the front, his near-fatal bullet wound and the vicious treachery of his supposed allies. A firsthand account of the brutal conditions of the Spanish Civil War, George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia includes an introduction by Julian Symons in Penguin Modern Classics.
Ten celebrated essays by a man universally regarded as a master of the essay form. Included are such classics as "Charles Dickens," "The Art of Donald McGill," "Boys' Weeklies," "Raffles and Miss Blandish," and "Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali."
'Shooting an Elephant' is Orwell's searing and painfully honest account of his experience as a police officer in imperial Burma; killing an escaped elephant in front of a crowd 'solely to avoid looking a fool'. The other masterly essays in this collection include classics such as 'My Country Right or Left', 'How the Poor Die' and 'Such, Such were the Joys', his memoir of the horrors of public school, as well as discussions of Shakespeare, sleeping rough, boys' weeklies and a spirited defence of English cooking. Opinionated, uncompromising, provocative and hugely entertaining, all show Orwell's unique ability to get to the heart of any subject. A collection of witty and incisive non-fiction, George Orwell's Shooting an Elephant includes an introduction by Jeremy Paxman in Penguin Modern Classics.
Orwell’s essays demonstrate how mastery of critical analysis gives rise to trenchant aesthetic and philosophical commentary. Here is an unrivalled education in – as George Packer puts in the foreword to this new two-volume collection – “how to be interesting, line after line.”
Light wear to the covers. Shipped from the UK in recyclable card packaging.
Vintage paperback
In these timeless and witty essays George Orwell explores the English love of reading about a good murder in the papers (and lament the passing of the heyday of the 'perfect' murder involving class, sex and poisoning), as well as unfolding his trenchant views on everything from boys' weeklies and naughty seaside postcards to being arrested in East End.
Essays, journalism and essays by the brilliant, indispensable George Orwell from 1943 to 1945. Even many decades after his death, the more we read of Orwell, the more clearly we can think about our world and ourselves. During the Second World War, George Orwell was rejected for service and so became the literary editor, reviewer, and frequent columnist of the left-wing weekly, Tribune . “What I have most wanted to do,” Orwell said, “is to make political writing into an art.” And there is ample proof here that he achieve his ambition. Included in this volume are reviews of works by authors as varied as C. S. Lewis and Arthur Koestler, the newspaper column, “As I Please,” and the brilliant essay, “A Nice Cup of Tea.” Also included are letters to T. S. Eliot, among others, while trying to convince publishers to take a chance on a book called Animal Farm . This third volume of the Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters by George Orwell will be enjoyed by anyone who believes that words can go a long way toward changing the world.
A clear-eyed, uncompromising collection of essays from the "conscience of his generation" and the author of 1984 (V. S. Pritchett). One of the most thought-provoking and vivid essayists of the twentieth century, George Orwell fought the injustices of his time with singular vigor through pen and paper. In this selection of essays, he ranges from reflections on his boyhood schooling and the profession of writing to his views on the Spanish Civil War and British imperialism. The works collected here include “Such, Such Were the Joys,” “Shooting an Elephant,” “Politics and the English Language,” and “Why I Write.” Perfect for those new to Orwell’s work and a wonderful compilation for the experienced Orwell reader, A Collection of Essays is an invaluable anthology.
Contents: v1, An age like this, 1920-1940.--v2, My country right or left, 1940-1943.--v3, As I please, 1943-1945.--v4, In front of your nose, 1945-1950
Essays, journalism and essays by the brilliant, indispensable George Orwell from 1945 to 1950. Even many decades after his death, the more we read of Orwell, the more clearly we can think about our world and ourselves. In the years following the end of the Second World War, Orwell published many of his greatest essays: “You and the Atomic Bomb”, “Politics and the English Language,” “The Prevention of Literature,” and “Why I Write.” All these, and more, are included here―along with correspondence and other pieces that provide fascinating insight into his dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four . Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, newspeak, memory hole―all invented by Orwell to describe the workings of a totalitarian state. Orwell wrote his greatest novel while suffering from tuberculous and he died the year after its publication in 1950. This is collection of writing, however, creates the astonishing record of an imperishable mind. This fourth volume of the Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters by George Orwell will be enjoyed by anyone who believes that words can go a long way toward changing the world.
Essays, journalism and essays by the brilliant, indispensable George Orwell from 1940 to 1943. Even many decades after his death, the more we read of Orwell, the more clearly we can think about our world and ourselves. George Orwell served with anti-Stalinist communist forces during the Spanish Civil War―until he was forced to flee Spain and return to London. Back in England, he was more convinced than ever of his pro-democratic Socialist beliefs and produced essays such as “My Country Right or Left” and “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius.” This volume covers a formational period in Orwell's life―and a crucial period for the world's response to totalitarianism and his own deepening commitment to socialism. Late in 1942, Orwell began regularly for the left-wing weekly Tribune and, early the next year began work on a new book called Animal Farm . This second volume of the Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters by George Orwell will be enjoyed by anyone who believes that words can go a long way toward changing the world.
The author of "Nineteen-eighty Four", "Animal Farm", and "Homage to Catalonia," here interprets in succinct style the social history of the British isles and its people. ILLUS.
This outstanding collection brings together Orwell’s longer, major essays and a fine selection of shorter pieces that includes My Country Right or Left , Decline of the English Murder , Shooting an Elephant and A Hanging . With great originality and wit Orwell unfolds his views on subjects ranging from the moral enormity of Jonathan Swift’s strange genius and a revaluation of Charles Dickens to the nature of Socialism, a comic yet profound discussion of naughty sea-side picture postcards and a spirited defence of English cooking. Displaying an almost unrivalled mastery of English plain prose style, Orwell’s essays challenge, move and entertain. Contents: Why I Write The Spike A Hanging Shooting an Elephant Bookshop Memories Marrakech Charles Dickens Boys' Weeklies Inside the Whale My Country Right or Left The Lion and the Unicorn Wells, Hitler and the World State The Art of Donald McGill Rudyard Kipling Looking Back on the Spanish War W.B. Yeats Poetry and the Microphone Benefit of Clergy; Some Notes on Salvador Dali Raffles and Miss Blandish Arthur Koestler Antisemitism in Britain In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse Notes on Nationalism Good Bad Books The Sporting Spirit Nonsense Poetry The Prevention of Literature Books v. Cigarettes Decline of the English Murder Politics and the English Language Some Thoughts on the Common Toad A Good Word for the Vicar of Bray Confessions of a Book Reviewer Politics vs Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels How the Poor Die Riding Down from Bangor Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool Such, Such Were the Joys Writers and Leviathan Reflections on Gandhi
This volume, with its companian "The War Commentaries", re-creates the grim purposeful mood of Britain between Dunkirk and D-Day. The book brings together all the surviving BBC talks written and presented by Orwell during 1942 and 1943. Some of the talks are political: on sabotage, on rationing. Many are literary: adaptations of plays or stories by H.G. Wells, Hans Anderson and Anatole France among others; assessments of writers who influenced Orwell, including Swift, Shaw and Oscar Wilde. A selection of the correspondence from several of the contributors to Orwell's programmes includes letters form E.M. Forster, Mulk Raj Anand, T.S. Eliot and Cyril Connolly.
Drawn from a cache of materials unearthed in the archives of the BBC, this collection features hundreds of essays, dramatic adaptations, and letters written during Orwell's World War II years at the BBC
Discusses how the BBC counteracted Nazi radio propaganda broadcasts, and gathers radio scripts Orwell wrote between 1941 and 1943
)EXTRACT FROM DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS)
On August 18, 1941, Orwell joined the BBC’s Overseas Service as Talks Producer for features, talks and commentaries on the war. He wrote at least 220 items for broadcast to India and to occupied Malaya and Indonesia.
During this period when Animal Farm was published and Nineteen Eighty-Four was begun, Orwell’s wife Eileen died, in March. Her last very moving letters to her husband are printed here, as are essays, articles and war correspondence for various newspapers.
Orwell reviewed 86 books as Literary Editor of Tribune in addition to his "As I Please" column, printed without cuts in this edition. Also included are literary essays, The English People, four London Letters, and Can Socialists Be Happy?, written under the pseudonym John Freeman.
The paperback edition of Volume 19 of The Complete Works of George Orwell .
During this period, in addition to the magazine program, Voice, Orwell continued to develop what would now be called an "open university"broadcasts by distinguished speakers on texts set for Bombay and Calcutta university degrees. He enlisted such speakers as E.M. Forster, T.S. Eliot, and Joseph Needham, and the broadcasts were backed up by publications printed in India for university students. Some of Orwell's scripts, such as that for his "Imaginary Interview with Jonathan Swift," pose difficult textual problems and these are fully examined and annotated. Additionally, the script of Eileen Blair's broadcast for the series, "In Your Kitchen" has been included. Orwell still found time to write a number of reviews, contribute to Partisan Review, and write essays on Hardy, Henry Miller, and Yeats.
Volume 10 of The Complete Works of George Orwell This volume begins with Orwell's illustrated letters home from prep school and the stories, poems and contributions to college publications he wrote at Eton. Then there are his articles and essays on poverty, censorship and imperialist exploitation first published in Paris in 1928-29, his early reviews, his first important essay, "A Hanging," and correspondence dealing with the publication of Down and Out in Paris and London and the censorship of Burmese Days , A Clergyman's Daughter , and Keep the Aspidistra Flying .
The final paperback volume, Volume 20, of The Complete Works of George Orwell .
Volume 12 from The Complete Works of George Orwell This volume includes many book, theatre, and film reviews, as well as Inside the Whale , Orwell's first collection of essays, and The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius . Also reproduced are his broadcasts on literary criticism, his wartime diary, his "London Letters" for Partisan Review .
Orwell’s articles on The Intellectual Revolt his famous short essay Some Thoughts on the Common Toad , the radio play The Voyage of the Beagle , and his letter to Dwight Macdonald on the necessity for people to rid themselves of violent revolutionary leaders.
Orwell's classic satire ANIMAL FARM continues to be an international best seller. For the first time ever, ORWELL AND POLITICS brings this major work together with the author's other works exploring the nature of politics and the Second World War.
This volume brings together Orwell's powerful writings of his personal exepriences of poverty and life outside mainstream society. The complete texts of DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON is included.
The volume collects together, for the first time ever, Orwell's writings on his experience of the Spanish Civil War - the chaos at the Front, the futile young deaths for what became a confused cause, the antique weapons and the disappointment many British Socialists felt on arriving in Spain to help. ORWELL IN SPAIN includes the complete text of HOMAGE TO CATALONIA.
Collected together for the first time, this volume includes the complete text of THE ROAD TO WIGAN PIER - Orwell's vivid and impassioned documentary of unemployment and proletarian life - as well as Orwell's best writing on the political and social condition of England.
George Orwell wrote regularly for the Observer between 1942 and 1948. During the Second World War he filed superbly incisive stories from the Home Front and vivid reportage from north Africa. In its aftermath, he wrote brilliantly on the problems facing newly liberated France and devastated, occupied Germany, as well as the
Whether puncturing the lies of politicians, wittily dissecting the English character or telling unpalatable truths about war, Orwell's timeless, uncompromising essays are more relevant, entertaining and essential than ever in today's era of spin.
Physical description: 125 p. ; 18 cm. Notes: Selection of essays published in various journals between 1936 and 1952. Contents: Books v. cigarettes - Bookshop memories - Confessions of a book reviewer - The prevention of literature - My country right or left - How the poor die - Such, such were the joys. Summary: Beginning with a dilemma about whether he spends more money on reading or smoking, George Orwell's entertaining and uncompromising essays go on to explore everything from the perils of second-hand bookshops to the dubious profession of being a critic, from freedom of the press to what patriotism really means. Subject: Essays. Genre: Essay.
The essential collection of critical essays from a twentieth-century master and author of 1984 . As a critic, George Orwell cast a wide net. Equally at home discussing Charles Dickens and Charlie Chaplin, he moved back and forth across the porous borders between essay and journalism, high art and low. A frequent commentator on literature, language, film, and drama throughout his career, Orwell turned increasingly to the critical essay in the 1940s, when his most important experiences were behind him and some of his most incisive writing lay ahead. All Art Is Propaganda follows Orwell as he demonstrates in piece after piece how intent analysis of a work or body of work gives rise to trenchant aesthetic and philosophical commentary. With masterpieces such as "Politics and the English Language" and "Rudyard Kipling" and gems such as "Good Bad Books," here is an unrivaled education in, as George Packer puts it, "how to be interesting, line after line." With an Introduction from Keith Gessen.
Dominic Cavendish's acclaimed monologue adaptation of George Orwell's Coming up for Air - first seen at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2008 - forms the first half of an unprecedented theatrical homage to Orwell created to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the novel and the 60th anniversary of his masterwork Nineteen Eighty-Four. As well as placing two of his best-loved essays - Shooting an Elephant and A Hanging - in a theatrical context, Cavendish has distilled The Ministry of Love interrogation scenes from 1984 into a short, sharp, shocking vignette of a man's inhumanity to man. Together they demonstrate the enduring power and range of Orwell's writing, its observational clarity, bracing humour and political intensity. Orwell: A Celebration was in production at the Trafalgar Studios, London, in June 2009.