A Collection of Essays

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."

Like other reviewers, I am compelled to be critical due to the sins of omission in this collection. "Politics and the English Language" is included, but "Literature and Totalitarianism", "Notes on Nationalism", and "The Prevention of Literature" are not - and these are in my opinion his most important essays. And none of omitted essays mentioned would have greatly lengthened the book. Sure, "England Your England" might be included, but "Revenge is Sour" is not.The essays included may be loosely categorized by the two Orwells: the political Orwell and the literary Orwell. "Politics and the English Language", like the omitted essays, is the full Orwell, the combination of the two categories. There are a couple which touch on colonial themes, namely "Shooting an Elephant" and "Marrakech". The classic Orwellian insights await the reader.In "Marrakech", Orwell nails the colonial psychology: "When you walk through a town like this -- two hundred thousand inhabitants, of whom at least twenty thousand own literally nothing except the rags they stand up in -- when you see how people live, and still more how easily they die, it is always difficult to believe that you are walking among human beings. All colonial empires are in reality founded upon that fact. The poeple have brown faces -- besides, there are so many of them!" (p.181). The ugly, dehumanizing character of the master-slave relationship implicit in colonialism, so famously discussed in "Shooting an Elephant", is extended in "Marrakech": "Every afternoon a file of very old women passes down the road outside my house, each carrying a load of firewood. All of them are mummified with age and the sun, and all of them are tiny. It seems to be generally the case in primitive communities that the women, when they get beyond a certain age, shrink to the size of children. [...] But what is strange about these people is their invisibility. For several weeks, always at about the same time of day, the file of old women had hobbled past the house with their firewood, and though they had registered themselves on my eyeballs I cannot truly say that I had seen them. Firewood was passing -- that was how I saw it" (p.185). `Right under your nose', indeed.Had "Looking Back on the Spanish Civil War" not been included, I would have given this collection a 1 star review. Always recommended, and I would also recommend the fuller account given in Orwell's Homage to Catalonia. Along with the omitted essays and "Politics", it is this essay which best explains the themes of 1984 and Animal Farm."Such, such were the Joys" is the longest essay in the text; it is a classic documentation of the cruelty of the contemporaneous public schools. For moderns who are the beneficiaries of reformers in education like Russell and Dewey, it's difficult to understand just how pathological and deforming such conditions were.Then there are the literary essays, including two on Dickens, some on `vulgar' literature like the `penny dreadful' - a borrowing from Chesterton. "Inside the Whale" is a blend, describing the literary climate of the time, its intersection with political ideology, and the problems of book reviewing.So this collection is worth buying - assuming one wants a print copy of essays which are available online. It decently presents the full Orwell. Hence the 3 stars. But one hasn't experienced Orwell the essayist without the omissions. Hence the 3 stars.

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.