A record of a great writer's nonfiction work and an evolving picture of the last years of his life, during the time when he published Animal Farm and 1984. "A magnificent tribute to the probity, consistency and insight of Orwell's topical writings....A remarkable self-portrait" (Alfred Kazin, Book W[...]
His best-known novels, "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four", are two of the most famous, well-quoted and influential political satires ever written. The other novels in this volume are also concerned with individuals at odds with repressive institutions: the corrupt imperialism of "Burmese Days"[...]
Personal as well as political, Orwell's letters offer a fascinating window into the mind of a phenomenal man. We are privy to snatched glimpses of his family life: his son Richard's developing teeth, the death of his wife Eileen, and his own illness. Candid portraits of Barcelona during the Spanish [...]
Features essays, reviews and articles that 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.[...]
From his school days to his tragic early death, George Orwell, who never wrote an autobiography, chronicled the dramatic events of his turbulent life in a profusion of powerful letters. Indeed, one of the twentieth century's most revered icons was a lively, prolific correspondent who developed in ri[...]
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[...]
George Orwell was an inveterate keeper of diaries. "The Orwell Diaries" presents eleven of them, covering the period 1931-1949, and follows Orwell from his early years as a writer to his last literary notebook. An entry from 1931 tells of a communal shave in the Trafalgar Square fountains, while not[...]
George Orwell was perhaps the twentieth century's best chronicler of English culture and one of our most significant political thinkers. In this covetable boxed set are collected together four of his essential works, including the seminal novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four".[...]
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 [...]
COMING UP FOR AIR is about coping. Orwell hooks a character from among the struggling middle class and, close-up, lets us watch him wiggle. George (Tubby) Bowling is a "fat, middle-aged bloke with false teeth and a red face." He sells insurance, a task at which he grimly excels. The father of two in[...]
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."[...]
"Animal Farm" is the most famous by far of all twentieth-century political allegories. Its account of a group of barnyard animals who revolt against their vicious human master, only to submit to a tyranny erected by their own kind, can fairly be said to have become a universal drama. Orwell is one o[...]
Having got rid of their human master, the animals in this political fable look forward to a life of freedom and plenty. But as a clever, ruthless elite takes control, the other animals find themselves hopelessly ensnared in the same old way.[...]
Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the harsh totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescr[...]
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings y[...]
Mr Jones of Manor Farm is so lazy and drunken that one day he forgets to feed his livestock. The ensuing rebellion under the leadership of the pigs Napoleon and Wellington leads to the animals taking over the farm. Vowing to eliminate the terrible inequities of the farmyard, the renamed Animal Farm [...]
One of Britain's most popular novels, George Orwell's dystopian tale "Nineteen Eighty-Four" is set in a society terrorised by a totalitarian ideology propagated by The Party. 'It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.' Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth in [...]
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 rea[...]
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 '[...]
When the downtrodden animals of Manor Farm overthrow their master Mr Jones and take over the farm themselves, they imagine it is the beginning of a life of freedom and equality. But gradually a cunning, ruthless elite among them, masterminded by the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, starts to take control[...]
'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". He[...]
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.[...]
Gordon Comstock loathes dull, middle-class respectability and worship of money. He gives up a 'good job' in advertising to work part-time in a bookshop, giving him more time to write. But he slides instead into a self-induced poverty that destroys his creativity and his spirit. Only Rosemary, ever-f[...]