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by George Orwell (Author), Sonia Orwell (Editor), Ian Angus (Editor)
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.Front Jacket
Considering that much of his life was spent in poverty and ill health, it is something of a miracle that in only forty-six years George Orwell managed to publish ten books and two collections of essays. Here, in four fat volumes, is the best selection of his non-fiction available, a trove of letters, essays, reviews, and journalism that is breathtaking in its scope and eclectic passions. Orwell had something to say about just about everyone and everything. His letters to such luminaries as Julian Symons, Anthony Powell, Arthur Koestler, and Cyril Connolly are poignant and personal. His essays, covering everything from "English Cooking" to "Literature and Totalitarianism," are memorable, and his books reviews (Hitler's Mein Kampf, Mumford's Herman Melville, Miller's Black Spring, Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield, to name just a few) are among the most lucid and intelligent ever written. From 1943 to 1945, he wrote a regular column for the Tribune, a left wing weekly, entitled "As I Please." His observations about life in Britain during the war embraced everything from anti-American sentiment to the history of domestic appliances.
