A Collection of Essays
by George Orwell
List Price:
Our Price: $3.98
You Save: $11.02 (73%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.00 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: George OrwellEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1970-10-21
ISBN: 0156186004
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Mariner Books
Book Reviews of A Collection of Essays
Book Review: Remarkable range and insight
Summary: 5 Stars
Hemingway is the quintessential action-oriented writer, the writer who jumps into the fray, but after reading these essays, I'd put Orwell in a virtual tie. Orwell's first job as an adult was serving the British Empire as an overseer in Burma, where he learned to hate the racism and represssion that was at the heart of the Empire. Later, Orwell fought with the communists in Spain, and then he was in London during the bombings of WWII.
Many of the essays in this collection deal with his experiences in those dangerous, radical, intense times. He writes about being cowed into shooting an escaped elephant in Burma because he had to look decisive in front of several thousand Burmese subjects. He writes about accusing a dark-skinned country boy of theft in the Spanish-Franco war, only to see that his accusation was incorrect, and then finding ways to make amends (and noting that he would not have had the nerve to make amends, nor would his efforts have been accepted, except in the unreality of wartime). He writes about opposing Fascism as WWII loomed, and his contempt for the pro-communist and pro-socialist intellectuals who shifted from one position to another as the political winds blew. These are searing, angry essays, full of tight observations about the duplicity of people with power and the powerlessness of the working class.
Many other other essays in the book also deal with power, but through very different lenses. For example, the collection opens with his long, multi-part memoir of life as a scholarship student at a public school. His tales are not especially different than those told by others about the harsh, class-conscious atmosphere and the sadistic headmasters, inadequate food rations, and uncomfortable living conditions. Yet Orwell teases out some fascinating intellectual observations, too. For example, he talks about wetting his bed, and then being told that it was a sin and being caned for it: his comment is that he learned he had sinned without even wanting to sin. Same thing with masturbation, which he wasn't doing, but which he was accused of doing because he was a poor boy. Here he was marked as a sinner for something he wasn't actually even doing and didn't even understand at the time.
Then, Orwell turns his attention in several essays to literary criticism and language. He looks at Dickens from a socialist point of view and finds that socialists are seeking a perspective that just isn't there. Orwell sees Dickens as a master at pointing out social ills, especially as they are visited on children, but utterly lacking in any solutions for the problems. Dickens basically asks the question, "Can't we all just get along?" and he sees individual morality as the only way to improve appalling social conditions. Orwell points out that it's hard to decide which comes first -- better social conditions or better morality -- though certainly some level of safety and creature comforts are needed before humanity has the luxury of thinking about "higher" matters.
About language, he finds parallels between sloppy, cliched language and sloppy thinking and dishonest political discourse. It's a point that is fairly common today, but which he probably striking in its time. In fact, the essays are full of observations that seem remarkably fresh for having been made in the 1930s.
One other essay was compelling for me: Gandhi. Orwell doesn't revere Gandhi as a saint, but he has more complimentary things to say about him than about any other person in the essays. He points out the remarkable achievement of India's independence, even if Gandhi's fullest dreams for a peaceful independence were not realized. He points out Gandhi's openness to all people and his raw physical courage (which cost him his life because he refused to have bodyguards). And he points out the limits of pacifism in a world in which totalitarian regimes would take advantage of pacifists to simply wipe them out.
These essays are so remarkable that I will read more Orwell essays in the future. Just as importantly, the essays have made me determined to read more about some of the events and people who are discussed in them. I have read a lot of Dickens, but I haven't read Kipling, and I know little about Gandhi or the Spanish Civil War. So Orwell has not only opened my mind with his essays, but he has propelled me to learn about new things.
Summary of A Collection of Essays
George Orwell's collected nonfiction, written in the clear-eyed and uncompromising style that earned him a critical following
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 pieces collected here include the relatively unfamiliar and the more celebrated, making it an ideal compilation for both new and dedicated readers of Orwell's work.
Imagine any of today's writers of "creative nonfiction" dispatching a rogue elephant before an audience of several thousand. Now, imagine the essay that would result. Can we say "narcissism"? As part of the Imperial Police in Burma, George Orwell actually found himself aiming the gun, and his record--first published in 1936--comprises eight of the highest voltage pages of English prose you'll ever read. In "Shooting an Elephant," Orwell illumines the shoddy recesses of his own character, illustrates the morally corrupting nature of imperialism, and indicts you, the reader, in the creature's death, a process so vividly reported it's likely to show up in your nightmares ever after. "The owner was furious, but he was only an Indian and could do nothing.... Among the Europeans opinion was divided. The older men said I was right, the younger men said it was a damn shame to shoot an elephant for killing a coolie, because an elephant was worth much more than any damn Coringhee coolie."
This essay alone would be worth the cover price, and the dozen other pieces collected here prove that, given the right thinker/writer, today's journalism actually can become tomorrow's literature. "The Art of Donald McGill," ostensibly an appreciation of the jokey, vaguely obscene illustrated postcards beloved of the working classes, uses the lens of popular culture to examine the battle lines and rules of engagement in the war of the sexes, circa 1941. "Politics and the English Language" is a prose working-out of Orwell's perceptions about the slippery relationship of word and thought that becomes a key premise of 1984. "Looking Back on the Spanish War" is as clear-eyed a veteran's memoir of the nature of war as you're likely to find, and Orwell's long ruminations on the wildly popular "good bad" writers Charles Dickens and Rudyard Kipling showcase his singular virtues--searing honesty and independent thinking. From English boarding schools to Gandhi's character to an early appreciation of Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, these pieces give an idiosyncratic tour of the first half of the passing century in the company of an articulate and engaged guide. Don't let the idea that Orwell is an "important" writer put you off reading him. He's really too good, and too human, to miss. --Joyce Thompson
Essays Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Essays Books
Shaking a Leg: Collected Journalism and Writingsby Angela Carter
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1998-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.66
Price in other shops:
Minerva Louise (Picture Lions)by Janet Morgan Stoeke
Picture Lions; Published: 1989-09-21; Paperback; Book
White Dynamite and Curly Kiddby Bill Martin, John Archambault
Collins; Published: 1988-08; Hardcover; Book
max's christmasby rosemary wells
Dial; Published: 1986; Hardcover; Book
Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Bookby Walker Percy
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 1983-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $66.99
Shadow Lines: Educational Edition, with Critical Essays by A N Kaul, Suvir Kaul, Meenakshi Mukherjee & Rajesewari Sunder rajanby Amitav Ghosh
South Asia Books/Oxford Univ Press, India; Published: 1998-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.30
The Book of Other PeoplePenguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2008-01-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.91
Price in other shops:
Walden and Civil Disobedience (Penguin American Library)by Henry David Thoreau
Penguin Classics; Published: 1983-08-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.62
Price in other shops:
The Portable Machiavelliby Niccolo Machiavelli
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1979-01-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.35
Price in other shops:
Essays of E.B. Whiteby E. B. White
Joanna Cotler Books; Published: 1978-10-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $298.46
Similar Books and other products
Black Skin, White Masksby Frantz Fanon
Grove Press; Published: 2008-09-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.79
Price in other shops:
The Concept of the Political: Expanded Editionby Carl Schmitt
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 2007-05-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.04
Price in other shops:
Modern Prince and Other Writingsby Antonio Gramsci
Intl Pub; Published: 1959-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops:
Good-Bye to All That: An Autobiographyby Robert Graves
Anchor; Published: 1958-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
Among the Thugsby Bill Buford
Vintage; Published: 1993-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.66
Price in other shops:
Why Orwell Mattersby Christopher Hitchens
Basic Books; Published: 2003-09-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.06
Price in other shops:
Down and Out in Paris and Londonby George Orwell
Mariner Books; Published: 1972-03-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.26
Price in other shops:
Homage to Cataloniaby George Orwell
Mariner Books; Published: 1980-10-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
Why I Write (Penguin Great Ideas)by George Orwell
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2005-09-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.70
Price in other shops:
All Art Is Propagandaby George Orwell, Keith Gessen
Mariner Books; Published: 2009-10-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.48
Price in other shops: