Read Online The Collected Essays Journalism and Letters of George Orwell George Orwell Sonia Orwell Ian Angus Books
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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 l945, 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. A Nonpareil Book from David R. Godine.
Read Online The Collected Essays Journalism and Letters of George Orwell George Orwell Sonia Orwell Ian Angus Books
"This is the third book in a great series. Sounds trite doesn't it?
This book is part of a four volume series which includes letters, essays, book reviews and journals. They were edited by Orwell's last wife Sonia(reputed to be a gold digger by some)and include a good chronological appendix. Prefaced sections would have made the collection more readable to those not familiar with the historical context of the writings.
Orwell's letters show the compassion he often did not express in his writings. They always show concern and restraint in his professional and personal dealings. One letter in particular to his first publisher with whom he had serious legal problems shows no hint of resentment only kindness. Is is possible that we can know more about a man's personal life from his daily habits and expressions than from any professed ideology?
The collection of essays in this volume show us the forgotten legacy of Orwell as a descriptive writer that should have surpassed his mediocre novels. The Orwell of Depression era England seems more relevant today than the Cold War era Orwell of "1984" and "Animal Farm". The essays provide rich background material for those who wish to analyze Orwell's books. Source material for "Homage to Catalonia" can be found in the essay "Spilling the Spanish Beans". An essay on common lodging houses tells us about the squalor of working class life in the coal districts...source material for "The Road to Wigan Pier". An essay about hanging tells us about the brutality of colonialism, later written about in Orwell's novel about Burma.
Some essays on societal issues show a disturbing lack of insight that I have noticed in some of Orwell's writings. "My Country Right or Left" written in August 1940, talks about a future revolutionary England that seemingly would not ever come into being. Orwell tells us it was an everyday reality to feel patriotism towards Chamberlain and also for the future red society that is to emerge. Shortly later, Orwell tells us about the red militias " billeted at the Ritz" and London gutters filled with blood. Orwell in the same paragraph tells us that... Only revolution can save England...but now that the revolution has started, and it may proceed quite quickly if only we can keep Hitler out.
Was Orwell's "revolution" the election of Winston Churchill? In another essay, not in this book, Orwell talks about an emerging technocracy that would replace the peerage class system with a post war technical elite springing from the old working class...young Bomber Command pilots who will form a new elite and vote in the welfare state. This second revolution is not the first type nor is it in line with orthodox Communist thought. Is it even logical to posit two things as being true at once?
Orwell described himself as a democratic socialist "as far as I understand what that means," yet did his rejection of dialectical materialism include a rejection of intellectual depth? The reader will find the books reviews interesting as source material for future reading as well as an interesting time capsule into long forgotten controversy and popular culture.
One review on a book written by the Duchess of Atholl "Searchlight on Spain" reminds us of the odd radicalism of the English ruling class during the Depression. The Duchess was pro-Soviet. Interestingly, the Mitford family produced the pro-Nazi Unity, who died during the Depression, and the pro-Red Jessica who haunted Cold War society. The reviews on Henry Miller selections seem to show an aversion to surreal and abstract subject matter. Orwell's essay on Dali, in another book, dismisses Dali as a crank and seems to avoid any detailed discussion of surrealism-a popular subject in the 1930's. A book review on Sartre in another collection avoids a discussion of Existentialism. Orwell claimed simply that he did not understand Sartre. Was Orwell revealing a tendency towards mental sloth?
A journal Orwell kept of his Road to Wigan Pier experiences should be read before reading the book as an interesting travel journal on hop picking during the Depression. The hop picking journal appears in "The Clergyman's Daughter". This collection reveals much about a man who influenced the century he lived in, and a time that had a profound impact on ours. A for content, B for organization therefore four stars. What makes this book unique?
This book is unique largely for the large number of Op-Ed pages titled "As I Please" which appeared in the Tribune after Orwell's tenure at the BBC. The pages were divided by section usually consisting of two to three sections organized by theme. The sections were deleted in part or in whole by the editor, Sonia Orwell who could have organized the selections better. Only the partially deleted sections are noted, however. It is sad that things that we Orwell addicts may have wanted to read are not included here. What is missing?
Sorry, I wrote two versions of this review and could not decide which to post!
This is the third book in a great series. Sounds trite doesn't it? Op-Ed pages, essays, book reviews, letters...they are all here as in the other books of this series, but this book is unique.
This book is unique largely for the large number of Op-Ed pages titled "As I Please" which appeared in the Tribune after Orwell's tenure at the BBC. The pages were divided by section usually consisting of two to three sections organized by theme. The sections were deleted in part or in whole by the editor Sonia Orwell who could have organized the selections better. Only the partially deleted sections are noted, however. It is sad that things that we Orwell addicts may have wanted to read are not included here.
Orwell's Op-Ed is filled with his usual wit and humor. These writings are the stuff of morning tea drinking and the commute reading of people living through the daily Nazi V2 attacks on England. The column provides a rich time capsule of chatty political commentary and personal views. The Duchess of Atholl...the Red Duchess...has by this time become an anti-communist Freedom League activist! A V weapon nearly destroyed his house but destroyed the garage instead...Orwell cooly tells us "it is still rocking" while he continued to write his column.
Pop culture is big in this book. English cooking, making tea, humour verses vulgarity. These are essay classics and deserve to be remembered. Orwell's essay "The English People" is good history, but seems aloof from the mainstream in that it overemphasizes class divisions (as other essays do as well.)
An essay on demotic speech typlifies Orwell's strong contributions on language and ideology. I remember that one of his earliest characters,Gordon Comstock, became a advertising copywriter after failing to serve the cause of art. Comstock's hatred of BOVRIL ads became dogged servitude to the advertising industry when he repented from his life of literary asceticism. Did not Winston in 1984 profess love for Big Brother in the end...in Newspeak after the state crushed him? Orwell loved language and this essay is no exception. Well worth reading.
The book review on the poetry of W.H. Davies has sparked my interest in his morbid works. Many lost writers can be rediscovered in Orwell's book reviews...see "Oysters and Brown Stout."
I read many of these selections while drinking my morning tea, but I never took Orwell's advice...I used a tea bag, not fresh tea leaves in a clay pot!"
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The Collected Essays Journalism and Letters of George Orwell George Orwell Sonia Orwell Ian Angus Books Reviews :
The Collected Essays Journalism and Letters of George Orwell George Orwell Sonia Orwell Ian Angus Books Reviews
- This is the third book in a great series. Sounds trite doesn't it?
This book is part of a four volume series which includes letters, essays, book reviews and journals. They were edited by Orwell's last wife Sonia(reputed to be a gold digger by some)and include a good chronological appendix. Prefaced sections would have made the collection more readable to those not familiar with the historical context of the writings.
Orwell's letters show the compassion he often did not express in his writings. They always show concern and restraint in his professional and personal dealings. One letter in particular to his first publisher with whom he had serious legal problems shows no hint of resentment only kindness. Is is possible that we can know more about a man's personal life from his daily habits and expressions than from any professed ideology?
The collection of essays in this volume show us the forgotten legacy of Orwell as a descriptive writer that should have surpassed his mediocre novels. The Orwell of Depression era England seems more relevant today than the Cold War era Orwell of "1984" and "Animal Farm". The essays provide rich background material for those who wish to analyze Orwell's books. Source material for "Homage to Catalonia" can be found in the essay "Spilling the Spanish Beans". An essay on common lodging houses tells us about the squalor of working class life in the coal districts...source material for "The Road to Wigan Pier". An essay about hanging tells us about the brutality of colonialism, later written about in Orwell's novel about Burma.
Some essays on societal issues show a disturbing lack of insight that I have noticed in some of Orwell's writings. "My Country Right or Left" written in August 1940, talks about a future revolutionary England that seemingly would not ever come into being. Orwell tells us it was an everyday reality to feel patriotism towards Chamberlain and also for the future red society that is to emerge. Shortly later, Orwell tells us about the red militias " billeted at the Ritz" and London gutters filled with blood. Orwell in the same paragraph tells us that... Only revolution can save England...but now that the revolution has started, and it may proceed quite quickly if only we can keep Hitler out.
Was Orwell's "revolution" the election of Winston Churchill? In another essay, not in this book, Orwell talks about an emerging technocracy that would replace the peerage class system with a post war technical elite springing from the old working class...young Bomber Command pilots who will form a new elite and vote in the welfare state. This second revolution is not the first type nor is it in line with orthodox Communist thought. Is it even logical to posit two things as being true at once?
Orwell described himself as a democratic socialist "as far as I understand what that means," yet did his rejection of dialectical materialism include a rejection of intellectual depth? The reader will find the books reviews interesting as source material for future reading as well as an interesting time capsule into long forgotten controversy and popular culture.
One review on a book written by the Duchess of Atholl "Searchlight on Spain" reminds us of the odd radicalism of the English ruling class during the Depression. The Duchess was pro-Soviet. Interestingly, the Mitford family produced the pro-Nazi Unity, who died during the Depression, and the pro-Red Jessica who haunted Cold War society. The reviews on Henry Miller selections seem to show an aversion to surreal and abstract subject matter. Orwell's essay on Dali, in another book, dismisses Dali as a crank and seems to avoid any detailed discussion of surrealism-a popular subject in the 1930's. A book review on Sartre in another collection avoids a discussion of Existentialism. Orwell claimed simply that he did not understand Sartre. Was Orwell revealing a tendency towards mental sloth?
A journal Orwell kept of his Road to Wigan Pier experiences should be read before reading the book as an interesting travel journal on hop picking during the Depression. The hop picking journal appears in "The Clergyman's Daughter". This collection reveals much about a man who influenced the century he lived in, and a time that had a profound impact on ours. A for content, B for organization therefore four stars. What makes this book unique?
This book is unique largely for the large number of Op-Ed pages titled "As I Please" which appeared in the Tribune after Orwell's tenure at the BBC. The pages were divided by section usually consisting of two to three sections organized by theme. The sections were deleted in part or in whole by the editor, Sonia Orwell who could have organized the selections better. Only the partially deleted sections are noted, however. It is sad that things that we Orwell addicts may have wanted to read are not included here. What is missing?
Sorry, I wrote two versions of this review and could not decide which to post!
This is the third book in a great series. Sounds trite doesn't it? Op-Ed pages, essays, book reviews, letters...they are all here as in the other books of this series, but this book is unique.
This book is unique largely for the large number of Op-Ed pages titled "As I Please" which appeared in the Tribune after Orwell's tenure at the BBC. The pages were divided by section usually consisting of two to three sections organized by theme. The sections were deleted in part or in whole by the editor Sonia Orwell who could have organized the selections better. Only the partially deleted sections are noted, however. It is sad that things that we Orwell addicts may have wanted to read are not included here.
Orwell's Op-Ed is filled with his usual wit and humor. These writings are the stuff of morning tea drinking and the commute reading of people living through the daily Nazi V2 attacks on England. The column provides a rich time capsule of chatty political commentary and personal views. The Duchess of Atholl...the Red Duchess...has by this time become an anti-communist Freedom League activist! A V weapon nearly destroyed his house but destroyed the garage instead...Orwell cooly tells us "it is still rocking" while he continued to write his column.
Pop culture is big in this book. English cooking, making tea, humour verses vulgarity. These are essay classics and deserve to be remembered. Orwell's essay "The English People" is good history, but seems aloof from the mainstream in that it overemphasizes class divisions (as other essays do as well.)
An essay on demotic speech typlifies Orwell's strong contributions on language and ideology. I remember that one of his earliest characters,Gordon Comstock, became a advertising copywriter after failing to serve the cause of art. Comstock's hatred of BOVRIL ads became dogged servitude to the advertising industry when he repented from his life of literary asceticism. Did not Winston in 1984 profess love for Big Brother in the end...in Newspeak after the state crushed him? Orwell loved language and this essay is no exception. Well worth reading.
The book review on the poetry of W.H. Davies has sparked my interest in his morbid works. Many lost writers can be rediscovered in Orwell's book reviews...see "Oysters and Brown Stout."
I read many of these selections while drinking my morning tea, but I never took Orwell's advice...I used a tea bag, not fresh tea leaves in a clay pot! - Sorry for the prank in the headline, it is not a comment on Orwell but a quote from the book, from the essay 'The English People', written in 44, but published later. Orwell tries to characterize the English. I would never have dared to write that myself.
This is volume 3 of 4, and the first that I give 5 stars. It is less uneven, less self-contradictory, probably more honest than the previous 2. GO had grown up, I assume. The bulk of the book are his leaders under the name that the collection carries As I please. He comments on events of the time, and does it with lasting interest.
I don't want to repeat my friend Jim Egolf's summary of the book, nor his assessment of its historical value. All true.
But Jim left out an important subject that Orwell also included, and that I want to bring to your attention. The fact is that GO was an impossible romantic about England. He honestly thought that there was merit in English cooking! One essay is called In Defence of English Cooking.
He lists a few items that we are supposed to accept as proof of his odd point of view. Believe it or not, one of the items which supposedly prove the high standard of English cooking are English apples. I rest my case.
'It is not a law of nature that every restaurant in England is either foreign or bad.' Written 1945. My regular visits in recent years, all in basically friendly intention, make me conclude if anything changed, then for the worse, because now even many of the foreign restaurants are bad.
Dui bu qi. - This is the third of four volumes of writings by George Orwell and edited in part by his widow Sonia Orwell. The bulk of this volume is made up of Orwell's "As I Please" column in the left wing Tribune where he was employed as editor for the later part of WWII. These are excellent insights into British life during the war era and into the political culture of the British left of which Orwell was a member.
His column's musings range from commentary on political pamphlets to the effects of the war on clothing and food. Orwell, ever the socialist, sees everything through the prism of class structure and to those who only know of his writings co-opted by the right such as "Animal Farm" and "1984" his definite left wing stance may come as a bit of a shock. He was by no means a dogmatic ideologue. The left gets the benefit of his often scathing criticisms as well as the right. Always willing to call things as he saw them, Orwell made enemies on both sides of the political spectrum.
Included in volume III as well are several letters to friends and acquaintances that are political and literary in nature rather than personal. Especially noteworthy is the first essay in the volume "The English People", a rather famous piece on culture, language and class.
I highly recommend this volume as well as the preceding volume II "My Country Left or Right". Orwell's essays are wonderful windows into the mind of one of the most important individuals of the twentieth century. - I'm not sure how to review George Orwell's fugitive pieces. He's one of my favorite writers, not necessarily for political reasons but because of his gumption and the clarity of his prose. On the other hand, few general readers will be interested in the specifics of what he discusses -- ideas, books and events that were topical even at the time, and that are forgotten now by all except those with a special interest in the topics. Personally, I've read and reread this four-volume collection many times since it was published. But that's me.
