Customer Reviews
Political writing as art; all art is propaganda - By: Luc REYNAERT, 12 Mar 2008 
In these by times highly emotional essays written in the 1930s & 1940s George Orwell gives us with in depth analyses his personal viewpoint on the literary, political & socio-economic scene.
In literature, he sees the novel as `a Protestant form of art, a product of the free mind, of the autonomous individual.' Orwell's aim was to `push the world in a certain direction: a battle against totalitarianism & for democratic Socialism.'
In his criticism he searches for the essential (hidden) message of the author.
Dickens's rather naïve creed is: `If man would behave decently, the world would be decent.' His ideal is `a hundred thousand pounds, a quaint old house, a sweetly womanly wife, a horde of children & no work.'
Henry Miller's books are `a passive acceptance of decay & evil.'
H.G. Wells dreams of a utopian World State.
R. Kipling is a jingo imperialist, but he didn't understand that `an empire is primarily a money-making concern'.
W.B. Yeats is in essence a defender of feudalism, `a great hater of democracy & of human equality, of the modern world, science, technology & the concept of progress.'
A. Koestler's main theme is `the decadence of revolutions owing to corrupting effects of power.'
P.G. Wodehouse's real sin is to present the English upper classes as much nicer than they are.
In `Gulliver's Travels', J. Swift delivers a frontal attack on totalitarianism & shows that he is a disbeliever in the possibility of happiness.
Orwell's view on world matters is rightly `no Law, only Power'.
Nationalism is inseparable from the desire for power.
The concentration of the media in the hands of a few rich men puts the freedom of the press & intellectual liberty under attack. The `very concept of objective truth' is lost.
The Spanish war showed him the essential horror of army life.
He is extremely severe for the British establishment: `The British ruling class thought that Fascism was on their side.' For them, `it is better to inherit, than to work.' `In an England ruled by stupidity, to be `clever' was to be suspect.'
But his solution is also naïve: `common ownership of the means of production. The State, representing the whole nation, owns everything, & everyone is a State employee.' In other words, he pleads for a massive bureaucracy.
But he contradicts himself when he complains that `everything in our age conspires to turn the writer into a minor official!'
These essays contain also vivid memories of his public school life (`irrational terror') & of his Indian life ('Shooting an elephant'). He comments on sports (`war without shooting), detective stories (J.H. Chase), poetry (`the most hated art form'), mildly pornographic comic postcards (`a harmless rebellion against virtue') & ends with a superb portrait of Ghandi.
These remarkable essays, written by a fearless superb free mind, a fighter for justice & a true `révolté' (A. Camus), are a must read.
An honest journalist - By: R. Jones, 14 Dec 2007 Orwell - *the* iconoclast, defender of truth, & anti-authoritarian. His essays are very objective; he does not write dishonestly because of any ideological positions (indeed, he was as critical of those on the left as those on the right), & thus these essays provide a compelling contribution to our understanding of the particularly chaotic part of the century they were written in.
Wonderful - By: Ibrahim Ali, 02 Dec 2007 A wonderful collection of essays, ranging on topics from English cooking to democracy, from the common toad to the plight of the homeless. The essays notable both for their writing & their thoughts. And whilst not everything in the essays are correct, or in tune with my view point Orwell does at least present a different view point that in some cases challlenged my own. At some point I realised I was no longer a pacifist. Highly recommended. It's worth noting that this edition does not contain a comprehensive collection of alll his essays & many will have to be found in other volumes.
Orwell's/Blair's essays, an ultimate anthology? - By: G. Shure, 02 May 2007 Just over a year ago I picked up a copy of George Orwell's essays on the fly thinking one or two might be good considering the masterpiece that is "Nineteen Eighty-Four". When I received the book, complete with late 1920s socialist art on the front cover. An introduction by Orwell's biographer is quite good, & while invariably swaying into analysis of Orwell's epic novel "1984", remains a pretty good piece of commentary on Orwell's essays.
The book begins with Orwell's authoring treatise entitled "Why I Write" - this was published soon after the masterpiece of satire "Animal Farm". From there on the essays are arranged chronologicallly; from pieces published from 1931 regards his period of poverty & experience of "Spikes" (homeless shelters) up until 1949 with his Reflections on Gandhi essay which analyzes Gandhi's life & works, together with his ethics & influence over life in India.
He writes astutely, from the very beginning showing promise in the Plain Prose style of English which is instantaneously easy to read by practicallly anyone with a good understanding of the language of our fine country. In "Politics & the English language" Orwell examines & scrutinizes to great lengths how language has evolved (or be it, devolved) over the period spanning 1920 - 1940. He selects quotes randomly; choosing neither the worst nor the best but rather a smattering of random writings by various individuals.
He then systematicallly criticizes each & wittily advises any budding writer or reader to arm himself against the less desirable aspects of the English language's changes.
Political essays abound in this book - Orwell was personallly a Democratic Socialist as another review correctly states, which equates to what the Attlee administration stood for in the late 40s. However later in life he did become more receptive to arguments from the free market orientated right (like Hayek's "Road to Serfdom", another great econo-political text).
Understandably some of these writings are outdated & seem out of touch, the now much forgotten Spanish Civil War, the Communist movement of Spain, & General Franco himself is now confined to the historical annals. Or as a sort of prefix to the devastation of World War II. Orwell's wartime essays are wonderful - not only is he capable of bringing humorous situations to light (such as P.G. Wodehouse's capture by the Nazis in Belgium during their Blitzkrieg invasion in 1940.) He comments on how Wodehouse is merely an old man, believing his predicament & subsequent bargaining with the Nazis as a bit of a joke - ironicallly Wodehouse would outlive Orwell by more than twenty years.
Other essays are so British that anyone from outside the UK would have trouble understanding why on earth we are as we are. A 1940 essay named "The Art of Donald McGill" provides us with this brilliant quote from one of the then semi-legal saucy postcards:
Man: "I like seeing experienced girls home..."
Woman: "But I'm not experienced!"
Man: "Your not home yet!"
Now Orwell is on the balll here; he perceives that most of McGills postcards are mere sauciness & no more - but notices a few possess a wit & guile uncommon to such material previous or since his era. McGills trial was to occur after Orwell's 1950 death; but certainly this essay sums up McGills entire career, to use a tired phrase, in a nutshell.
So, what else on the British front? British cooking - Orwell gives a brief but concise summary of our dishes after some derisive comments from abroad (which were repeated recently by Jacques Chirac, the French President quite recently - & similarly rebuked by journalists & politicians alike.)
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The final category, if you will, is Orwell's literary analysis. Orwell's knowledge of literature, foreign & British, goes back roughly to Shakespearian times - he had little time for the legends or myths of the Medieval era & only mentions Ancient Greek works in passing. He did however, read & have extensive knowledge of The Bible - quoting Corinthians, Ecclesiastes (a fine philosophical book by any standard), & several more sections.
He states alll of his favourite authors in one essay, & lenghtily analyzes certain others and/or books. His brilliant essay entitled "Charles Dickens" gives such a thorough & brutal examination of Dickensian literature aswell as the man's personality that it baffles one to see how well-read Orwell is. To (roughly) quote Stephen King:
"To become a good author, you must read for four hours & write for four hours every day."
George Orwell, or be it Eric Blair I feel kept to these rules much of his life, exceptions being his service in Burma as a young man & his period as a homeless man upon leaving the military & entering the grimy world of poverty & work as a plongeur in Paris, followed by a trip back home to London for a job that never materialized.
Leafing through my copy of this anthology I find an analysis of an obscure translation of a Leo Tolstoy pamphlet denouncing Shakespeare (whom Orwell revered, plays, poetry, everything.) The document is so obscure & dated (it was written in 1903 when Tolstoy was an old man, & concerns the existential play "King Lear" - one of Shakespeare's best in most scholar's, & my own, opinion.
He first goes along amicably with Tolstoy's grumbles & critique - before tearing it apart piece by piece; concluding on the note that nobody (or very few) will ever read or take an interest in Tolstoy's opinionated pamphlets of his later life. And, were it not for "War & Peace" & "Anna Karenina" - he butchers Tolstoy's view that the play is merely a poor take off of an earlier, better & more sensical earlier work named "King Leir" by an unknown author.
Another hard hitting, deeply affective & well written author critique is Orwell's one of Rudyard Kipling, . I feel I must quote here:
Kipling (part of poem): Down to Gehemma or up to the Throne
He travels the fastest who travels alone.
Orwell follows this up immediately with this gem of a paragraph: There is a thought vulgarly expressed. It may not be true, but at any rate it's a thought everyone thinks. Sooner or later you'll have occasion to think that he who travels fastest travels alone, & there the thought is, ready made and, as it were, waiting for you. (...)
The eerie chill of that passage leads you to remember it, as a fine adhesive it sticks...an earlier part of the essay has Orwell spotting a constant characteristic in Kipling's poetry. He quotes single lines from six poems:
"East is East, & West is West."
"The white man's burden."
"What do they know of England who only England know?"
"The female of the species is more deadly than the male."
"Somewhere East of Suez."
"Paying the Dane-Geld."
Upon noting that certain phrases such as "killing Kruger with your mouth" remained in wide use until just before 1942 when this essay was published, Orwell goes on to note:
"But what the phrases I have listed above have in common is that they are alll of them phrases ones utters semi-derisively, but which one of us is bound to make use of sooner or later." This is true, & one of those phrases became the title of a pop song during the late 1990s; semi-relevant perhaps, since the song is one that is merely wary of the power of the female. Semi-derisive, if you will.
Lastly with Kipling, Orwell notes that his famous poem "If" was elevated to a near-Biblical status by the "Blimps" (ie. Conservative individuals) of the day. Orwell concludes that Kipling, due to his violent poems, had a slightly neurotic streak in him; a lust for cruelty & harm - & was in the very same tribe as the Blimps themselves; far from being a Fascist (a misnomer due to Kipling's use of the Hindu Swastika later in life) his outlook was merely that of pre-Fascist; an Edwardian era, semi-ignorant & oblivious Conservative, unaware of the economic motives behind the British Empire - devastated at its decline.
So, whether it be literary critique, political & ideological analysis, life experience & biography, or just plain good British-isms packed into essays about ourselves which remain largely relevant - then buy this book.
I took it to an authoritarian nation myself last year, (Putin's Russia, to be exact) & was dissapointed to find how rigorous police enforcement remained there. Sitting on my bed or in my chair there, reading Orwell's essays through for the second or third time it struck me that freedom is one of the most important things to be preserved - curbing it destroys society in the long run. Whether it be excessive patrols, airport strip searches, or assassination of journalists or pro-freedom politicians; it is vital we keep our liberties & our principles.
So, if I could grant this 6 stars I would. Buy this book as soon as possible; I'll be purchasing a second copy as a gift for a good friend soon - I suggest you recommend this great collection of essays to family & friends, use it to improve your own English writing skills - indeed it made me super voracious during my A Levels a year ago (I received 120/120 in a society/politics/economy Gen. Studies paper using Orwell's tenacious style of plain prose.)
Meet Mr. Blair - By: Guy reid-brown, 07 Jan 2007 Meet the best prose writer in the English language (along with pre war P. G. Wodehouse) This is how to do it - access to a vast vocabulary, a mastery of grammar & syntax (and the determination to apply it) & a comprehensive knowledge derived from a deep & wide reading - alll applied lightly, with a complete lack of pretension, & with the divine gift of irresistibly Good Humour (as opposed to the deliberately crude & savage kind) - so no hesitation in bracketing him & Wodehouse together.
But where Orwell scores above any other writer in his league was how much hard experience he had accumulated in his short life to set against his insights & opinions - a Police Officer in Burma, a slum dweller in Paris, a tramp in London, a wounded combatant in Spain - so that when he speaks, you listen.
With his clear uncluttered prose he conjures up worlds - a nauseating slum hospital in Paris, the Technicolor kingdoms of Seaside Postcards & Boy's Weeklies, his hellish Preparatory School in Eastbourne.
As to be expected, his analysis of Art & Literature - from Dali to Henry Miller to James Hadley Chase - is always worth reading, but perhaps more surprising is his love of nature & the English Countryside. But it was the latter that grounded him & provided a contrast to what he dedicated his life to opposing - Totalitarianism. `They' don't want you to enjoy the simple pleasures in nature (see `Some thoughts on the Common Toad')
Of course, being Orwell, Politics runs throughout alll this, but don't be deterred - whatever your political orientation, this is a man who will always discuss, not harangue. In fact I recommend you read this book with a pencil to hand to highlight alll the passages that apply exactly to today's world - your margins will be a mess of grey lines! The tragedy is that he didn't live longer to comment & advise & enlighten us some more. If you were to ask me to name two writers who epitomise a sort of utterly decent, good, civilised English type that can no longer exist it would be Orwell & Wodehouse - Wodehouse & Orwell.
