Published by Harvill Secker, part of Vintage Publishing
Format: Paperback
£16.99
Author:
George Orwell
Format: Paperback
EAN: 9781846553264
£16.99
Available for dispatch within 1-2 working days
EAN: 9781846553264
Published: 2 Jul 2009
As a critic, George Orwell cast a wide net. Equally at home in 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 turned increasingly to the critical essay in the 1940s, when his most important experiences were behind him and some of his most incisive criticism lay ahead.
These essays follow Orwell as he demonstrates in piece after piece how intent analysis of a work or a body of work gives rise to trenchant aesthetic and philosophical commentary. With masterpieces such as 'Politics and the English Language' and 'Rudyard Kipling' and gems such as 'Good Bad Books', here is an unrivalled education in - as George Packer puts it in his foreword to this new two-volume collection - 'how to be interesting, line after line'.
Only registered users can recommend books. Please use the buttons below to either create a new account, or sign-in to an existing account.
Best known for novels 1984 and Animal Farm, Orwell was also a superb essayist, and these two fine collections display his breadth of topic and depth of skill... Unpretentious, intelligent, compassionate and brilliantly insightful
- Big Issue
It is [his] critical essays which strike home and are reread... His essays form the laurels of the crown on his troubled brow
- Spectator
Orwell's essays are among the best things he did
- Daily Telegraph
George Orwell (1903-1950) served with the Imperial Police in Burma, fought with the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War, and was a member of the Home Guard and a writer for the BBC during World War II. He is the author of many works of non-fiction and fiction.
