Essays

Rating:
Summary: Majestic
Review: Building on the new 20 volume Complete Orwell (unaccountably still not available in an American edition), Everyman's Library does Orwell proud with this book, certainly the best single-volume collection of Orwell ever. Not only does it contain all of the major essays and many lesser pieces, it presents all 80 of Orwell's wonderful "As I Please" columns written for "Tribune."

Orwell's range and talent are ably displayed here, from his literary essays, his writings on politics, autobiographical writings (including the harrowing "Such, Such Were the Joys" about his youth spent in a third-rate boarding school), his musings on popular culture ("Boy's Weeklies" and "The Art of Donald McGill" are classics of the genre), and his lighter works (Orwell writes, for example, on how to make the perfect cup of [strong] tea and what his version of the perfect public house would be).

Reading this book should also prove a useful antidote for those who have been convinced by the usupation of Orwell by certain right-wing writers that Orwell really was a conservative of some sort. While Orwell deeply loved traditional values and firmly opposed Soviet communism, his hatred of imperialism, capitalism, fascism, the class system and mindless wealth are marked and consistent throughout and we can be assured that he would have written harshly of Margaret Thatcher had he lived long enough to see that era.

John Carey contributes a useful introduction; the book includes a good bibliography and a very helpful timeline of Orwell's life correlated to the literary and historical happenings of the era. Like another reviewer here, I miss an index, and running titles at the tops of the pages; I also dislike the way Orwell's footnotes have been shoved rather arbitrarily to the back of the book. Those are minor quibbles; this is a magnificent volume, the perfect gift for anyone who loves Orwell (especially for American readers who haven't had the chance to buy the Complete Orwell yet) and a timely reminder that liberal values can also be decent, patriotic, and honorable values.

Rating:
Summary: Orwell was a communist macho-creep
Review: From MY COUNTRY RIGHT OR LEFT by George Orwell: "Only revolution can save England, that has been obvious for years, but now the revolution has started, and it may proceed quite quickly, if only we can keep Hitler out. Within two years, maybe a year, if only we can hang on, we shall see changes that will surprise the idiots who have no foresight. I dare say the London gutters will have to run with blood. All right, let them, if it is necessary. But when the red militias are billeted in the Ritz I shall still feel that the England I was taught to love so long ago and for such different reasons is somehow persisting."

Well, it turned out that Orwell was the idiot with no foresight. His hoped-for prediction of a violent communist takeover of Britain didn't happen. And thank God for that. If only because the Russians might've taken that as an invitation to conquer the rest of Europe.

From MY COUNTRY RIGHT OR LEFT by George Orwell: "I grew up in an atmosphere tinged with militarism, and afterwards I spent five boring years within the sound of bugles. To this day it gives me a faint feeling of sacrilege not to stand to attention during GOD SAVE THE KING. That is childish, of course, but I would sooner have had that kind of upbringing than be like the left-wing intellectuals who are so 'enlightened' that they cannot understand the most ordinary emotions. It is exactly the people whose hearts have *never* leapt at the sight of a Union Jack who will flinch from revolution when the moment comes."

Yeah, well it's a good thing they flinched. If only to shoot down the expectations of a fatuous smugnik like Orwell. Here we see the purpose of Orwell's existence: to have forged a neurotic amalgamated personality wherein fascist machismo and communist machismo can come together and join hands for the purpose of sneering at the wimpy moderates. What Orwell is basically saying is: I'm glad I was brainwashed into being a fascist bully when I was a kid, because it gave me a healthy macho killer instinct that I could then turn around and use against the fascist bullies who brainwashed me. What a creep.

Rating:
Summary: Orwell after 9/11
Review: George Orwell's essays are as relevant today as when he wrote them, and since 9/11 have gained even more in relevance. Anyone who wants to understand the modern world, needs to read Orwell, more than his fiction especially his essays.
He was a progressive analyst who wrote astutely and forcefully about a host of fundamental social issues, such as the effects of colonialism in colonial and European societies before World War II. As one of the greatest stylists in the English language, he wields an incisive language like a knife that cuts to the truth. Unlike many, especially modern, leftists, he has little use for social theory or dogma. Instead, he writes with almost unparallel clarity about events that are his personal experiences.

Although I have not had the opportunity to look through this particular edition of Orwell's essays, I don't think that it matters. I enthusiastically recommend Orwell in any shape or form.

Rating:
Summary: Best one volumn collection of Orwell
Review: I'd maintain that the world didn't turn out as gloomy as Orwell was afraid it would. Still, this is another reason why one should read Orwell, for his insights and brazen bravery. As an essayist, I find his subjects interesting and his prose lucid.

The book is hard-bound with a handsome cover. The collection includes the major essays, broken down chronologically, and includes favorites like "As I Please" columns. Let me give you an example of Orwell's bold insight. He would describe the dread at the whistling sound of a V-1 rocket, followed by an explosion, then confess the selfish nature of human beings in by noting their gratitude that he or she wasn't hit.

The volume of essays collected into one volume necessitates thin pages; it's similar to the pages of a Bible - very slight to the touch, and a shade of see-through. A more significant downside is the lack of index, but for readers familiar with Orwell, the table of contents can suffice. In all, the book is fairly priced, considering, say the cost of four volumes of collected works and letters.

Rating:
Summary: Unhumbug wordster
Review: It has been said that Orwell was the greatest English essayist since Hazlitt, maybe since Johnson; and I wouldn't quarrel with that. As an Englishman two generations later, I find that his writing strikes a deep chord. I agree in my bones with much of what he says and the way he says it; and when I don't, I can see the historical circumstances that produced it.

On the one hand, Orwell's life and work will command respect, admiration, affection (you don't have to be British). On the other hand, much of the political climate that formed it is ancient history. The kind of democratic socialism he stood for is gone, probably for ever; history took a different turn. The totalitarianisms of right and left that he fought against are gone too. It's hard to think back to a time when these were matters of life and death. But they were, once. If they ever are again, I hope that we find an honest faux-naif to insist that, when the clever talk is all said and done, night is not the same thing as day.

It isn't all politics: not much, in the tunnel-vision sense. Read his original critiques of writers as diverse as Dickens, Wells, Kipling, Yeats, Koestler, Henry Miller, Wodehouse. Read 'The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius'; 'The Art of Donald McGill', his appreciation of British seaside postcards; 'Politics and the English Language', which could stand reprinting in every issue of 'Social Text'; and many others, not least 'Thoughts on the Common Toad'.

The great and lasting thing about Orwell is that he was a tireless, clear-sighted, articulate enemy of 'humbug'. Feel free to substitute the stronger Anglo-Saxon word. One of his targets was that section of the intelligentsia, probably the majority in the thirties and forties, which went along with and even embraced Stalinism. There were reasons for that, of course - there always are - but Orwell saw through them; and he was a 'premature anti-Fascist' with the best. If he had lived as long as Wells or Shaw, he would have seen the triumph among the intelligentsia of our time of postmodern philosophico-literary theory, which, as we know, gives us the key to everything. At least it hasn't killed millions. What would Orwell have made of it? Read these essays and guess.

Rating:
Summary: Worthy collection that comes tragically close to excellence.
Review: It's a little unfair to try and assign a grade to a life-spanning collection of essays like this one. By its very nature it has to run the gamut from Orwell's five-star smash hits like 'How the Poor Die', 'Politics versus Literature', and, of course, 'Politics and the English Language', through light, whimsical pieces such as 'Good Bad Books' or 'A Nice Cup of Tea', all the way to mechanical hackwork or tedious, failed conceits. (In the latter case I am thinking particularly of Orwell's 'Imaginary Interview' with Jonathan Swift, a style which has never, to my knowledge, been well done.) One can't very well assess the book as a whole, because it isn't. On the other hand, there is this to say: when Orwell is good, he is very good, and even when he is bad, he remains highly readable.

The collection, as a collection, is not as good. I do not want it thought that I am saying this is not a worthwhile book: it is. Simply by being an easily obtainable hardcover collection of Orwell's short and medium-length prose, it does a valuable service. Before this book came out, the only way to get a comprehensive collection of Orwell's essays in hardcover was to find a set of the four-volume "Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters" on the second-hand market, and the price demanded for that grows more exorbitant every year.

However, there are three major problems with the compilation. One is only slightly irritating, but the other two genuinely harm the utility of the book.

1. No page headings- This has been mentioned by other reviewers. The page headers say only "Essays", where in most other collections they would make mention of the essay you are currently reading. (This is true even of other Everyman's Library titles.) Because most of the pieces are short, you can easily flip back a page or two to find the title, but this grows tiresome fairly quickly, all the more so for the fact that the omission is so pointless.

2. No index of titles- This, to be fair, is not a fault of this one book. Rather, it is common to all Everyman's Library prose collections; I own volumes by Ernest Hemingway and Oscar Wilde, otherwise excellent, with the same problem. Because all the pieces are arranged chronologically, it is frustratingly hard to locate a specific essay; one has to guess where it fell in Orwell's career, turn to the table of contents, and run one's finger down the pages until one finds it. As the table of contents is seven pages long, this is inexcusably poor book design. My copy now sports Post-It notes sticking out the top for easy location of the major essays.

3. Footnotes- Orwell's footnotes have been converted into endnotes, and moved to the back of the book. This is not merely a case of editing for no good reason: it is plain wrong. Orwell's footnotes were invariably parenthetical, comprising asides from and elucidations of the main text; moreover, there are only thirty-eight of them in the book. There is no excuse for not putting them at the bottom of the page, where they belong. There they can be seen in the context of the essays, without requiring you to stop in mid-paragraph and flip to the back of a two-and-a-half-inch-thick book.

Other reviewers and the book's own publicity hype tout this as "the best one-volume collection of Orwell available". It is not, not by a long shot. It is certainly the most comprehensive. However, the _best_ one-volume Orwell is the "Collected Essays" which was first published in 1961 and has subsequently been reprinted many times. It is inexplicably hard to obtain in the U.S., but can be had from amazon.co.uk under the title "George Orwell: Essays". It gathers all of Orwell's major pieces without the ephemera; for the already dedicated Orwellphile, it is a delight to have all 80 numbers of 'As I Please' in one place, but for the reader new to Orwell, they are clutter.

Instead, this is the book you buy to keep on your bookshelf for the rest of your life and wear out with frequent consultation. It is a reference volume; the only time one might try to read it cover-to-cover would be on a very long flight. (I have done this, with great success.)

The most frustrating thing about this collection is how close it came to indispensibility. Had it been slightly better designed and edited, it would have been _the_ collection of Orwell's essays, required purchasing for every serious Orwell fan. (Save, perhaps, the manic completists who will settle for nothing less than the twenty-volume "Collected Works.") It is still worth your money, but so little effort would be required to make even more valuable that one must wonder why that effort was not invested.

Overall: A-, 9/10.

Rating:
Summary: Great essayist...poorly laid-out edition
Review: These three stars don't reflect my opinion of Orwell as an essayist. Anyone who has read Orwell's non-fiction knows that he is one of this century's greatest journalists/essayists. The poor rating targets the layout of the volume.

It's an insult to a writer of Orwell's stature to have put together such an extensive volume (1,424 pages!) of his best work so amaturishly. There's no index, no notes section and no specification of which essay you're on at the head of the page. The table of contents is practially useless, as most of the essays are numbered.

Physically, the book is beautiful: a matte cover, with a great portrait of Orwell, cream-wove paper, sewn binding and a sewn in bookmark. But it is in no way user friendly. If you're looking to dive into Orwell's essays and journalism check out the David R. Godine editions.

Rating:
Summary: An Orgy of Orwell
Review: This is quite simply the most comprehensive one-volume edition of Orwell's essays available. It includes the greatest hits one would expect ("Shooting An Elephant," "Such, Such Were the Joys," "My Country Right Or Left," etc.) and (amazingly!) well over two hundred others. Such inclusiveness almost belies the title "Selected Essays." Especially welcome are the many selections from Orwell's column "As I Please"--delightfully informal excursions that range in gravity from meditations on totalitarianism to quirky reviews of then-contemporary literary phenoms. Thankfully, they're all unabridged and are based on the unexpurgated texts issued by Secker & Warburg just a few years ago. John Carey provides a lengthy and nuanced introduction, and there's even a rather full Chronology that puts Orwell into a useful historical context. All of this is offered in a surprisingly compact edition with a readable-but-elegant typeface and very good paper--no mean feat for a book of over a thousand pages!

One's only real regret is that there isn't an index, not even of titles. Fishing through the table of contents for old favorites is cumbersome, and the failure of the publishers to provide running heads on the pages means you can't really just flip through to find what you're looking for.

Nevertheless, this is a long overdue and wonderfully produced collection of one of our most readable, thoughtful, and unpretentious writers. If you're a fan of Orwell, no other collection can possibly do--and if you're not, this is the perfect way to get to know him. For me, at least, this will provide bedside reading for a long time to come.

Rating:
Summary: An Orgy of Orwell
Review: This is quite simply the most comprehensive one-volume edition of Orwell's essays available. It includes the greatest hits one would expect ("Shooting An Elephant," "Such, Such Were the Joys," "My Country Right Or Left," etc.) and (amazingly!) well over two hundred others. Such inclusiveness almost belies the title "Selected Essays." Especially welcome are the many selections from Orwell's column "As I Please"--delightfully informal excursions that range in gravity from meditations on totalitarianism to quirky reviews of then-contemporary literary phenoms. Thankfully, they're all unabridged and are based on the unexpurgated texts issued by Secker & Warburg just a few years ago. John Carey provides a lengthy and nuanced introduction, and there's even a rather full Chronology that puts Orwell into a useful historical context. All of this is offered in a surprisingly compact edition with a readable-but-elegant typeface and very good paper--no mean feat for a book of over a thousand pages!

One's only real regret is that there isn't an index, not even of titles. Fishing through the table of contents for old favorites is cumbersome, and the failure of the publishers to provide running heads on the pages means you can't really just flip through to find what you're looking for.

Nevertheless, this is a long overdue and wonderfully produced collection of one of our most readable, thoughtful, and unpretentious writers. If you're a fan of Orwell, no other collection can possibly do--and if you're not, this is the perfect way to get to know him. For me, at least, this will provide bedside reading for a long time to come.