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The Collected Essays, Journalism & Letters #1
An Age Like This: 1920-1940
George Orwell is a major figure in twentieth-century literature. The author of Down and Out in Paris and London, Nineteen Eighty-four, and Animal Farm, he published ten books and two collections of essays during his lifetime -- but in terms of actual words, produced much more than seems possible for someone who died at the age of forty-six and was often struggling against poverty and ill health. His essays, letters, and journalism are among the most memorable, lucid, and intelligent ever written, the work of a master craftsman and a brilliant mind. Taken as a whole they form an essential collection, and read in toto and sequentially, they provide a remarkably literary self-portrait of an engaged, and consistently engaging, writer.
Here, in four volumes, is the best selection of his nonfiction writing now available, a trove of letters, essays, reviews, and journalism that is breathtaking in its scope and eclectic passions.
An Age Like This collects Orwell's essential early writings, including material that would later emerge in Down and Out in Paris and London, as well as observations on marriage, reviews of Henry Miller and J. B. Priestley, reports from the Spanish Civil War, an examination of the meaning and value of Charles Dickens, and notes on the early years of the Second World War.
574 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
About the author
George Orwell
1,257 books45.5k followersEric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. His work is marked by keen intelligence and wit, a profound awareness of social injustice, an intense opposition to totalitarianism, a passion for clarity in language, and a belief in democratic socialism.
In addition to his literary career Orwell served as a police officer with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma from 1922-1927 and fought with the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1937. Orwell was severely wounded when he was shot through his throat. Later the organization that he had joined when he joined the Republican cause, The Workers Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), was painted by the pro-Soviet Communists as a Trotskyist organization (Trotsky was Joseph Stalin's enemy) and disbanded. Orwell and his wife were accused of "rabid Trotskyism" and tried in absentia in Barcelona, along with other leaders of the POUM, in 1938. However by then they had escaped from Spain and returned to England.
Between 1941 and 1943, Orwell worked on propaganda for the BBC. In 1943, he became literary editor of the Tribune, a weekly left-wing magazine. He was a prolific polemical journalist, article writer, literary critic, reviewer, poet, and writer of fiction, and, considered perhaps the twentieth century's best chronicler of English culture.
Orwell is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (published in 1949) and the satirical novella Animal Farm (1945) — they have together sold more copies than any two books by any other twentieth-century author. His 1938 book Homage to Catalonia, an account of his experiences as a volunteer on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, together with numerous essays on politics, literature, language, and culture, have been widely acclaimed.
Orwell's influence on contemporary culture, popular and political, continues decades after his death. Several of his neologisms, along with the term "Orwellian" — now a byword for any oppressive or manipulative social phenomenon opposed to a free society — have entered the vernacular.
In addition to his literary career Orwell served as a police officer with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma from 1922-1927 and fought with the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1937. Orwell was severely wounded when he was shot through his throat. Later the organization that he had joined when he joined the Republican cause, The Workers Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), was painted by the pro-Soviet Communists as a Trotskyist organization (Trotsky was Joseph Stalin's enemy) and disbanded. Orwell and his wife were accused of "rabid Trotskyism" and tried in absentia in Barcelona, along with other leaders of the POUM, in 1938. However by then they had escaped from Spain and returned to England.
Between 1941 and 1943, Orwell worked on propaganda for the BBC. In 1943, he became literary editor of the Tribune, a weekly left-wing magazine. He was a prolific polemical journalist, article writer, literary critic, reviewer, poet, and writer of fiction, and, considered perhaps the twentieth century's best chronicler of English culture.
Orwell is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (published in 1949) and the satirical novella Animal Farm (1945) — they have together sold more copies than any two books by any other twentieth-century author. His 1938 book Homage to Catalonia, an account of his experiences as a volunteer on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, together with numerous essays on politics, literature, language, and culture, have been widely acclaimed.
Orwell's influence on contemporary culture, popular and political, continues decades after his death. Several of his neologisms, along with the term "Orwellian" — now a byword for any oppressive or manipulative social phenomenon opposed to a free society — have entered the vernacular.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
June 8, 2020
In Moulmein, in lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people – the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me.
Circumstances colluded yesterday for me to read almost all of this compendium. I joined the ranks of countless undergrads by finally reading "A Hanging". Noteworthy are reviews which address Melville and Stendhal; even greater is the essay on Dickens. There are also fascinating letters to Runciman and Spender. A transformation from aspiring left leaning professional writer to Socialist but Anti-Communist journalist is depicted without undue commentary. Unfortunately for myself there is also a cluster of laborious didactic pieces on the situation in Spain during its Civil War. This is resolved as Orwell heads home after Spain only to discover that he's tubercular and he and his wife then consequently winter in Morocco. He's still there during the Munich appeasement and the conversion to political animal becomes complete. It is strange how the seminal essay Inside The Whale was always familiar by title to me personally but alas not by argument. That was certainly a joy to engage.
Circumstances colluded yesterday for me to read almost all of this compendium. I joined the ranks of countless undergrads by finally reading "A Hanging". Noteworthy are reviews which address Melville and Stendhal; even greater is the essay on Dickens. There are also fascinating letters to Runciman and Spender. A transformation from aspiring left leaning professional writer to Socialist but Anti-Communist journalist is depicted without undue commentary. Unfortunately for myself there is also a cluster of laborious didactic pieces on the situation in Spain during its Civil War. This is resolved as Orwell heads home after Spain only to discover that he's tubercular and he and his wife then consequently winter in Morocco. He's still there during the Munich appeasement and the conversion to political animal becomes complete. It is strange how the seminal essay Inside The Whale was always familiar by title to me personally but alas not by argument. That was certainly a joy to engage.
April 15, 2012
The first volume of this collection of George Orwell’s essays, diaries, and letters covers the period from 1920-1940. During this time, Orwell published seven of his nine books and began to develop the political opinions that would later become so important in his work, but he was still relatively unknown.
In his letters, he did not mince words about some things he really, really disliked. These included:
Roman Catholics
feminists
Scottish people
vegetarians
fruit-juice drinkers
Oswald Mosley
On the other hand, he generally felt positively about the following:
Ulysses
women
cigarettes
Tropic of Cancer
Revolución!
goats
This collection was edited by Orwell’s widow, Sonia, and Ian Angus. His widow reportedly obstructed many of those who wanted to write his biography. She felt that his work, which was often autobiographical, should stand for itself. She wanted this collection to “read like a novel.” I wouldn’t go that far, but the selection of letters and essays is good, and going back and forth between them does work fairly well. They did cut all the racy parts out of the letters, presumably to avoid embarrassing people involved who may have still been living in 1968 when this was first published.
In his letters, he did not mince words about some things he really, really disliked. These included:
Roman Catholics
feminists
Scottish people
vegetarians
fruit-juice drinkers
Oswald Mosley
On the other hand, he generally felt positively about the following:
Ulysses
women
cigarettes
Tropic of Cancer
Revolución!
goats
This collection was edited by Orwell’s widow, Sonia, and Ian Angus. His widow reportedly obstructed many of those who wanted to write his biography. She felt that his work, which was often autobiographical, should stand for itself. She wanted this collection to “read like a novel.” I wouldn’t go that far, but the selection of letters and essays is good, and going back and forth between them does work fairly well. They did cut all the racy parts out of the letters, presumably to avoid embarrassing people involved who may have still been living in 1968 when this was first published.
April 22, 2023
I didn't really expect to read this whole volume cover to cover, but the combined excellence of Orwell's writing and editors' choices made it a surprise page turner. The mix of articles interspersed with Orwell's personal letters creates a strong sense of narrative.
The earliest years see Orwell working as a school teacher and bookshop assistant, while writing mainly about the poor and working class in England. He goes around doing stuff like tramping, hop-picking, touring coal mines, and attending union meetings. Above all, these articles are interesting, mainly because the experiences are so far from anything that most readers would have experienced in both time period and circumstance. He also never romanticizes his subjects, presenting a straightforward account of their ambiguities, yet still believing that they are owed a better life, not because they're earned it but just because they are people.
Then comes the Spanish Civil War. Orwell can get in the weeds on this topic, and, in fact, the only section of the book I skipped was 12 pages of notes cataloging the various Spanish militias. I find these writings primarily worthwhile because they focus not on the conflict of right versus left, but rather on the in-fighting and obfuscation occurring within the left. Orwell considers most of the loudest voices on the left to be either shills for the Soviet Union or people wishing to retain their power and wealth by coopting the socialist movement. It's a good reminder that politics is rarely the savior people hope for.
The last phase of the book is the lead up and start of World War II. Beforehand, Orwell is very anti-war. He views a potential war an imperialist endeavor, primarily aimed at preserving Britain's colonial interests. At one point, he suggests to a friend that they should buy a printing press so that they can be ready to publish anti-war pamphlets when the time comes. But once the war actually starts, he totally changes his position, writing that he simply cannot oppose his own country. Part of it is his quasi-military upbringing and love of authors like Kipling, part of it is that he still hopes for a socialist revolution and thinks this has even less chance of happening under Nazi rule, and part of it is probably just a innate instinct to fight back against existential threat.
Despite Orwell's reputation as a kind of doomsayer, his non-fiction writing always leaves me feeling positive. Unlike many political people, he appreciates that what is valuable is life itself and the process of living, and that politics is only a means of improving it (and maybe not a very good one at that). He loves Dickens and boys' adventure stories. He has a wife and grows vegetables and tries to open a small grocery shop. He believes in common decency. He presents the events of his time in context that reminds me that, at once, things are better than they were and that the unsolvable problems will never leave us nor overwhelm us.
The earliest years see Orwell working as a school teacher and bookshop assistant, while writing mainly about the poor and working class in England. He goes around doing stuff like tramping, hop-picking, touring coal mines, and attending union meetings. Above all, these articles are interesting, mainly because the experiences are so far from anything that most readers would have experienced in both time period and circumstance. He also never romanticizes his subjects, presenting a straightforward account of their ambiguities, yet still believing that they are owed a better life, not because they're earned it but just because they are people.
Then comes the Spanish Civil War. Orwell can get in the weeds on this topic, and, in fact, the only section of the book I skipped was 12 pages of notes cataloging the various Spanish militias. I find these writings primarily worthwhile because they focus not on the conflict of right versus left, but rather on the in-fighting and obfuscation occurring within the left. Orwell considers most of the loudest voices on the left to be either shills for the Soviet Union or people wishing to retain their power and wealth by coopting the socialist movement. It's a good reminder that politics is rarely the savior people hope for.
The last phase of the book is the lead up and start of World War II. Beforehand, Orwell is very anti-war. He views a potential war an imperialist endeavor, primarily aimed at preserving Britain's colonial interests. At one point, he suggests to a friend that they should buy a printing press so that they can be ready to publish anti-war pamphlets when the time comes. But once the war actually starts, he totally changes his position, writing that he simply cannot oppose his own country. Part of it is his quasi-military upbringing and love of authors like Kipling, part of it is that he still hopes for a socialist revolution and thinks this has even less chance of happening under Nazi rule, and part of it is probably just a innate instinct to fight back against existential threat.
Despite Orwell's reputation as a kind of doomsayer, his non-fiction writing always leaves me feeling positive. Unlike many political people, he appreciates that what is valuable is life itself and the process of living, and that politics is only a means of improving it (and maybe not a very good one at that). He loves Dickens and boys' adventure stories. He has a wife and grows vegetables and tries to open a small grocery shop. He believes in common decency. He presents the events of his time in context that reminds me that, at once, things are better than they were and that the unsolvable problems will never leave us nor overwhelm us.
May 23, 2015
If George Orwell had died just a few years earlier, his biggest claims to fame, Animal Farm and 1984, would never have been written. In this parallel universe, he would have been remembered (if at all) for his non-fiction.
Orwell wrote a number of earlier novels, but none of them has ever set the world alight. However, many readers have thrilled to the scintillating prose of his extended non-fiction works – Down and Out in Paris and London, The Road to Wigan Pier, Homage to Catalonia and of course his essays.
As a non-fiction writer, Orwell had a remarkable style of his own. His prosaic no-nonsense manner of writing, often brusque and sweeping, seems almost without style at first, yet this is misleading.
In fact, Orwell set much stock on style, and we can see this in his essay on How I Write (included at the beginning of this volume), where he discusses how all writers have a certain style or use of particular defining phrases. One surprise in this volume is to see Orwell, one of the least poetic of writers, attempting a few poems.
This particular collection covers more than Orwell’s essays, and some of the content will probably only appeal to George Orwell buffs. Luckily, people who enjoy Orwell’s non-fiction often are buffs, since his works almost act as an autobiography of their author. We can use these books to follow Orwell’s progress throughout this period of his life
With this collection of letters and reviews spanning from 1920 to 1940, we can follow Orwell’s story first-hand as it unfolds. It can be a fascinating journey too. Thrill as he lets drop the moment where he has chosen the name, George Orwell. Watch his progress towards socialism as he explores the lives of homeless and working people. See his increased politicisation via the Spanish Civil War.
Of course, the volume is not always ideal for those who engage in hero worship towards Orwell. The writings reveal a man who is frequently very ordinary and mundane in his life and observations. He also shared some of the prejudices of his age, anti-feminist and sometimes faintly racist, e.g. towards the Japanese. I suspect (reading between the lines) that he is possibly a little homophobic too.
These attitudes were in fact very common in Britain all the way until the end of the 1970s and Orwell is certainly no worse than many people of the age. He did at least have progressive socialist views, and the ability to identify with many of the nations trapped by British imperialism.
He did remain something of a patriot however, and the final essay, My Country Right or Left provides an astonishing volte-face as we watch Orwell move from opposition to any war that puts him on the side of the capitalists to a final grudging support of the British government’s war effort due to his love of his country.
While the letters and reviews are not without interest, the undoubted highlight of this first volume is the essays, though we have to read a long time before we finally reach them. Along the journey are The Hanging and Shooting an Elephant, in which Orwell takes grim and rather sad events from his life in Burma and uses them to draw a moral about the corrupt nature of imperialism, a system in which the rulers are just as trapped as the subjugated nations.
At the end of the volume, there are a number of the essays that made up Orwell’s first book of essays, Inside the Whale. Many of these are sociological analyses of written works. However, whilst Orwell writes as a socialist, and points to the political content of these writings, he is no pretentious and impenetrable Marxist literary critic.
In fact, his writing shows his real love of literature, something we glancingly view in the many reviews found throughout this volume. Orwell was not in any doubts about the limits of modern literature. In his essay, In Defence of the English Novel, written a few years earlier, he deplores the factors that he fears are reducing the novel to a place of low repute.
While the novel has not died out, Orwell’s analysis offers a few penetrating insights, especially when he turns his gaze on literary reviews and why they often fail the reader. As Orwell points out, the reviewer faces two main problems.
Firstly, hostile reviews risk losing advertising space, leading to partial reviews. Secondly, since most novels are ‘tripe’ (to use Orwell’s favourite word), the honest critic could not say this about every novel s/he looks at, or the review would become a nonsense. The critic is therefore forced to over-rate many works that s/he knows to be tripe by comparing them favourably with even worse tripe.
Elsewhere Orwell turns his attention to another form of bad writing, the Boy’s Weeklies. He makes a number of interesting points about the changing focus of the weeklies over the years, and how they are still united by their uniform attitude towards romanticising the ruling class and keeping the lower classes in their place.
I am not certain how far this is a conscious and deliberate decision by the publishers, as Orwell suggests. I suspect it is more of a filter whereby the publishers will set aside stories that do not fit their worldview, but without seeking to mould their viewers’ minds in a conspiratorial manner.
Rather amusingly, the editors of this volume include a riposte written by Peter Richards (author of Billy Bunter), in which he attacks the accuracy of Orwell’s analysis of his (and other) stories in the Boy’s Weeklies. However, his attack actually serves only to confirm some of Orwell’s original assertions, as Richards comes across as silly, narrow-minded and parochial in his opinions.
Perhaps the finest essay here is Orwell’s analysis of Charles Dickens. We may well dispute some of Orwell’s sweeping statements, but there are some well-made arguments about Dickens here. While Orwell is frequently rude and dismissive about Dickens, the essay is ultimately respectful and its detailed knowledge of Dickens’ novels betrays Orwell’s deep and enduring love of the subject matter.
Inside the Whale is a more general analysis of literature of the age, and the political preoccupations of the writers. Orwell’s starting point is Henry Miller, a writer who has fascinated him (as evidenced in earlier letters).
Orwell is both impressed and appalled by the selfish laisser-faire attitude of Miller towards the appalling political storm that is brewing, yet still somehow prefers Miller to the communist writers of the 1930s who are standing up for something, but with a suspicious uniformity of thinking, and not much understanding of the brutal realities of what they wish to fight for.
In spite of its title, this is not actually a definitive collection of Orwell’s personal and public writings, and the editors make it plain that they have been selective in their choices, and even removed repetitive passages from some of those choices.
This is no bad thing, as there is no particular need to read every word that Orwell wrote, even if one is an admirer. As it stands, the first volume provides a valuable and rich source of information about one of the important literary figures of the early twentieth-century.
Orwell wrote a number of earlier novels, but none of them has ever set the world alight. However, many readers have thrilled to the scintillating prose of his extended non-fiction works – Down and Out in Paris and London, The Road to Wigan Pier, Homage to Catalonia and of course his essays.
As a non-fiction writer, Orwell had a remarkable style of his own. His prosaic no-nonsense manner of writing, often brusque and sweeping, seems almost without style at first, yet this is misleading.
In fact, Orwell set much stock on style, and we can see this in his essay on How I Write (included at the beginning of this volume), where he discusses how all writers have a certain style or use of particular defining phrases. One surprise in this volume is to see Orwell, one of the least poetic of writers, attempting a few poems.
This particular collection covers more than Orwell’s essays, and some of the content will probably only appeal to George Orwell buffs. Luckily, people who enjoy Orwell’s non-fiction often are buffs, since his works almost act as an autobiography of their author. We can use these books to follow Orwell’s progress throughout this period of his life
With this collection of letters and reviews spanning from 1920 to 1940, we can follow Orwell’s story first-hand as it unfolds. It can be a fascinating journey too. Thrill as he lets drop the moment where he has chosen the name, George Orwell. Watch his progress towards socialism as he explores the lives of homeless and working people. See his increased politicisation via the Spanish Civil War.
Of course, the volume is not always ideal for those who engage in hero worship towards Orwell. The writings reveal a man who is frequently very ordinary and mundane in his life and observations. He also shared some of the prejudices of his age, anti-feminist and sometimes faintly racist, e.g. towards the Japanese. I suspect (reading between the lines) that he is possibly a little homophobic too.
These attitudes were in fact very common in Britain all the way until the end of the 1970s and Orwell is certainly no worse than many people of the age. He did at least have progressive socialist views, and the ability to identify with many of the nations trapped by British imperialism.
He did remain something of a patriot however, and the final essay, My Country Right or Left provides an astonishing volte-face as we watch Orwell move from opposition to any war that puts him on the side of the capitalists to a final grudging support of the British government’s war effort due to his love of his country.
While the letters and reviews are not without interest, the undoubted highlight of this first volume is the essays, though we have to read a long time before we finally reach them. Along the journey are The Hanging and Shooting an Elephant, in which Orwell takes grim and rather sad events from his life in Burma and uses them to draw a moral about the corrupt nature of imperialism, a system in which the rulers are just as trapped as the subjugated nations.
At the end of the volume, there are a number of the essays that made up Orwell’s first book of essays, Inside the Whale. Many of these are sociological analyses of written works. However, whilst Orwell writes as a socialist, and points to the political content of these writings, he is no pretentious and impenetrable Marxist literary critic.
In fact, his writing shows his real love of literature, something we glancingly view in the many reviews found throughout this volume. Orwell was not in any doubts about the limits of modern literature. In his essay, In Defence of the English Novel, written a few years earlier, he deplores the factors that he fears are reducing the novel to a place of low repute.
While the novel has not died out, Orwell’s analysis offers a few penetrating insights, especially when he turns his gaze on literary reviews and why they often fail the reader. As Orwell points out, the reviewer faces two main problems.
Firstly, hostile reviews risk losing advertising space, leading to partial reviews. Secondly, since most novels are ‘tripe’ (to use Orwell’s favourite word), the honest critic could not say this about every novel s/he looks at, or the review would become a nonsense. The critic is therefore forced to over-rate many works that s/he knows to be tripe by comparing them favourably with even worse tripe.
Elsewhere Orwell turns his attention to another form of bad writing, the Boy’s Weeklies. He makes a number of interesting points about the changing focus of the weeklies over the years, and how they are still united by their uniform attitude towards romanticising the ruling class and keeping the lower classes in their place.
I am not certain how far this is a conscious and deliberate decision by the publishers, as Orwell suggests. I suspect it is more of a filter whereby the publishers will set aside stories that do not fit their worldview, but without seeking to mould their viewers’ minds in a conspiratorial manner.
Rather amusingly, the editors of this volume include a riposte written by Peter Richards (author of Billy Bunter), in which he attacks the accuracy of Orwell’s analysis of his (and other) stories in the Boy’s Weeklies. However, his attack actually serves only to confirm some of Orwell’s original assertions, as Richards comes across as silly, narrow-minded and parochial in his opinions.
Perhaps the finest essay here is Orwell’s analysis of Charles Dickens. We may well dispute some of Orwell’s sweeping statements, but there are some well-made arguments about Dickens here. While Orwell is frequently rude and dismissive about Dickens, the essay is ultimately respectful and its detailed knowledge of Dickens’ novels betrays Orwell’s deep and enduring love of the subject matter.
Inside the Whale is a more general analysis of literature of the age, and the political preoccupations of the writers. Orwell’s starting point is Henry Miller, a writer who has fascinated him (as evidenced in earlier letters).
Orwell is both impressed and appalled by the selfish laisser-faire attitude of Miller towards the appalling political storm that is brewing, yet still somehow prefers Miller to the communist writers of the 1930s who are standing up for something, but with a suspicious uniformity of thinking, and not much understanding of the brutal realities of what they wish to fight for.
In spite of its title, this is not actually a definitive collection of Orwell’s personal and public writings, and the editors make it plain that they have been selective in their choices, and even removed repetitive passages from some of those choices.
This is no bad thing, as there is no particular need to read every word that Orwell wrote, even if one is an admirer. As it stands, the first volume provides a valuable and rich source of information about one of the important literary figures of the early twentieth-century.
December 24, 2021
Often as I get older I think of my inevitable end and my possessions being shoveled into the trash, wondering whether anyone will stop to ponder what this sliver of dry wood meant, or that old, well-worn shirt, or the little pile of Roman coins. And my books, my thousands of books. Some might get taken to a used bookstore, but my copy of An Age Like This will go straight into the bin.
It's an old friend that has been with me for decades, a British Penguin paperback bought in a used bookstore - almost certainly the Dawn Treader in Ann Arbor, when a visit meant prowling the steam tunnels under the street going through the stacks, hearing the skateboards rattle over the sidewalk expansion joints above. $3.50 I paid for it, according to the handwritten price on the first page. How much pleasure for such a small price, found between the now tattered orange covers. It's travelled with me to Australia and back. I so often turn to it, and someone will toss it.
This is the first volume of the original four volumes of collected essays, journalism, and letters of George Orwell, and what a marvelous collection it is. Part of its importance to anyone interested in Orwell is the presence of material that illuminates Down and Out in Paris and London and Homage to Catalonia; we also see Orwell brilliantly coming into his powers as the finest essayist in the English language of the 20th Century. There is a lot to enjoy in here; his essays on Dickens, Boy's Weeklies, and Henry Miller ("Inside the Whale"), his pieces "Shooting an Elephant" and "Marrakech," his "Road to Wigan Pier diary," and so much more. Even his letters and book reviews have plenty of interest even now (one of the more amusing letters being Orwell explaining to his publisher Victor Gollancz that he cannot at the moment lend him his copy of Tropic of Cancer because the police have been by to confiscate it).
Possibly I'm prejudiced because this book has been with me for over 35 years through thick and thin, but it's wonderful reading.
It's an old friend that has been with me for decades, a British Penguin paperback bought in a used bookstore - almost certainly the Dawn Treader in Ann Arbor, when a visit meant prowling the steam tunnels under the street going through the stacks, hearing the skateboards rattle over the sidewalk expansion joints above. $3.50 I paid for it, according to the handwritten price on the first page. How much pleasure for such a small price, found between the now tattered orange covers. It's travelled with me to Australia and back. I so often turn to it, and someone will toss it.
This is the first volume of the original four volumes of collected essays, journalism, and letters of George Orwell, and what a marvelous collection it is. Part of its importance to anyone interested in Orwell is the presence of material that illuminates Down and Out in Paris and London and Homage to Catalonia; we also see Orwell brilliantly coming into his powers as the finest essayist in the English language of the 20th Century. There is a lot to enjoy in here; his essays on Dickens, Boy's Weeklies, and Henry Miller ("Inside the Whale"), his pieces "Shooting an Elephant" and "Marrakech," his "Road to Wigan Pier diary," and so much more. Even his letters and book reviews have plenty of interest even now (one of the more amusing letters being Orwell explaining to his publisher Victor Gollancz that he cannot at the moment lend him his copy of Tropic of Cancer because the police have been by to confiscate it).
Possibly I'm prejudiced because this book has been with me for over 35 years through thick and thin, but it's wonderful reading.
July 11, 2020
The first of a four volume series of odds 'n' sods by Orwell. The letters give you a good picture of what he was doing in these years. There's a biographical chronology in the back of the book, but once you read up to the point the pieces in the book start (1920), you realize you don't need to read any further.
The long pieces where he describes living among tramps, hop pickers, and miners are fascinating. It's the depression as seen from the other side of the pond from John Steinbeck. His sojourn in Spain during the Spanish Civil War solidifies his socialist (but strongly anti-communist) views. His letters and essays after experiencing the war in Spain are great reading for the present day, as some of the alliances between strange bedfellows in politics are analogous to what we see today.
There's some great literary criticism. Especially when he writes about Dickens, boys' weeklies, and Henry MIller. (Now I want to finally crack Tropic of Cancer).
I'm sure when I go back and reread Animal Farm and 1984, I'll get so much more from them now that I'm more acquainted with Orwell's mind.
I love his matter-of-fact, chatty style and his ability to present his political thoughts clearly and entertainingly.
The long pieces where he describes living among tramps, hop pickers, and miners are fascinating. It's the depression as seen from the other side of the pond from John Steinbeck. His sojourn in Spain during the Spanish Civil War solidifies his socialist (but strongly anti-communist) views. His letters and essays after experiencing the war in Spain are great reading for the present day, as some of the alliances between strange bedfellows in politics are analogous to what we see today.
There's some great literary criticism. Especially when he writes about Dickens, boys' weeklies, and Henry MIller. (Now I want to finally crack Tropic of Cancer).
I'm sure when I go back and reread Animal Farm and 1984, I'll get so much more from them now that I'm more acquainted with Orwell's mind.
I love his matter-of-fact, chatty style and his ability to present his political thoughts clearly and entertainingly.
February 21, 2016
This one contains rather more letters than the later volumes. Provides some interesting insights.
Into Orwell for one. His unthinking biases, including his assumption that Socialism is the only right way -- oddly enough while commenting on how government inspectors who refused to let farmers hire hop pickers without providing "proper accommodation" only caused suffering among the itinerant workers, and observing that a heavily Conservative city is effectively Socialist with the amount of crony capitalism going on. (There are more about this assumption in the later volumes.)
Though, re-reading it after reading the other three volumes puts a certain amount of glee in the passages where he's complaining that Fascism and capitalism are really the same thing, because then you have read his arguments against that position. He sticks to it in this book however until the last essay in, where he admits to having argued against the war, but having dreamed just before the Russo-German Pact, he realized that he would support the country if war came. (He understates his earlier opposition; that was exactly what he predicted many people would do, and he derided them for it.)
A number of reviews give an interesting glance at literature of the time, and earlier. There's a fair number about the Spanish Civil War, in which case his personal experience is brought to bear on the subject matter of the book. (He has nothing from while he actually served, but wrote about it after.) He wrote an essay on Dickens that has interesting insights -- not all into Dickens, some into Orwell.
Also, he has some essays on life in England, generally among the very poor, with some interesting anecdotes. Like the woman who always kept herself respectable -- that is, always wore a hat, not a shawl -- and how one time she tried to get some charity and was told they were for people really in need, and if she can dress like that, she must not be. She rather resented it.
Into Orwell for one. His unthinking biases, including his assumption that Socialism is the only right way -- oddly enough while commenting on how government inspectors who refused to let farmers hire hop pickers without providing "proper accommodation" only caused suffering among the itinerant workers, and observing that a heavily Conservative city is effectively Socialist with the amount of crony capitalism going on. (There are more about this assumption in the later volumes.)
Though, re-reading it after reading the other three volumes puts a certain amount of glee in the passages where he's complaining that Fascism and capitalism are really the same thing, because then you have read his arguments against that position. He sticks to it in this book however until the last essay in, where he admits to having argued against the war, but having dreamed just before the Russo-German Pact, he realized that he would support the country if war came. (He understates his earlier opposition; that was exactly what he predicted many people would do, and he derided them for it.)
A number of reviews give an interesting glance at literature of the time, and earlier. There's a fair number about the Spanish Civil War, in which case his personal experience is brought to bear on the subject matter of the book. (He has nothing from while he actually served, but wrote about it after.) He wrote an essay on Dickens that has interesting insights -- not all into Dickens, some into Orwell.
Also, he has some essays on life in England, generally among the very poor, with some interesting anecdotes. Like the woman who always kept herself respectable -- that is, always wore a hat, not a shawl -- and how one time she tried to get some charity and was told they were for people really in need, and if she can dress like that, she must not be. She rather resented it.
October 11, 2021
I found this book when I was researching titles on Fascism. It was a personal quest for more understanding of the current scenario, both in my country and in the world, in which we see the strengthening of backward ideas that have several times taken the world to war. This book, in particular, was a choice provoked by the reading of the author's book Animal Farm, which planted the seed of doubt in my head.
Of course, I studied Fascism and other forms of socio-political domination and control throughout my academic training. However, with the resumption of authoritarian governments, clothed in the legality of the vote, it caused much astonishment in much of the world where Fascism and Populism had already been extirpated (or at least it was thought so) as a form of blind convincing of the masses.
This book brought together various texts, reports, and essays by George Orwell when he went through a disillusionment phase with Communism. Celebrated for books such as the dystopias 1984 and Animal Farm, Orwell was also a prolific reporter and columnist. In this book, readers will have the opportunity to read some of his non-literary texts - which may frustrate discerning readers. In many cases, there is no connection between the texts dealing with a particular era and phase of the writer—a good book within the proposal.
Of course, I studied Fascism and other forms of socio-political domination and control throughout my academic training. However, with the resumption of authoritarian governments, clothed in the legality of the vote, it caused much astonishment in much of the world where Fascism and Populism had already been extirpated (or at least it was thought so) as a form of blind convincing of the masses.
This book brought together various texts, reports, and essays by George Orwell when he went through a disillusionment phase with Communism. Celebrated for books such as the dystopias 1984 and Animal Farm, Orwell was also a prolific reporter and columnist. In this book, readers will have the opportunity to read some of his non-literary texts - which may frustrate discerning readers. In many cases, there is no connection between the texts dealing with a particular era and phase of the writer—a good book within the proposal.
February 18, 2013
A great supplement to his novels. This covers all of his earliest writings as well as background writings for "Wigan Pier" and "Down and Out". Some of the short pieces are quite excellent, on a par with Orwell at his best, especially the works on social degradation in England: "Hop-Picking", "The Spike", "Clink" (the latter sees Orwell getting very drunk and trying to get arrested). "A Hanging" and "Shooting an Elephant" are here, too. "Bookshop Memories" also. Plenty of articles and correspondence on his experience in Spain during the Civil War. His poems included here are awful, funnily, and some of the letters are banal and trite, but most of the book reviews Orwell wrote during this period are interesting and inspirational.
December 28, 2008
I was so impressed by the collection of Orwell's essays I read a few months ago, and by "Homage to Catalonia", that when I came across the 4-volume collection of his non-fiction remaindered in the bookstore, it was a no-brainer to buy the whole set. A preliminary glance at the material in this book supports the notion that it is in his short non-fiction pieces that Orwell truly excels, rather than in the two novels for which he is most famous.
August 13, 2011
I'm torn about what rating to give it, because while the first 3/4 of the book was interesting to me, it wasn't really good, whereas in the last few long essays he clearly found a form which really, really suited him. In the end I decided on four stars, both because I got a lot of pleasure from his early book reviews and letters and diary entries, and because seeing Orwell's sense of social justice growing and the intellectual work he did to refine it is just fascinating.
April 25, 2007
brilliant
June 6, 2015
The best writing I've ever read.
July 24, 2023
Volume 1 of 4 covers the years to 1940 and is a fascinating view from the side-lines as Eric Blair makes his journey to become George Orwell. There are a lot of highly readable and relevant essays in this volume and the letters are very insightful, as we can see Orwell trying to gain a foothold on life as a writer and for several years he is producing essays and book reviews whilst working on his early books and either gaining experiences living amongst the poorest in society, or holding down jobs for income. At one point he asks T.S. Eliot (in his role at Faber & Faber) to consider him if he requires any French works to be translated into English. And along the way he meets his first wife, Eileen.
Really one shift occurs in 1936, by which time he has published Down and Out in Paris and London, Burmese Days, A Clergyman’s Daughter and Keep The Aspidistra Flying – all whilst working in schools or a bookshop. In 1936, however, he is without other employment and was commissioned to write The Road to Wigan Pier, and his research for that book was done under the name of Orwell the Writer, which is very different to his experiences of tramping when he pretended to be a tramp himself, including inventing false names, backstories and the addition of a Cockney accent. In Yorkshire and Lancashire he had no disguises, and from his correspondence there is a sense that he has made a transition from struggling writer to one who is confident that this is what he does and he will manage to support himself through his works.
His experiences of the Spanish Civil War are covered, ending in his wounding and recovery, his subsequent tubercular illness and recuperation spent in Morocco, before returning to England in 1939 and worrying about the impending war. In the two years between returning from Spain and the outbreak of WW2, Orwell published Homage to Catalonia and Coming Up for Air, which means that by the end of Volume One, he has published all three of his book-length works of non-fiction and four of his six novels.
There are quite a few book reviews included here, as he wrote many of these for different publications, and a lot of them are very interesting and certainly worth reading now. You can see the content of these reviews becoming more political as the years go by too, either through his choice of books and / or the nature of the reading world at that time.
There are a lot of terrific essays included in this first volume, concerning topics such as English poverty and conditions for the poor, his time in Burma, literary interests, the Spanish Civil War, British politics, empire, the prospect of war in Europe, fascism and a largely harmless but pointed essay on Boys’ Weeklies, which happily includes the indignant and self-righteous response from Frank Richards, writer of a couple of the long-running weeklies that Orwell takes a pop at. Also included are diary entries from his time researching Wigan Pier, his time in Spain and his time in Morocco.
By the end of the volume you get the feeling that Orwell has become much more the confident, assured writer that he wished to be in earlier years and he has found the purpose for which he sought so hard. This is well worth reading for anybody interested in Orwell as a writer and how he traversed through these years.
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August 20, 2019"While [Orwell] is best known for Animal Farm and 1984, most of his writing derived from his tireless work as a journalist, and thanks to David Godine’s welcome reissue of The Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters of George Orwell, which has been out of print for a decade, readers can find it all in one place. All of the author’s insightful, hard-hitting essays and journalistic pieces are here…the most complete picture of the writer and man possible."
—Eric Liebetrau | Kirkus Reviews
—Eric Liebetrau | Kirkus Reviews
January 21, 2023
A weighty tome, and not one for the faint-hearted, but definitely one for Orwell enthusiasts or those interested in the lives and drives of writers. It's also a fascinating snapshot into that period of history, covering the Depression of the 1920s, the Spanish civil war and the build-up to the Second World War. Now for Vol. 2...
April 20, 2020
Essential, as all Orwell's books.
August 27, 2021
Orwell is fascinating.
August 26, 2023
A lot of personal opinion and detail, informative of the times
September 6, 2016
Considering that he was one of the most important writers of all time, I found it incredibly hard to obtain a collection of Orwell's complete works. According to Wikipedia only two were ever done; one four-volume set published by his second wife, and one twenty-volume set which included all his novels and books. I just wanted his essays and short pieces, so I went with the first set, but both The Book Depository and AbeBooks came up stumped; I had to order the four separate books from four separate websites, two of which eventually emailed me back to say they didn't actually have them in stock. I have all four now (split across two different publishing editions, so they look a bit mismatched) but geez, that was difficult.
An Age Like This covers the period from 1920 to 1940; which is to say, it has three letters from the 1920s and then jumps to 1930, when Orwell's surviving work is a bit more substantial. Letters, nonetheless, comprise the vast majority of the book. I've never read a collection of an author's letters before, and I can't say I enjoyed it all that much. They weren't something I was ever interested in reading, and at times they didn't seem to be particularly relevant to anything, which left me feeling like a voyeur. I'd hate to think that sixty years after I died somebody was reading all of my old correspondence to my friends. (Well, actually, I wouldn't, because it would mean I became hugely important. But still.)
But there's still some fairly interesting bits and pieces throughout: a diary Orwell kept while living in the slums of northern England for The Road to Wigan Pier, letters he sent while in the trenches of the Spanish Civil War, observations of Morocco, and a good understanding of his opinions leading up to WWII. Nowadays that war has been all but deified, the last Good War where the Free Men stood up to Nazi Oppression, but Orwell makes it clear that public opinion in Britain (and presumably elsewhere) was complex and divided; he himself clearly had no illusions about nations standing up for what is right, as opposed to what was in their (capital) interest.
There's also a particularly hilarious reply (the only piece in the volume not written by Orwell) to the essay "Boy's Weeklies," which I read a long time ago, and which remains one of Orwell's most interesting essays. Frank Richards, the writer of the weeklies in question, actually responded to Orwell. In his indignant, rambling response he refers to himself in third person, suggests that he is a better writer than Bernard Shaw, Thackeray or Chekhov, and declares that "noblemen generally are better fellows than commoners" and "foreigners are funny."
I read An Age Like This in bits and pieces, and found it fairly easy going. If I'd tried to read it all at once I probably would have been bored. Nonetheless, I expect to enjoy the later volumes more, when there's less personal correspondence and more essays and opinion pieces.
An Age Like This covers the period from 1920 to 1940; which is to say, it has three letters from the 1920s and then jumps to 1930, when Orwell's surviving work is a bit more substantial. Letters, nonetheless, comprise the vast majority of the book. I've never read a collection of an author's letters before, and I can't say I enjoyed it all that much. They weren't something I was ever interested in reading, and at times they didn't seem to be particularly relevant to anything, which left me feeling like a voyeur. I'd hate to think that sixty years after I died somebody was reading all of my old correspondence to my friends. (Well, actually, I wouldn't, because it would mean I became hugely important. But still.)
But there's still some fairly interesting bits and pieces throughout: a diary Orwell kept while living in the slums of northern England for The Road to Wigan Pier, letters he sent while in the trenches of the Spanish Civil War, observations of Morocco, and a good understanding of his opinions leading up to WWII. Nowadays that war has been all but deified, the last Good War where the Free Men stood up to Nazi Oppression, but Orwell makes it clear that public opinion in Britain (and presumably elsewhere) was complex and divided; he himself clearly had no illusions about nations standing up for what is right, as opposed to what was in their (capital) interest.
There's also a particularly hilarious reply (the only piece in the volume not written by Orwell) to the essay "Boy's Weeklies," which I read a long time ago, and which remains one of Orwell's most interesting essays. Frank Richards, the writer of the weeklies in question, actually responded to Orwell. In his indignant, rambling response he refers to himself in third person, suggests that he is a better writer than Bernard Shaw, Thackeray or Chekhov, and declares that "noblemen generally are better fellows than commoners" and "foreigners are funny."
I read An Age Like This in bits and pieces, and found it fairly easy going. If I'd tried to read it all at once I probably would have been bored. Nonetheless, I expect to enjoy the later volumes more, when there's less personal correspondence and more essays and opinion pieces.
June 18, 2007
This is Volume One of a four-volume set edited by Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus. The set is called THE COLLECTED ESSAYS, JOURNALISM AND LETTERS OF GEORGE ORWELL.
This whole set came out in 1968. Sonia Orwell was Orwell's widow, so, to some extent, this is an authorized collection, but it is comprehensive.
It's clear Orwell wrote letters in the hope that someday the public would read them. There is a vast universe of Orwell beyond ANIMAL FARM and 1984. People who say his novels are not great as novels may find themselves amazed at the magnetic quality of his essays.
When I have a look at the index of any of the volumes in this collection and find a name, title or place I'm interested in, I check the page to which I am referred and invariably find I am learning something about politics, literature or history. Above all, I get a sense of Britain's culture. This is not the BBC version of British history (although Orwell certainly worked for the BBC during the Second World War. He modelled much of the evil bureaucracy described in 1984 on the benign bureaucracy for which he worked.)
The selections in this set make me think Orwell is sitting across from me. He often uses "I" and "you." (One of his last essays, in fact, is called "The Bomb and You.") Whether you picture him standing in a library, his cottage or a bread line, somehow he is always pointing at you. In any other writer this would be accusatory. But in Orwell it's a way of buttonholing you.
It is an ancient Mariner, and he stoppeth one of three...
This whole set came out in 1968. Sonia Orwell was Orwell's widow, so, to some extent, this is an authorized collection, but it is comprehensive.
It's clear Orwell wrote letters in the hope that someday the public would read them. There is a vast universe of Orwell beyond ANIMAL FARM and 1984. People who say his novels are not great as novels may find themselves amazed at the magnetic quality of his essays.
When I have a look at the index of any of the volumes in this collection and find a name, title or place I'm interested in, I check the page to which I am referred and invariably find I am learning something about politics, literature or history. Above all, I get a sense of Britain's culture. This is not the BBC version of British history (although Orwell certainly worked for the BBC during the Second World War. He modelled much of the evil bureaucracy described in 1984 on the benign bureaucracy for which he worked.)
The selections in this set make me think Orwell is sitting across from me. He often uses "I" and "you." (One of his last essays, in fact, is called "The Bomb and You.") Whether you picture him standing in a library, his cottage or a bread line, somehow he is always pointing at you. In any other writer this would be accusatory. But in Orwell it's a way of buttonholing you.
It is an ancient Mariner, and he stoppeth one of three...
August 24, 2009
edisi Indonesia dengan judul Mereka Yang Tertindas, pengarang George Orwell, diterbitkan oleh Yayasan Obor Indonesia, Jakarta, cetakan pertama Desember 1990, 204 hal + XII. ISBN: 9794610623
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September 23, 2010"THE COLLECTED ESSAYS, JOURNALISM AND LETTERS: AN AGE LIKE THIS, 1920-40 V. 1 by GEORGE ORWELL (1970)"
August 9, 2014
I've finished reading volume 1 and have now moved on to vol. 2.
November 13, 2014
When I read these collected works of Orwell when I was at university, they inspired me to be political in my writings. In this volume, I admire his intellectual rigour and brutality.
February 13, 2013
For the Orwell-phile.
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