The Complete Novels of George Orwell

COMING UP FOR AIR:
George Bowling is in his forties, fat, works as in insurance inspector for the Flying Salamander, and ives in the suburbs with a wife and two kids. He is, in pretty much every respect, an ordinary lower-middle-class Londoner of the thirties. He wasn’t always, of course. He was born and grew up in a small Thames Valley village, the son of a seed merchant whose business is failing. He leaves school early and goes to work for a local grocer. And then war is declared, and George signs up. He finishes the war as a commissioned officer, which is enough to lift his ambitions above a grocer’s shop. He is, he admits, one of many men who survived the Great War and whose experiences were enough to lift them from working class show more to the lower rungs of middle class. All this is told to the reader by George in evocative and surprisingly chatty prose – his childhood in Lower Binfield, his aspirations, his current mid-life crisis… And it’s the latter which persuades him to return to Lower Binfield for a visit after twenty-five years away. Naturally, what he finds is not the bucolic village of the turn of the century that he remembers. I took this book with me to Bloodstock, something to read when I needed an occasional time-out from the metal and the beer, and when I started it I wondered if I’d picked a wrong ‘un. The only Orwell I’d read previously was Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, his two most famous works – and Coming Up for Air‘s chatty first-person narrative is nothing like those. But the more I read, the more I found myself fascinated by George Bowling and his life. Orwell paints a picture of a life that is as foreign to me because of the time it’s set as it is because Bowling grew up in a small agricultural village in southern England (ie, not the industrial north). I enjoyed Coming Up for Air a lot more than I’d expected to, and found it a much better book than I’d anticipated. Worth reading. show less

George Orwell is the writer that has through his novels, given me enormous insight into my every day life and the society around me. Although his setting is pre-war and post-war Europe, mainly England, he nevertheless seems to reach out to our modern world and strkes a resonating chord. I have read 1984 twice already, I will probably read it a thrid time. But his other novels are equally insightful. It does seem he is a writer who has lived some of what he writes. His books have had a profound influence in my life and have made me see things differently...the modern world in which we live in, is unfortunately a distorted version of 1984..and big brother is a less subtle figurehead than the powers that control our every day actions show more today.

I recommend his works to everyone.. show less

One of my favourite books of all times; George Orwell has such a profound ability to portray humanity at it's most tender, most depraved, stripped back from glamour. All of the novels are amazing in their own right, although I have to admit I have a soft spot for 'Keep the Aspidistra Flying' for some reason.

I was gorging on George, Orwell that is. This guy is talented in describing characters; obviously, they are based on people from his experience.

Something bad happened at the end of George Orwell's life. He did a McCarthy. I believe he had begun to suffer from dementia.

I studied Animal Farm for my Eng.Lit. GCSE exams, along with MacBeth; my idea of revision was to read both of them five times. This worked reasonably well as I got a B grade. There was an unfortunate side-effect, however; despite liking both I was, after the exams, unable to touch a copy of either without getting the shakes. Fast forward more than 20 years and a discussion here at Goodreads regarding whether Squealer was a "subtle" (ab)user of language prompts me to finally pick up Animal Farm once more.

THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN CURTAILED IN PROTEST AT GOODREADS' CENSORSHIP POLICY

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GR Bonus: Have the GR management read this? Do they realise it's satire not an show more instruction manual? show less

I haven't read all of the works in this book, but I am a huge fan of compilations and of George Orwell. I have to get my hands on this book!

eorge Orwell was born Eric Hugh Blair in 1903 in Motihari in Bengal, India and later studied at Eton for four years. Orwell was an assistant superintendent with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. He left the position after five years and then moved to Paris, where he wrote his first two books, Burmese Days and Down and Out In Paris. Orwell then moved to Spain to write but decided to join the United Workers Marxist Party Militia. After being decidedly opposed to communism, Orwell served in the British Home Guard and with the Indian Service of the BBC during World War II. He started writing for the Observer and was literary editor for the Tribune. Soon after he published the world-famous book, Animal Farm, which became a huge success show more for Orwell. It was then towards the end of his life when Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four. George Orwell died on January 23, 1950 in London. show less