Orwell and Politics: Animal Farm in the Context of Essays, Reviews and Letters
by George Orwell 
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This major new collection brings together the best of George Orwell's powerful political essays and journalism with his evergreen satire on totalitarianism, Animal Farm. They show the vast range of his political interests, with articles expressing his views on subjects from corrupt political language to the oppressive British Empire; his masterly wartime Socialist polemic, 'The Lion and the Unicorn'; a wry review of Mein Kampf; a defence of Nineteen Eighty-Four; and extracts from his show more controversial list of 'Crypto-communists'. These writings are testament to Orwell's lifelong passion for politics, for telling unpalatable truths and exposing injustice, yet doing so with wit and humanity- in his words, making 'political writing into an art'. show lessTags
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Member Recommendations
DLSmithies Alright, this one's tenuous, but bear with me! Orwell has lots of interesting things to say about the socialist movement of the 30s and 40s in Britain and elsewhere, especially in Stalin's Russia. Similarly, the Communist Party in 1950s Britain looms large in the background of The Golden Notebook, and the main character is deeply troubled by the situation in Russia under Stalin (along with everything else that's happening on the world stage at the time). So, you see, there's a link!...
...or maybe it's just me.
Member Reviews
This is a brilliant book - little bite-sized chunks of vintage Orwell, perfect coffee-break reading. It's mainly book reviews, letters and diary entries, with a few more substantial essays, chronologically arranged. The footnotes at the end of each entry are very helpful. I'm up to 1940, and the themes so far have been colonialism, the USSR and the run-up to WWII.
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Author Information
383+ Works 220,734 Members
George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair on June 25, 1903 in Motihari in Bengal, India and later studied at Eton College for four years. He was an assistant superintendent with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. He left that position after five years and moved to Paris, where he wrote his first two books: Burmese Days and Down and Out in Paris show more and London. He then moved to Spain to write but decided to join the United Workers Marxist Party Militia. After being decidedly opposed to communism, he served in the British Home Guard and with the Indian Service of the BBC during World War II. After the war, he wrote for the Observer and was literary editor for the Tribune. His best known works are Animal Farm and 1984. His other works include A Clergyman's Daughter, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, The Road to Wigan Pier, Homage to Catalonia, and Coming Up for Air. He died on January 21, 1950 at the age of 46. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Orwell and Politics: Animal Farm in the Context of Essays, Reviews and Letters
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- Languages
- English
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- Paper
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- ASINs
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