%{search_type} search results

In May 2005 Penguin will publish 70 unique titles to celebrate the company's 70th birthday. The titles in the Pocket Penguins series are emblematic of the renowned breadth of quality of the Penguin list and will hark back to Penguin founder Allen Lane's vision of good books for all'. Not only was George Orwell one of the greatest writers and most important political thinkers of the twentieth century, he is also the author of the bestselling Penguin title of all time: Animal Farm first published in Penguin in 1951. These heartfelt essays demonstrate Orwell's wide-ranging appeal, and range from political manifesto to affectionate consideration of what being English truly means.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Keep the aspidistra flying
• Coming up for air.

Orwell draws on his experience in the Indian Imperial Police for his first novel, "Burmese Days", a devastating indictment of British colonial rule (he resigned 'to escape not merely from imperialism but from every form of man's dominion over man', as he later wrote). John Flory, cowardly and self-pitying, makes an unlikely but all-too-human tragic hero as he defies convention and prejudice to befriend an Indian doctor, then shoots himself when the girl who had seemed to promise escape from the stultifying 'lie' of colonial life refuses to marry him. While reporting on the dark side of the Raj, Orwell nonetheless came under the spell of the landscape of the East, and the exotic background of "Burmese Days" inspired his most lush descriptive writing...Back in England, Orwell tackles capitalism, nonconformity and compromise in "Keep The Aspidistra Flying". Youthful idealist and would-be author Gordon Comstock rebels against a life of middle-class respectability (symbolized by the aspidistra), abandoning his job with an advertising company to work part-time in a bookshop. But everything goes wrong: alternately proud and self-loathing, he lets himself sink into poverty; he is unable to write; and, he gets his long-suffering girlfriend pregnant. At the end, respectably married - and with an aspidistra of his own -he is back at his old firm writing copy for deodorant ads. Grimly comic - and again, written from Orwell's own experience, this time of living in the London slums - "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" is a still-relevant commentary on society's subservience to 'the Money God' and an affirmation of the power of human relationships to survive in spite of it. In "Coming Up for Air", George Bowling, married, mortgaged and middle aged, deals with his mid-life crisis by forsaking dull suburbia for a rural idyll. But the fondly remembered village of his childhood has been transformed by the very 'Progress' he seeks to escape: the estate where he used to fish has been built over; the pond turned into a rubbish dump. An old girlfriend fails to recognize him, and she herself is shockingly ravaged by time. Written in 1938-9, "Coming Up For Air" is permeated with nostalgia for the England of a more tranquil age - before industrialization and capitalism had done their worst - and overshadowed by premonitions of what is to come - 'the war and the after-war, Hitler, Stalin, bombs, machine-guns, food-queues, rubber truncheons'. Above all, it unsparingly confronts the failure of youthful dreams and the impossibility of ever reclaiming the past.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Animal Farm
• 1984

This edition features George Orwell's best known novels - 1984 and Animal Farm - with an introduction by Christopher Hitchens. In 1984, London is a grim city where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston Smith joins a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be. Animal Farm is Orwell's classic satire of the Russian Revolution -- an account of the bold struggle, initiated by the animals, that transforms Mr. Jones's Manor Farm into Animal Farm--a wholly democratic society built on the credo that All Animals Are Created Equal. But are they?
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Orwell's classic satire "Animal Farm" continues to be an international best seller. For the first time ever, "Orwell and Politics" brings this major work together with the author's other works exploring the nature of politics and the Second World War.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Down and out in Paris and London.

This volume brings together Orwell's powerful writings of his personal experiences of poverty and life outside mainstream society. The complete texts of "Down and out in Paris and London" is included.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

The volume collects together, for the first time ever, Orwell's writings on his experience of the Spanish Civil War - the chaos at the Front, the futile young deaths for what became a confused cause, the antique weapons and the disappointment many British Socialists felt on arriving in Spain to help. ORWELL IN SPAIN includes the complete text of HOMAGE TO CATALONIA.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Dans la dèche à Paris et à Londres
• En Birmanie
• Wigan Pier au bout du chemin
• Hommage à la Catalogne
• La ferme des animaux
• Mil neuf cent quatre-vingt-quatre
• Croquis et essais.

On 18 August 1941 Orwell joined the BBC's Overseas Service. After a crash training course (the documents for which are reproduced here), he was appointed a Talks Producer responsible for features, talks, and commentaries on the war, to be broadcast to India. He wrote at least 220 news commentaries for, and broadcast to, India and occupied Malaya and Indonesia, of which Orwell read fifty-six. This volume shows that formal censorship was not as great a problem as has been supposed, though it obviously occurred and Orwell's brushes with censors are shown in detail. Along with Volumes XIV and XV, Volume XIII shows the enormous efforts he made to disseminate culture rather than crude propaganda. It is in this volume that the origins of 'Room 101' are to be found; it has examples of his first 'courses' for Indian university students - the forerunner of the Open University; the first issue of his broadcast poetry magazine, 'Voice'; and a number of his own broadcasts, including 'The Re-discovery of Europe'. He continued to review, to write essays, and to contribute to Partisan Review and he was still active in the Home Guard.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

On 18 August 1941, Orwell joined the BBC's Overseas Service. After a crash training course (the documents for which are reproduced here), he was appointed a Talks Producer responsible for features, talks and commentaries on the war, to be broadcast to India. He wrote at least 220 news commentaries for, and broadcast to, India and occupied Malaya and Indonesia, of which Orwell read fifty-six. This volume shows that formal censorship was not as great a problem as has been supposed, though it obviously occurred and Orwell's brushes with censors are shown in detail. Along with Columes 14 and 15, Volume 13 shows the enormous efforts he made to disseminate culture rather than crude propaganda. It is in this volume that the origins of 'Room 101' are to be found; it has examples of his first 'courses' for Indian university student - the forerunner of the Open University; the first issue of his broadcast poetry magazine, 'Voice', and a nubmer of his own broadcasts, including 'The Re-discovery of Europe'. He continued to review, to write essays, and to contribute to Partisan Review and he was still active in the Home Guard.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

These years saw the publication of The Road to Wigan Pier, Homage to Catalonia, and Coming Up for Air. The most important document that has come to light regarding Orwell's Spanish experiences is the deposition charging him and Eileen with espionage and high treason, a charge unknown to them. This is fully analysed and can now be read in the context of the disputes that then divided the Left, well illustrated by the letters and documents printed here, notably his bitter response to Authors Take Sides on the Spanish War. The correspondence includes that with Yvonne Davet, who undertook the Translation of Orwell's books into French; George Kopp, Orwell's commandent in Spain; and a number of Eileen's letters. Orwell's Diary of Events Leading Up to the War' (2 July - 1 September 1939); his Domestic Diary (9 August 1938 - 29 April 1940), which records in detail his attempts at running a smallholding; his abstracts from Daily Worker and News Chronical reports on the Spanish Civil War; and his Marrakech Notebook with illustrations are reproduced. Many letters not previously published are included, and there is a large number of reviews. This volume also includes a sequence of letters that throws a completely new light on Orwell's personal relationships.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

On 29 March 1945 Orwell's wife Eileen died, aged 39. Her last long, very moving letters to her husband are printed here. Less than six months later the novel that she might be said to have nurtured and which gave Orwell world-wide fame, Animal Farm, was published. For a little over three months Orwell worked as a War Correspondence for The Observer and the Manchester Evening News. As well as 74 books specifically reviewed, many others were discussed briefly in essays and in her column 'As I Please'. 'Politics and the English Language, one of Orwell's most important essays, was immediately reprinted for journalists of The Observer and News of the World as a guide to tood writing. His defence of P. G. Wodehouse, printed here, was written at a time when Wodehouse was still under a cloud. Essays and articles wrote for The Observer, Manchester Evening News and Evening Standard are reprinted; correspondence shows he had written the first twelve pages of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Eileen's will and Orwell's first notes for his literary executor are also reproduced. Orwell kept a careful account of what he earned to assist in making his income tax return. Only one such record has survived (for 12 July 1943 to 31 December 1945) and it is reproduced here, fully annotated.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Orwell served as Literary Editor of Tribune from 29 November 1943 until he went to Continental Europe as War Correspondent for The Observer and the Manchester Evening News in mid February 1945. He continued to write for Tribune until 4 April 1947, when his eightieth 'As I Please' appeared. This column is now, in this edition, printed without cuts. In these thirteen months Orwell reviewed 86 books and he wrote essays in Twain, Smollett, Thackeray, and The Vicar of Wakefield. It was a period in which several important essays appeared, but perhaps the most intriguing is one that has previously neither been accredited to him nor reprinted: 'Can Socialists Be Happy?' written under the pseudonym, John Freeman. Four 'London Letters' were contributed to Partisan Review. The English People, though not published until 1947, is included in this volume.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Much of these years was taken up with Orwell's struggle to complete Nineteen Eighty-Four and his fight against illness. He wrote 'Arthur Koestler', 'Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool' and his last contribution to Tribune, his eightieth 'As I Please'. The second half of 1948 was spent at Jura where, by a supreme effort, and often in great pain, he managed to complete Nineteen Eighty-Four. He was admitted to hospital and continued to work on 'Such, Such Were the Joys', among the essays he wrote were 'Towards Eurpean Unity', a Profile of Krishna Menon, 'Writers and Leviathan', 'Britain's Left-Wing Press', 'George Gissing', 'Britain's Struggle for Survival: the Labour Government after Three Years', and 'Marx and Russia'; and he continued to review. Changes made in the course of the production of Orwell's radio version of Animal Farm are listed; his second Literary Notebook is reproduced and his third series of notes for his literary executor. This volume is rich in previously unpublished correspondence and includes Frederic Warburg's and David Farrer's reports on Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell's attempt to secure justice for those unfairly treated is also well illustrated.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Orwell wrote to his anarchist friend, George Woodcock in December 1942 arguing that 'by working inside an institution like the BBC one can perhaps deodorise it to some extent'. and he concluded, 'I consider I have kept our little corner of it fairly clean'. In addition to the magazine programme, 'Voice', Orwell continued to develop what would now be called an 'open university': broadcasts by distinguished speakers on texts set for Bombay and Calcutta university degrees. He enlisted such speakers as E. M. Forster, T. S Eliot and Joseph Needham and the broadcasts were backed up by [publications printed in India for university students. Classical and Indian music programmes were broadcast; there was regular film critism and an innovative practical theatre series, 'Let's Act it Ourselves'. Some of Orwell's scripts, such as that for his 'Imaginary Interview with Jonathan Swift', pose difficult textual problems and these are fully examined and annotated. The script of Eileen Blair's broadcast for the series, 'In Your Kitchen' has been included. Orwell still found time to write a number of reviews, contribute to Partisan Review, and write essays on Hardy, Henry Miller, and Yeats.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

This volume begins with Orwell's letters home from St. Cyprian's Preparatory School from the age of eight. Orwell illustrated many of these letters and the edition reproduces his simple but charming drawings. Whilst at Eton he contributed to several college publications and these, with several of his early stories, are printed here. It was also a time when he wrote poetry and all the poems of these years are included. Whilst in Burma he wrote sketches and draft that were lead to Burmese Days; all are now published here. Reprinted for the first time since their publication in Paris in 1928 - 1929, and now with English translations, are the articles he wrote to expose the sufferings of the unemployed, tramps and beggars, the imperialist exploitation of other people, a literary essay and an essay on censorship, all of which would be centres of concern for Orwell throughout his life. In 1930 Orwell had published the first of his 379 reviews of some 700 books, plays and films. In 1931 'A Hanging', the first of his most important essays, was published. The volume includes the text of his school play, King Charles II, which features (as Charles 1) in A Clergyman's Daughter.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

In 'Reflections on Gandhi', published in January 1949, in which he modified the strictures made in a previous review, Orwell wrote, 'our job is to make life worth living on this earth, which is the only earth we have'. While a patient at the Cotswold Sanatorium, Cranham, he read the proofs of Nineteen Eighty-Four and wrote five reviews. He bagan, but did not finish, an article on Evelyn Waugh, made notes for an essay on Conrad, and sketched out a long short-story, 'A Smoking-Room Story'. The volume includes many unpublished letters, Warburg's report on his visit to Cranham, a clarification of Orwell's public statement on Nineteen Eighty-Four, and a detailed examination, with all the relevant correspondence, of Orwell's relationship with the Information Research Department of the Foreign Office. Two of the last items are a cheerful letter from Nancy Parratt, one of his BBC secretaries, and a letter from Sonia Orwell (whom Orwell had married a few weeks after he was transferred to University College Hospital, London). This volume concludes with a series of appendices.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

This is the 12th volume of "The Complete Works of George Orwell", available separately for the first time.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Journalism took a heavy toll of Orwell in the first months of 1946. Despite this unremitting pressure, he produced a major sequence of articles on 'The Intellectual Revolt'. He wrote one of his finest short essays, 'Some Thoughts on the Common Toad'. He reviewed Zamyatin's WE, wrote two radio plays for the BBC, THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE, and a version of 'Red Riding Hood' for Children's Hour, and a pamphlet for the British Council, BRITISH COOKERY; these three are printed here for the first time. The complex history of 'How the Poor Die' is unravelled, as is the problem posed by his passports giving his date of birth incorrectly, something that would prove significant in the writing of NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR. Orwell renewed contact with Yvonne Davet; he corresponded with Ihor Szewczenko; he tried to get Victor Serge's memoirs published in English and, with Arthur Koestler, to expose Soviet responsibility for the massacre of the Poles by arranging for a translation of Joseph Czapski's SOUVENIRS DE STARBIELSK to be published. Despite all this, Orwell did get away to Jura with his son, Richard. He was able to relax and even fish, as his Domestic Diary (published for the first time) shows; and he wrote fifty pages of NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR. This was what the animals of ANIMAL FARM had failed to do.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Writing to Philip Rahv on 9 December 1943, Orwell described his time at the BBC as 'two wasted years', yet this volume continues to show how much he achieved. Among the educational series in this period were those devoted to new developments in science, modern English verse, great dramatists, and psychology; there were series, such as 'Books That Changed the World' which included broadcast talks on great books from East and West. Among those who broadcast for Orwell were John Lehmann, V. S. Pritchett and Stephen Spender. Oliver Bell, Director of the British Film Instistute, took over film reviewing, and the series of shortened versions of Indian plays continued. Orwell adapted four 'featurised stories', and broadcast talks on MACBETH and LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN. He continued to broadcast to Malaya and wrote and read news commentaries for Indonesia. He wrote over a dozen reviews, several essays, and a long study, 'The Detective Story' printed here for the first time in its original French version and in an English translation. The volume concludes with two appendices: the devastating report by the Intelligence Officer, Laurence Brander on the ineffectiveness of the BBC's broadcasting service to India; and, Orwell's preparatory notes for 'The Quick & the Dead' and 'The Last Man in Europe'.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

The eighth volume in THE COMPLETE WORKS OF GEORGE ORWELL, edited by Peter Davison, incorporates all Orwell's many textual changes and restores his original intentions where these have been obscured.Unavailable for 3 years.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)