Synopses & Reviews
George Orwell was first and foremost an essayist, producing throughout his life an extraordinary array of short nonfiction that reflected--and illuminated--the fraught times in which he lived. "As soon as he began to write something," comments George Packer in his foreword, "it was as natural for Orwell to propose, generalize, qualify, argue, judge--in short, to think--as it was for Yeats to versify or Dickens to invent."
Facing Unpleasant Facts charts Orwell's development as a master of the narrative-essay form and unites such classics as "Shooting an Elephant" with lesser-known journalism and passages from his wartime diary. Whether detailing the horrors of Orwell's boyhood in an English boarding school or bringing to life the sights, sounds, and smells of the Spanish Civil War, these essays weave together the personal and the political in an unmistakable style that is at once plainspoken and brilliantly complex.
Synopsis
Whether detailing the horrors of Orwell's boyhood in an English boarding school or bringing to life the sights, sounds, and smells of the Spanish Civil War, these narrative essays weave together the personal and the political in an unmistakable style that is at once plainspoken and brilliantly complex.
About the Author
GEORGE ORWELL (1903-1950) was born in India and served with the Imperial Police in Burma before joining the Republican Army in the Spanish Civil War. Orwell was the author of six novels as well as numerous essays and nonfiction works. GEORGE PACKER is a staff writer for The New Yorker and author of The Assassin's Gate: America in Iraq and other works. He lives in Brooklyn.
Table of Contents
contents
Foreword by George Packer vii
Introduction by George Packer xv
The Spike 1
Clink 11
A Hanging 23
Shooting an Elephant 29
Bookshop Memories 38
Marrakech 44
My Country Right or Left 52
War-time Diary 59
England Your England 109
Dear Doktor GoebbelsYour British Friends
Are Feeding Fine! 139
Looking Back on the Spanish War 143
As I Please, 1 167
As I Please, 2 172
As I Please, 3 175
As I Please, 16 180
Revenge Is Sour 184
The Case for the Open Fire 189
The Sporting Spirit 193
In Defence of English Cooking 198
A Nice Cup of Tea 201
The Moon Under Water 205
In Front of Your Nose 209
Some Thoughts on the Common Toad 214
A Good Word for the Vicar of Bray 219
Why I Write 224
How the Poor Die 232
Such, Such Were the Joys 245
Notes 296