[.ca] Modern Classics Penguin Essays Of George Orwell (ISBN 0141183063)

Worthy collection that comes tragically close to excellence.:
It's a little unfair to try and assign a grade to a life-spanning collection of essays like this one. By its very nature it has to run the gamut from Orwell's five-star smash hits like 'How the Poor Die', 'Politics versus Literature', and, of course, 'Politics and the English Language', through light, whimsical pieces such as 'Good Bad Books' or 'A Nice Cup of Tea', all the way to mechanical hackwork or tedious, failed conceits. (In the latter case I am thinking particularly of Orwell's 'Imaginary Interview' with Jonathan Swift, a style which has never, to my knowledge, been well done.) One can't very well assess the book as a whole, because it isn't. On the other hand, there is this to say: when Orwell is good, he is very good, and even when he is bad, he remains highly readable. The collection, as a collection, is not as good. I do not want it thought that I am saying this is not a worthwhile book: it is. Simply by being an easily obtainable hardcover collection of Orwell's short and medium-length prose, it does a valuable service. Before this book came out, the only way to get a comprehensive collection of Orwell's essays in hardcover was to find a set of the four-volume "Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters" on the second-hand market, and the price demanded for that grows more exorbitant every year. However, there are three major problems with the compilation. One is only slightly irritating, but the other two genuinely harm the utility of the book. 1. No page headings- This has been mentioned by other reviewers. The page headers say only "Essays", where in most other collections they would make mention of the essay you are currently reading. (This is true even of other Everyman's Library titles.) Because most of the pieces are short, you can easily flip back a page or two to find the title, but this grows tiresome fairly quickly, all the more so for the fact that the omission is so pointless. 2. No index of titles- This, to be fair, is not a fault of this one book. Rather, it is common to all Everyman's Library prose collections; I own volumes by Ernest Hemingway and Oscar Wilde, otherwise excellent, with the same problem. Because all the pieces are arranged chronologically, it is frustratingly hard to locate a specific essay; one has to guess where it fell in Orwell's career, turn to the table of contents, and run one's finger down the pages until one finds it. As the table of contents is seven pages long, this is inexcusably poor book design. My copy now sports Post-It notes sticking out the top for easy location of the major essays. 3. Footnotes- Orwell's footnotes have been converted into endnotes, and moved to the back of the book. This is not merely a case of editing for no good reason: it is plain wrong. Orwell's footnotes were invariably parenthetical, comprising asides from and elucidations of the main text; moreover, there are only thirty-eight of them in the book. There is no excuse for not putting them at the bottom of the page, where they belong. There they can be seen in the context of the essays, without requiring you to stop in mid-paragraph and flip to the back of a two-and-a-half-inch-thick book. Other reviewers and the book's own publicity hype tout this as "the best one-volume collection of Orwell available". It is not, not by a long shot. It is certainly the most comprehensive. However, the _best_ one-volume Orwell is the "Collected Essays" which was first published in 1961 and has subsequently been reprinted many times. It is inexplicably hard to obtain in the U.S., but can be had from amazon.co.uk under the title "George Orwell: Essays". It gathers all of Orwell's major pieces without the ephemera; for the already dedicated Orwellphile, it is a delight to have all 80 numbers of 'As I Please' in one place, but for the reader new to Orwell, they are clutter. Instead, this is the book you buy to keep on your bookshelf for the rest of your life and wear out with frequent consultation. It is a reference volume; the only time one might try to read it cover-to-cover would be on a very long flight. (I have done this, with great success.) The most frustrating thing about this collection is how close it came to indispensibility. Had it been slightly better designed and edited, it would have been _the_ collection of Orwell's essays, required purchasing for every serious Orwell fan. (Save, perhaps, the manic completists who will settle for nothing less than the twenty-volume "Collected Works.") It is still worth your money, but so little effort would be required to make even more valuable that one must wonder why that effort was not invested. Overall: A-, 9/10.

Great essayist...poorly laid-out edition:
These three stars don't reflect my opinion of Orwell as an essayist. Anyone who has read Orwell's non-fiction knows that he is one of this century's greatest journalists/essayists. The poor rating targets the layout of the volume. It's an insult to a writer of Orwell's stature to have put together such an extensive volume (1,424 pages!) of his best work so amaturishly. There's no index, no notes section and no specification of which essay you're on at the head of the page. The table of contents is practially useless, as most of the essays are numbered. Physically, the book is beautiful: a matte cover, with a great portrait of Orwell, cream-wove paper, sewn binding and a sewn in bookmark. But it is in no way user friendly. If you're looking to dive into Orwell's essays and journalism check out the David R. Godine editions.

Clear and accessible and meaningful essays:
The essays of George Orwell are model essays: concise, meaningful and accessible. And they haven't dated, for the most part. Obscure and lazy writing is still to be found everwhere, making an essay like "Politics and the English Language" very relevant. Orwell shows an eye for detail worthy of a poet in essays based on his foreign service experience, like "Shooting an Elephant," and his piece on hanging a man. His experiences with the Spanish Civil War and Second World War are related here, as well as pieces as light as "Books vs Cigarettes" where he considers how much he spends on both. In short, as enjoyable to read as they are meaningful.

Orwell after 9/11:
George Orwell's essays are as relevant today as when he wrote them, and since 9/11 have gained even more in relevance. Anyone who wants to understand the modern world, needs to read Orwell, more than his fiction especially his essays. He was a progressive analyst who wrote astutely and forcefully about a host of fundamental social issues, such as the effects of colonialism in colonial and European societies before World War II. As one of the greatest stylists in the English language, he wields an incisive language like a knife that cuts to the truth. Unlike many, especially modern, leftists, he has little use for social theory or dogma. Instead, he writes with almost unparallel clarity about events that are his personal experiences. Although I have not had the opportunity to look through this particular edition of Orwell's essays, I don't think that it matters. I enthusiastically recommend Orwell in any shape or form.

Best one volumn collection of Orwell:
I'd maintain that the world didn't turn out as gloomy as Orwell was afraid it would. Still, this is another reason why one should read Orwell, for his insights and brazen bravery. As an essayist, I find his subjects interesting and his prose lucid. The book is hard-bound with a handsome cover. The collection includes the major essays, broken down chronologically, and includes favorites like "As I Please" columns. Let me give you an example of Orwell's bold insight. He would describe the dread at the whistling sound of a V-1 rocket, followed by an explosion, then confess the selfish nature of human beings in by noting their gratitude that he or she wasn't hit. The volume of essays collected into one volume necessitates thin pages; it's similar to the pages of a Bible - very slight to the touch, and a shade of see-through. A more significant downside is the lack of index, but for readers familiar with Orwell, the table of contents can suffice. In all, the book is fairly priced, considering, say the cost of four volumes of collected works and letters.