Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative EssaysEssays by the author of 1984 on topics from “remembrances of working in a bookshop [to] recollections of fighting in the Spanish Civil War” (Publishers Weekly). 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. “Best known for his late-career classics Animal Farm and 1984, George Orwell—who used his given name, Eric Blair, in the earliest pieces of this collection aimed at the aficionado as well as the general reader—was above all a polemicist of the first rank. Organized chronologically, from 1931 through the late 1940s, these in-your-face writings showcase the power of this literary form.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review |
From inside the book
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Page vii
Narrative Essays George Orwell George Packer. FOREWORD Before anything else, George Orwell was an essayist. His ... Orwell's idiosyncratic talents. It takes precedence even in his best-known fiction: During long passages of 1984,the ...
Narrative Essays George Orwell George Packer. FOREWORD Before anything else, George Orwell was an essayist. His ... Orwell's idiosyncratic talents. It takes precedence even in his best-known fiction: During long passages of 1984,the ...
Page viii
... Orwell's hands, they are all essays. He is always pointing to larger concerns beyond the immediate scope of his subject. Orwell had the advantage of tradition: He worked in the lineage of the English essay dating back to the eighteenth ...
... Orwell's hands, they are all essays. He is always pointing to larger concerns beyond the immediate scope of his subject. Orwell had the advantage of tradition: He worked in the lineage of the English essay dating back to the eighteenth ...
Page ix
... Orwell essay: his informal, direct prose style; his interest in sociological criticism that takes in both high and ... Orwell: “How do you begin a literary piece so as to hold attention? George Orwell was masterful at this, probably ...
... Orwell essay: his informal, direct prose style; his interest in sociological criticism that takes in both high and ... Orwell: “How do you begin a literary piece so as to hold attention? George Orwell was masterful at this, probably ...
Page x
... Orwell's other books are likely to be unfamiliar with the most essential Orwell. Aside from “Politics and the English Language” and perhaps “Shooting an Elephant,” none of his es- says are widely read, and some of the best remain almost ...
... Orwell's other books are likely to be unfamiliar with the most essential Orwell. Aside from “Politics and the English Language” and perhaps “Shooting an Elephant,” none of his es- says are widely read, and some of the best remain almost ...
Page xi
... Orwell's career in a more fundamental way than subject, period, or publication. This division shows the technical difficulties of the essay in especially sharp relief. Essays seem to offer almost limitless room to improvise and ...
... Orwell's career in a more fundamental way than subject, period, or publication. This division shows the technical difficulties of the essay in especially sharp relief. Essays seem to offer almost limitless room to improvise and ...
Contents
1 | |
11 | |
23 | |
29 | |
38 | |
Marrakech | 44 |
My Country Right or Left | 52 |
War time Diary | 59 |
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 |
England Your England | 109 |
Dear Doktor Goebbels Your 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 |
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 |
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actually American army believe bombs bread Britain British Burmese Days cell child Cyprian’s Cyril Connolly Daily Worker doubt early elephant England English essays eyes face fact Fascist feeling fight fire Flip France Fredric Warburg French German hand happened Hitler Homage to Catalonia Home Guard intelligentsia Italian Jews killed kind knew labour later less live London look man’s memory merely Moon Under Water morning Nazis never newspaper night one’s Orwell Orwell’s papers party patriotism perhaps Pétain political prison probably raids remember rifle round Russian Sambo seemed shoot Shooting an Elephant shot side simply soldiers sort Spain Spanish Spanish civil war spike stories talk thing thought tion took Tramp Major turned Vicar of Bray whole words writing