The Complete Novels of George Orwell

<p><strong>This volume contains the novels of perhaps the greatest British writer of the twentieth century including two of the prophetically chilling works of the twentieth century‑‑<em>Animal Farm </em>and <em>Nineteen Eighty-Four.</em></strong>Orwell was in Henry James's phrase one of those on whom nothing was lost and perhaps the 20th century's best chronicler of English culture <em>The Economist</em>. Orwell clear-sightedly looks at humanity and in these six highly original novels shows us what could go terribly wrong.</p><p>George Orwell's early novels illuminate both his masterpieces <em>Animal Farm</em> and <em>Nineteen Eighty-Four</em> and George Orwell himself.</p><p>After serving six years in the Imperial Police in Burma Orwell was disgusted by imperialism <em>Burmese Days</em> based on these years is the story of a sensitive lonely Englishman in Burma. It is also a crisp fierce and almost boisterous attack on the Anglo-Indian (<em>New Statesman</em>).</p><p> The great fascination of <em>A Clergyman's Daughter</em> is that it is essentially the same plot of <em>Nineteen Eighty-Four</em> ... It's about somebody who is spied upon and eavesdropped upon and oppressed by vast exterior forces ... It's a very prophetic novel. (D. J. Taylor Orwell's biographer)</p><p>The <em>Aspidistra</em> is a plant that never thrives but tenaciously survives on British windowsills. It is a metaphor for the life of the British lower-middle class. <em>Keep the Apsidistra Flying </em>is a pointed observation of the British class system which is based on the worship of the Money God:</p><p>And now abideth faith hope money these three; but the greatest of these is money. ... Don't you see that a man's whole personality is bound up with his income? His personality is his income. (Orwell <em>Keep the Apsidistra Flying</em>).</p><p><em>Coming up for Air</em> is remarkably prescient. It foresees the scourges of poverty and totalitarianism and decades before Rachel Carson's <em>Silent Spring</em> the destruction of the environment.</p><p>Orwell wrote <em>Animal Farm </em>in three months in the winter of 1943-4. It was only published in August 1945 because it was seen for what it was: a critique of Stalin's Soviet Union which much to Orwell's disgust was a strategic ally of the United Kingdom.</p><p>In his compelling dystopian novel <em>Nineteen Eighty-Four </em>GeorgeOrwell created the world of <em>Big Brother</em> <em>doublethink</em> <em>thoughtcrime</em> <em>Newspeak</em> <em>Room 101</em> 2 + 2 = 5 and the memory hole: indeed a complete <em>Orwellian</em> society. In the twenty-first century in a world of fake news and ubiquitous state and corporate monitoring of citizens with vast regions under totalitarianism <em>Nineteen Eighty-Four </em>is even more relevant than when it was written. It is essential reading.</p><p>This reasonably-priced volume will be a pleasure to anyone with an interest in Orwell.</p><p><strong>George Orwell </strong>(1903-1950)was a leading British writer of the twentieth century. He studied at Wellington College and Eton (1917-1921) where he was a King's Scholar. He followed family tradition and joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma until 1927 when disgusted by imperialism he resigned to pursue his boyhood dream of being a writer. Orwell a prolific journalist essayist novelist and nonfiction writer is remembered for his prescient writing and his commitment to truth and clarity of expression. His novels <em>Animal Farm</em> and <em>Nineteen Eighty-Four</em> place him at the pinnacle of British literature. </p>