Why I Write

<p>George Orwell set out 'to make political writing into an art' and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature - his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While <em>1984</em> and <em>Animal Farm</em> are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language this new series of Orwell's essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership.</p><p><br></p><p>In <em>Why I Write</em> the first in the <em>Orwell's Essays</em> series Orwell describes his journey to becoming a writer and his movement from writing poems to short stories to the essays fiction and non-fiction we remember him for. He also discusses what he sees as the 'four great motives for writing' - 'sheer egoism' 'aesthetic enthusiasm' 'historical impulse' and 'political purpose' - and considers the importance of keeping these in balance. <em>Why I Write</em> is a unique opportunity to look into Orwell's mind and it grants the reader an entirely different vantage point from which to consider the rest of the great writer's oeuvre.</p><p><br></p><p>'A writer who can - and must - be rediscovered with every age' - <em>Irish Times</em></p>