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Animal Farm / Burmese Days / A Clergyman's Daughter / Coming Up for Air / Keep the Aspidistra Flying / Nineteen Eighty-Four
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--Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.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," The Economist. Orwell clear-sightedly looks at humanity and, in these six highly original novels, shows us what could go terribly wrong.
George Orwell's early novels illuminate both his masterpieces, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four and George Orwell himself.
After serving six years in the Imperial Police in Burma, Orwell was disgusted by imperialism Burmese Days, 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" (New Statesman).
"The great fascination of A Clergyman's Daughter is that it is essentially the same plot of Nineteen Eighty-Four ... 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)
The Aspidistra 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. Keep the Apsidistra Flying is a pointed observation of the British class system which is based on the worship of the Money God:
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, Keep the Apsidistra Flying).
Coming up for Air is remarkably prescient. It foresees the scourges of poverty and totalitarianism, and, decades before Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the destruction of the environment.
Orwell wrote Animal Farm 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.
In his compelling dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, GeorgeOrwell created the world of Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, Room 101, 2 + 2 = 5, and the memory hole: indeed, a complete "Orwellian" 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, Nineteen Eighty-Four is even more relevant than when it was written. It is essential reading.
This reasonably-priced volume will be a pleasure to anyone with an interest in Orwell.
George Orwell (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 Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four place him at the pinnacle of British literature.
George Orwell's early novels illuminate both his masterpieces, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four and George Orwell himself.
After serving six years in the Imperial Police in Burma, Orwell was disgusted by imperialism Burmese Days, 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" (New Statesman).
"The great fascination of A Clergyman's Daughter is that it is essentially the same plot of Nineteen Eighty-Four ... 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)
The Aspidistra 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. Keep the Apsidistra Flying is a pointed observation of the British class system which is based on the worship of the Money God:
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, Keep the Apsidistra Flying).
Coming up for Air is remarkably prescient. It foresees the scourges of poverty and totalitarianism, and, decades before Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the destruction of the environment.
Orwell wrote Animal Farm 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.
In his compelling dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, GeorgeOrwell created the world of Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, Room 101, 2 + 2 = 5, and the memory hole: indeed, a complete "Orwellian" 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, Nineteen Eighty-Four is even more relevant than when it was written. It is essential reading.
This reasonably-priced volume will be a pleasure to anyone with an interest in Orwell.
George Orwell (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 Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four place him at the pinnacle of British literature.
925 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1949
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About the author
George Orwell
1,282 books50.7k followersEric Arthur Blair was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to all totalitarianism (both fascism and stalinism), and support of democratic socialism.
Orwell is best known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), although his works also encompass literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in the industrial north of England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture.
Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"—describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices—is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink", and "thoughtcrime". In 2008, The Times named Orwell the second-greatest British writer since 1945.
Orwell is best known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), although his works also encompass literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in the industrial north of England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture.
Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"—describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices—is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink", and "thoughtcrime". In 2008, The Times named Orwell the second-greatest British writer since 1945.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
December 31, 2012
Sitting on my shelf for over 10 years was a volume I had never read. Called just George Orwell, it was the Heinemann edition of his collected novels. After reading and being impressed all over again by 1984, I took this volume up to see what Orwell’s other novels were like. I was ready for the autobiographical element, the interruption of narrative for discussion of issues that interested the author, the exact observation each book was based on. What took my breath away was the empathy and powerful emotion conveyed by the writing. Each of the books, just as in 1984, was deeply disturbing and moving.
Orwell’s first published novel was Burmese Days, which came out in 1935, obviously based on his experiences in the Indian Imperial Police. It’s the tragedy of Flory, an administrator in Upper Burma, a man passionately interested in music and literature forced into close and humiliating promiscuity with a group of bored, insensitive middle class officials whose main activity is drinking, and who keep their self respect by demeaning the native people under their care. Flory, an intensely lonely man, falls in love with an unsuitable woman who comes to reject him because he is not like all the others, and destroys himself. The observation of the effect that imperialism had on rulers and ruled is exactly observed. Orwell always wrote from personal observation, and was careful to generalise only from this material, which puts him in a class quite separate from most intellectuals. I found the climax of the tale very disturbing. The evil prosper and the good are punished, as in the Somerset Maugham story and that’s how you know there’s a good bit of fact among the fiction.
A Clergyman’s Daughter was published in 1936, an incredibly exact observation of a particular type of the rural clergy which Orwell had obviously studied at first hand. As well as a picture of life in a small rural community, it is also a creditable attempt to understand the frustrations and numbing sense of duty that motivate Dorothy Hare, the rector’s daughter of the title. A sure psychological study, with perhaps a too convenient plot device to throw Dorothy into the society of the destitute of London, A Clergyman’s Daughter has much to say on the role of gossip in small towns, the many faces of selfishness and the fact that so many people deny themselves any chance at all in life.
Keep the Aspidistra Flying, published 1937, is yet another slice of Orwell’s life, the story of a would-be writer and could-be Eric Blair called Gordon Comstock who turns his back on the chance of making his way in an advertising agency and embraces poverty in the form of tending a seedy second hand bookshop after bringing out a slender volume of affected poetry which falls dead from the press. Gordon annoys his few remaining friends and his lover, and irritated this reader at least, by adopting a self righteous air of complaint and rancour throughout the length of the book. Work in a bookshop was something that Orwell did but thankfully he was never a sniveller as is Gordon.
Coming Up for Air, 1939, is in many ways Orwell’s best novel. It is in three parts, the first a scathing description of suburbia, the second a lyrical evocation of an earlier, more provincial Britain much closer to nature, and the third a comical/tragical story of how the hero fares in trying to recapture this past. One is reminded that Orwell was not just an ernest social critic but a satirist, not just a depicter of ‘ordinary’ life but a poet. As usual all these elements are mixed in together, which is what makes Orwell so distinctive a writer, but also so great a writer.
Animal Farm, 1945, is a classic fable which tells the sad story of how every revolution contains the seed of the next one, because a successful revolutionary is also a reactionary. Although based on Stalin’s takeover of the Russian Revolution, every country in the world has a similar story, of idealistic politicians who have to ‘compromise’, of how dreams give way to ‘practicalities’, of how revered figures are really motivated by egotism, of how big a sinner the most admired saint is. The biggest trap is happiness, because the animals are better off under Napoleon – depending on how you define ‘better off’.
1984 (1949) describes a world where people are controlled by a modern version of the Roman Empire’s bread and circuses, and where the controlling members of that society are themselves controlled by someone or something called Big Brother, through television screens in every room which both supervise and condition behaviour. Those who worry about government databases which contain too much information about citizens, or devices which track their activities on the internet, will worry even more after they read it. It is, of course, overstated, a nightmare, but also an exact description of a tendency which is quite prevalent in our own society. It contains the despairing thought that any man can be controlled by any other, simply because he is only an animal with nerve ends and neuroses, and control simply means finding what torture to use, as was the case with the Catholic Church’s Inquisition. It is not about Stalin, nor is it science fiction, but a description of life in every country of the world today, and a warning of how people can become less than human.
How surprising that George Orwell, after excelling as a social critic, a reviewer, an essayist and as it turned out as an autobiographer, should also be a major novelist as well, a man who wrote about himself and the world he knew in such a way that the issues he touched on can be seen to be just as important for us as they were for him.
Orwell’s first published novel was Burmese Days, which came out in 1935, obviously based on his experiences in the Indian Imperial Police. It’s the tragedy of Flory, an administrator in Upper Burma, a man passionately interested in music and literature forced into close and humiliating promiscuity with a group of bored, insensitive middle class officials whose main activity is drinking, and who keep their self respect by demeaning the native people under their care. Flory, an intensely lonely man, falls in love with an unsuitable woman who comes to reject him because he is not like all the others, and destroys himself. The observation of the effect that imperialism had on rulers and ruled is exactly observed. Orwell always wrote from personal observation, and was careful to generalise only from this material, which puts him in a class quite separate from most intellectuals. I found the climax of the tale very disturbing. The evil prosper and the good are punished, as in the Somerset Maugham story and that’s how you know there’s a good bit of fact among the fiction.
A Clergyman’s Daughter was published in 1936, an incredibly exact observation of a particular type of the rural clergy which Orwell had obviously studied at first hand. As well as a picture of life in a small rural community, it is also a creditable attempt to understand the frustrations and numbing sense of duty that motivate Dorothy Hare, the rector’s daughter of the title. A sure psychological study, with perhaps a too convenient plot device to throw Dorothy into the society of the destitute of London, A Clergyman’s Daughter has much to say on the role of gossip in small towns, the many faces of selfishness and the fact that so many people deny themselves any chance at all in life.
Keep the Aspidistra Flying, published 1937, is yet another slice of Orwell’s life, the story of a would-be writer and could-be Eric Blair called Gordon Comstock who turns his back on the chance of making his way in an advertising agency and embraces poverty in the form of tending a seedy second hand bookshop after bringing out a slender volume of affected poetry which falls dead from the press. Gordon annoys his few remaining friends and his lover, and irritated this reader at least, by adopting a self righteous air of complaint and rancour throughout the length of the book. Work in a bookshop was something that Orwell did but thankfully he was never a sniveller as is Gordon.
Coming Up for Air, 1939, is in many ways Orwell’s best novel. It is in three parts, the first a scathing description of suburbia, the second a lyrical evocation of an earlier, more provincial Britain much closer to nature, and the third a comical/tragical story of how the hero fares in trying to recapture this past. One is reminded that Orwell was not just an ernest social critic but a satirist, not just a depicter of ‘ordinary’ life but a poet. As usual all these elements are mixed in together, which is what makes Orwell so distinctive a writer, but also so great a writer.
Animal Farm, 1945, is a classic fable which tells the sad story of how every revolution contains the seed of the next one, because a successful revolutionary is also a reactionary. Although based on Stalin’s takeover of the Russian Revolution, every country in the world has a similar story, of idealistic politicians who have to ‘compromise’, of how dreams give way to ‘practicalities’, of how revered figures are really motivated by egotism, of how big a sinner the most admired saint is. The biggest trap is happiness, because the animals are better off under Napoleon – depending on how you define ‘better off’.
1984 (1949) describes a world where people are controlled by a modern version of the Roman Empire’s bread and circuses, and where the controlling members of that society are themselves controlled by someone or something called Big Brother, through television screens in every room which both supervise and condition behaviour. Those who worry about government databases which contain too much information about citizens, or devices which track their activities on the internet, will worry even more after they read it. It is, of course, overstated, a nightmare, but also an exact description of a tendency which is quite prevalent in our own society. It contains the despairing thought that any man can be controlled by any other, simply because he is only an animal with nerve ends and neuroses, and control simply means finding what torture to use, as was the case with the Catholic Church’s Inquisition. It is not about Stalin, nor is it science fiction, but a description of life in every country of the world today, and a warning of how people can become less than human.
How surprising that George Orwell, after excelling as a social critic, a reviewer, an essayist and as it turned out as an autobiographer, should also be a major novelist as well, a man who wrote about himself and the world he knew in such a way that the issues he touched on can be seen to be just as important for us as they were for him.
Currently reading
October 17, 2013I studied Animal Farm for my Eng.Lit. GCSE exams, along with MacBeth; my idea of revision was to read both of them five times. This worked reasonably well as I got a B grade. There was an unfortunate side-effect, however; despite liking both I was, after the exams, unable to touch a copy of either without getting the shakes. Fast forward more than 20 years and a discussion here at Goodreads regarding whether Squealer was a "subtle" (ab)user of language prompts me to finally pick up Animal Farm once more.
THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN CURTAILED IN PROTEST AT GOODREADS' CENSORSHIP POLICY
See the complete review here:
http://arbieroo.booklikes.com/post/33...
GR Bonus: Have the GR management read this? Do they realise it's satire not an instruction manual?
THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN CURTAILED IN PROTEST AT GOODREADS' CENSORSHIP POLICY
See the complete review here:
http://arbieroo.booklikes.com/post/33...
GR Bonus: Have the GR management read this? Do they realise it's satire not an instruction manual?
April 25, 2021
Each reviewed separately:
Animal Farm 5 stars
Burmese Days 4 stars
A Clergyman's Daughter 3 stars
Coming up for Air 4 stars
Keep the Aspidistra Flying 4 stars
Nineteen Eighty Four 5 stars
Therefore on balance: 4.16 stars, thus 4 stars.
Animal Farm 5 stars
Burmese Days 4 stars
A Clergyman's Daughter 3 stars
Coming up for Air 4 stars
Keep the Aspidistra Flying 4 stars
Nineteen Eighty Four 5 stars
Therefore on balance: 4.16 stars, thus 4 stars.
March 3, 2013
ANIMAL FARM - 3 Stars
"All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others"
BURMESE DAYS - 3 Stars
Seedy, sweaty & acerbic dissection of the contradictions and moral destitution of British colonial India.
A CLERGYMAN'S DAUGHTER - 1 Star
A Clerics daughter loses her memory and embarks on an adventure of self discovery. Probably Orwell's worst novel.
COMING UP FOR AIR - 4 Stars
Mid life crises & nostalgia. Very well written. The best of his lesser known novels, akin to H.G.Wells' "The History of Mr Polly"
KEEP THE ASPIDESTRA FLYING - 3 stars
Accurately exposes the achilles heel of Marxism.
A well observed and thoroughly unlikeable main character, that every graduate will recognise, at least in part, as a caricature of themselves or someone they once knew and is almost certainly autobiographical.
NINETEEN EIGHTY FOUR - 4 Stars
Big Brother, Truespeak and Room 101.
Prophetic and insightful!
Is there anybody who doesn't know what this book is about?
Read
August 4, 2018Animal Farm (13 Jan 2017)
Short, simple, gets the message across well.
1984 (29 - 30 Jul 2018)
Provisional thoughts
A tad less philosophical than Huxley, a lot more bleak and forlorn. Actually, perhaps it wouldn't be right to compare them in a slap-dash fashion as everyone is bound to do. Different times, different pressures, different minds, &c.
Keep the Aspidistra Flying (30 Jul - 4 Aug 2018)
Reads like a rewriting of Gissing's New Grub Street with Reardon morphing into a hopelessly blinkered protagonist, waging war for the sake of what Lawrence might refer to as 'the mental life'.
The edition
Convenient stuff, this -- but the font size can be so damned small that it becomes impossible to read. I nearly resorted to using a magnifying glass for the Goldstein passages in 1984. It's that bad.
Short, simple, gets the message across well.
1984 (29 - 30 Jul 2018)
Provisional thoughts
A tad less philosophical than Huxley, a lot more bleak and forlorn. Actually, perhaps it wouldn't be right to compare them in a slap-dash fashion as everyone is bound to do. Different times, different pressures, different minds, &c.
Keep the Aspidistra Flying (30 Jul - 4 Aug 2018)
Reads like a rewriting of Gissing's New Grub Street with Reardon morphing into a hopelessly blinkered protagonist, waging war for the sake of what Lawrence might refer to as 'the mental life'.
The edition
Convenient stuff, this -- but the font size can be so damned small that it becomes impossible to read. I nearly resorted to using a magnifying glass for the Goldstein passages in 1984. It's that bad.
March 6, 2016
1984 *****
July 23, 2014
While my average rating for the six novels included in this massive collection is closer to 4 than 5 stars, I feel I must give this particular edition full marks for the following two reasons: (1) it collects all six of Orwell's novels, and (2) because it is ridiculously affordable - especially when purchased online!
This is one collection that is not to be missed.
Here, then, are my reviews for the individual novels included in this collection:
Animal Farm - 5 stars
A great little book which should be mandatory reading for anyone over the age of 12. A perfect example of concision and allegory, and a study in the perversion of ideals & the corrupting effect of power. Plenty of not-so-subtle references to past (& present) dictatorships, but also a frightening reminder that there are still plenty of Animal Farms in today's world. Read this today, if you haven't already!
Burmese Days - 4 stars
Having first read about Burma in Guy Delisle's Burma Chronicles (which I recommend, by the way), my interest was piqued. Factor in George Orwell writing a book about his own experiences there in the 1920's (with his trademark wit and insights), and what the result was - in my case, anyway - was what the French call un incontournable, that is, literally, something which you cannot go around.
Flory really is the center of the story. Through his eyes, we see the dirty side of colonialism, what they don't tell you about in school or in travel brochures. It really is unfortunate that , almost 100 years later, we still have the same problems with racism and the exploitation of third world countries. Empires change, but the practice remains the same...
There are some obvious parallels with Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
A Clergyman's Daughter - 2 measly stars!
So how, exactly, is A Clergyman's Daughter? Even Orwell, so it's said, didn't like this book - and he wrote it! That's not very encouraging. And apparently the only part of the book he liked was the part I didn't like.
Shows you how much I know!
There were some elements that I liked about the story, like Orwell's description of a manual labourer's life, and his commentary on private schools, but the bottom line is that I couldn't continue reading about Dorothy Hare's miserable life much longer. I can't understand how she could just go back to what she was before - essentially a slave of some sort. Maybe it's because it's all she's known for a number of years... In any case, the book ended on a disappointing note, with Dorothy being back exactly where she started.
After Animal Farm and Burmese Days, and liking both of them, I was expecting more from this book.
Coming Up for Air - 5 stars
This is one of those books of which I knew nothing about - I hadn't even looked it up on Goodreads - and it turned out to be one of those pleasant surprises. This is one book I know for a fact I'll be re-reading.
Sure, Orwell is mostly known for Animal Farm and 1984, but this book deserves to be better known.
Keep the Aspidistra Flying - 4 stars
Not the most uplifting book you'll read in your life, but definitely more engaging than A Clergyman's Daughter, which was at times a tedious read. As usual with George Orwell books, you get a lot of food for thought, and that's more than can be said about a lot of other books.
1984 - 5 stars
It's really amazing how astute and prescient George Orwell was; the dystopia of 1984 can and does seem very familiar, and that is because - depending on what country we're talking about - some or a lot of Oceania, The Party, and Big Brother, can be seen as actually happening right now! In the case of North Korea, for example, the reality there is so like that of Oceania, that it would come as no surprise to me to learn that Kim Il-sung, that country's "Eternal President of the Republic", had used Orwell's novel as a how-to in establishing his dictatorship on this Asian nation. (North Korea was created in 1948, and 1984 was published in 1949, so the above theory, though admittedly far-fetched and mentioned only at a feeble attempt at humour, could in fact be plausible!)
News fabrication, "Us Vs. Them" mentality (and its close cousin: "With Us Or Against Us"), the government's own perceived infallibility, torture, false confessions, revisionist history, censorship, fear mongering, denunciations, governments spying on their own (and other countries') populace... All part of Orwell's 1984 , but also part of today's reality more or less extensively, depending on where you live. Kind of depressing, really.
This is one book everyone should read at least once in their lifetime.
This is one collection that is not to be missed.
Here, then, are my reviews for the individual novels included in this collection:
Animal Farm - 5 stars
A great little book which should be mandatory reading for anyone over the age of 12. A perfect example of concision and allegory, and a study in the perversion of ideals & the corrupting effect of power. Plenty of not-so-subtle references to past (& present) dictatorships, but also a frightening reminder that there are still plenty of Animal Farms in today's world. Read this today, if you haven't already!
Burmese Days - 4 stars
Having first read about Burma in Guy Delisle's Burma Chronicles (which I recommend, by the way), my interest was piqued. Factor in George Orwell writing a book about his own experiences there in the 1920's (with his trademark wit and insights), and what the result was - in my case, anyway - was what the French call un incontournable, that is, literally, something which you cannot go around.
Flory really is the center of the story. Through his eyes, we see the dirty side of colonialism, what they don't tell you about in school or in travel brochures. It really is unfortunate that , almost 100 years later, we still have the same problems with racism and the exploitation of third world countries. Empires change, but the practice remains the same...
There are some obvious parallels with Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
A Clergyman's Daughter - 2 measly stars!
So how, exactly, is A Clergyman's Daughter? Even Orwell, so it's said, didn't like this book - and he wrote it! That's not very encouraging. And apparently the only part of the book he liked was the part I didn't like.
Shows you how much I know!
There were some elements that I liked about the story, like Orwell's description of a manual labourer's life, and his commentary on private schools, but the bottom line is that I couldn't continue reading about Dorothy Hare's miserable life much longer. I can't understand how she could just go back to what she was before - essentially a slave of some sort. Maybe it's because it's all she's known for a number of years... In any case, the book ended on a disappointing note, with Dorothy being back exactly where she started.
After Animal Farm and Burmese Days, and liking both of them, I was expecting more from this book.
Coming Up for Air - 5 stars
This is one of those books of which I knew nothing about - I hadn't even looked it up on Goodreads - and it turned out to be one of those pleasant surprises. This is one book I know for a fact I'll be re-reading.
Sure, Orwell is mostly known for Animal Farm and 1984, but this book deserves to be better known.
Keep the Aspidistra Flying - 4 stars
Not the most uplifting book you'll read in your life, but definitely more engaging than A Clergyman's Daughter, which was at times a tedious read. As usual with George Orwell books, you get a lot of food for thought, and that's more than can be said about a lot of other books.
1984 - 5 stars
It's really amazing how astute and prescient George Orwell was; the dystopia of 1984 can and does seem very familiar, and that is because - depending on what country we're talking about - some or a lot of Oceania, The Party, and Big Brother, can be seen as actually happening right now! In the case of North Korea, for example, the reality there is so like that of Oceania, that it would come as no surprise to me to learn that Kim Il-sung, that country's "Eternal President of the Republic", had used Orwell's novel as a how-to in establishing his dictatorship on this Asian nation. (North Korea was created in 1948, and 1984 was published in 1949, so the above theory, though admittedly far-fetched and mentioned only at a feeble attempt at humour, could in fact be plausible!)
News fabrication, "Us Vs. Them" mentality (and its close cousin: "With Us Or Against Us"), the government's own perceived infallibility, torture, false confessions, revisionist history, censorship, fear mongering, denunciations, governments spying on their own (and other countries') populace... All part of Orwell's 1984 , but also part of today's reality more or less extensively, depending on where you live. Kind of depressing, really.
This is one book everyone should read at least once in their lifetime.
June 28, 2023
my rating on this is difficult: while i think the stories themselves collectively are around the 3-5 range when you put them together, i also think its... more worth it to read their actual editions than this one. like another review said, there's a lot of typos here.
as for the stories themselves, like i said, i'd put them at an average of 3.5 - 4.5, around that, it's hard to choose.
personal order, favourite to least (most of them are similar in quality so dont take any insult with this.)
animal farm
ninteen eighty four
coming up for air
clergyman's daughter
burmese days
keep the aspidistra flying
as for the stories themselves, like i said, i'd put them at an average of 3.5 - 4.5, around that, it's hard to choose.
personal order, favourite to least (most of them are similar in quality so dont take any insult with this.)
animal farm
ninteen eighty four
coming up for air
clergyman's daughter
burmese days
keep the aspidistra flying
July 17, 2015
Animal Farm -- It's weird to think that I've lived this long, as voracious a reader as I am, and still have never read this slender classic in its entirety. Of course I know what happens as the book is a cultural touchstone, but this omnibus was missing the first five chapters, so I am still ignorant of its entirety. What I did read was thoroughly worthy of its status, tho! Oddly enough, the bff has never read Animal Farm end to end either: yet another thing we have in common.
Burmese Days -- A stunning indictment of colonialism that is at once sympathetic to all the parties involved. Better than most Maugham, IMO.
A Clergyman's Daughter -- I mostly enjoyed this, and was quite impressed with his rendering of her. Another great examination of morality and choices, as well as the social circumstances of the times. Hard to read this without coming out of it with greater sympathy for the homeless.
Coming Up For Air -- Hard to believe this was fiction, given how inhabited it felt. Wasn't sure I'd like it, tbh, from the blurb, so was pleasantly surprised. Thought it ended rather abruptly, but was otherwise happy to just spend time in the narrator's self-examined life.
Keep The Aspidistra Flying -- What the hell was this garbage? Comstock is the fucking worst: a whiner surrounded by good people whose affection and devotion he returns with sheer awfulness. I can see why Orwell wanted this manuscript burned before publication.
1984 -- Did not read this this go-round, but enjoyed it when I read it on its own ages ago.
Burmese Days -- A stunning indictment of colonialism that is at once sympathetic to all the parties involved. Better than most Maugham, IMO.
A Clergyman's Daughter -- I mostly enjoyed this, and was quite impressed with his rendering of her. Another great examination of morality and choices, as well as the social circumstances of the times. Hard to read this without coming out of it with greater sympathy for the homeless.
Coming Up For Air -- Hard to believe this was fiction, given how inhabited it felt. Wasn't sure I'd like it, tbh, from the blurb, so was pleasantly surprised. Thought it ended rather abruptly, but was otherwise happy to just spend time in the narrator's self-examined life.
Keep The Aspidistra Flying -- What the hell was this garbage? Comstock is the fucking worst: a whiner surrounded by good people whose affection and devotion he returns with sheer awfulness. I can see why Orwell wanted this manuscript burned before publication.
1984 -- Did not read this this go-round, but enjoyed it when I read it on its own ages ago.
December 13, 2018
Since this is a collection of novels, I'll comment on each one separately as I read it, on my Khanya blog, and when I've done with all of them may add some comments on the collected works here. I begin with Burmese Days, because that was the first one in the collection that I hadn't read.
The next one in the series is A clergyman's daughter, to which I give only three stars. Not that it's a bad book, but it has some faults that I didn't see in Burmese Days.
Coming up for Air is a strange book. I was determined not to like it, and yet I felt compelled to finish it, though couldn't stand to read much more than a chapter a day; a page-turner it wasn't. It's about a fat middle-aged salesman living a dull middle-class life in a dull London suburb, who goes out to get his new set of false teeth. On thje way he sees a poster about King Zog's wedding, and that sets him off reminscing about his childhood in a small town in Oxfordshire. One expects the memories to last for a chapter or two, but they go on and on and on.
The next one in the series is A clergyman's daughter, to which I give only three stars. Not that it's a bad book, but it has some faults that I didn't see in Burmese Days.
Coming up for Air is a strange book. I was determined not to like it, and yet I felt compelled to finish it, though couldn't stand to read much more than a chapter a day; a page-turner it wasn't. It's about a fat middle-aged salesman living a dull middle-class life in a dull London suburb, who goes out to get his new set of false teeth. On thje way he sees a poster about King Zog's wedding, and that sets him off reminscing about his childhood in a small town in Oxfordshire. One expects the memories to last for a chapter or two, but they go on and on and on.
April 29, 2013
Animal Farm - had never read it before. An interesting book considering the definition of allegorical.
I loved re-reading Nineteen Eighty Four. It has been decades, but it never lost value. written in 1949, it's amazing in its vision. When I first read the book it was in the 70's. Now in 2013 it is amazing to look back on what the vision for the world was in 1949 and how much has actually come to fruition.
The other books - not as outstanding as I had hoped for. Though some have given them rave reviews - I thought the reading was a bit tedious.
I loved re-reading Nineteen Eighty Four. It has been decades, but it never lost value. written in 1949, it's amazing in its vision. When I first read the book it was in the 70's. Now in 2013 it is amazing to look back on what the vision for the world was in 1949 and how much has actually come to fruition.
The other books - not as outstanding as I had hoped for. Though some have given them rave reviews - I thought the reading was a bit tedious.
April 27, 2017
Really enjoyed all these stories. They were filled with nostalgic references. He managed to remind me that our world has been deteriorating for a very long time. The human condition has always been suffering but we can rise above this. I wish he had written more because Igot the strongest sense that he had so much more to say.
December 26, 2024
Is it 1984 again?
Great reminder that history is repeating itself. Very much worth a re-read in 2020.
In the midst of a pandemic, some countries seem to be using double speak and double think techniques. Be careful last you trick yourself into living Big Brother too.
Great reminder that history is repeating itself. Very much worth a re-read in 2020.
In the midst of a pandemic, some countries seem to be using double speak and double think techniques. Be careful last you trick yourself into living Big Brother too.
November 9, 2007
Good stuff!! Enjoyed all these stories. I think Keep the Aspidistra Flying was my favourite, though they each had something I liked about them. It took me a long time to finish (about 3 weeks) and the print was so small I'm surprised I'm not blind or cross-eyed right now!
March 11, 2013
Read Animal farm and 1984 from this book, a lot of it was hard going. I think you have to be a genuine Orwell fan to appreciate his work otherwise it feels like a hard slog to read. Didn't finish the other books in this collection unfortunately.
March 25, 2008
Why limit yourself to only one book at a time? I read 1984 every ten years or so, just to remind myself of how precious freedom is.
July 30, 2011
bought for L.
Started Burmese Days last night.
Started Burmese Days last night.
November 2, 2018
Overall: 2.5/5
As I’ve already previously read Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four back in highschool, I didn’t bother to re-read them this time around and only read the four other books. Reviews below:
Animal Farm 5/5
My favourite George Orwell book. It also happens to be the easiest book to read from his collection...
Burmese Days 2/5
Kind of an interesting depiction of the British expatriate life in Burma.
The Clergyman’s Daughter 3/5
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Poor Dorothy had quite an adventure! There’s a bit of commentary on how private schools “teach” and I think teachers would enjoy reading that bit (it’s all about making money, which means making the parents happy. Who cares about the kids as long as the parents are happy?).
Coming Up for Air 1/5
SO BORING. I originally marked this as DNF but I did skim through the whole thing so I guess I technically did finish it...
This was an insanely boring fictional autobiography of an average, middle-aged, middle-income insurance salesman. He leads an incredibly boring life and reminisces on his extremely boring past. I suppose his views on how times have changed (politically, socially, technologically, etc.) from WWI to WII can be of interest to some but I just couldn't get into it.
Keep the Aspidistra Flying 1/5
ALSO SUPER BORING. DNF@30%.
This was about a starving artist/poet and his depressing life. He’s not a very likable fellow and his lack of money makes him miserable and ashamed but as an old-fashioned man, he hates to rely on his girlfriend to pay for meals and dates. Everything that happens in this story seems to circle back to his money problems.
Nineteen-Eighty Four 3/5
This was one of my favourite books to study back in school. BUT it was still boring at times and I have to confess that I’m not the biggest fan of Orwell’s writing style.
As I’ve already previously read Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four back in highschool, I didn’t bother to re-read them this time around and only read the four other books. Reviews below:
Animal Farm 5/5
My favourite George Orwell book. It also happens to be the easiest book to read from his collection...
Burmese Days 2/5
Kind of an interesting depiction of the British expatriate life in Burma.
The Clergyman’s Daughter 3/5
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Poor Dorothy had quite an adventure! There’s a bit of commentary on how private schools “teach” and I think teachers would enjoy reading that bit (it’s all about making money, which means making the parents happy. Who cares about the kids as long as the parents are happy?).
Coming Up for Air 1/5
SO BORING. I originally marked this as DNF but I did skim through the whole thing so I guess I technically did finish it...
This was an insanely boring fictional autobiography of an average, middle-aged, middle-income insurance salesman. He leads an incredibly boring life and reminisces on his extremely boring past. I suppose his views on how times have changed (politically, socially, technologically, etc.) from WWI to WII can be of interest to some but I just couldn't get into it.
Keep the Aspidistra Flying 1/5
ALSO SUPER BORING. DNF@30%.
This was about a starving artist/poet and his depressing life. He’s not a very likable fellow and his lack of money makes him miserable and ashamed but as an old-fashioned man, he hates to rely on his girlfriend to pay for meals and dates. Everything that happens in this story seems to circle back to his money problems.
Nineteen-Eighty Four 3/5
This was one of my favourite books to study back in school. BUT it was still boring at times and I have to confess that I’m not the biggest fan of Orwell’s writing style.
July 22, 2024
BURMESE DAYS
Wikipedia quotes Orwell's 1946 essay "Why I Write", where he says "I wanted to write enormous naturalistic novels with unhappy endings, full of detailed descriptions and arresting similes, and also full of purple passages in which my words were used partly for the sake of sound. And in fact my first complete novel "Burmese Days" ...is rather that kind of book." Exactly!
I absolutely loved this book. First for the wonderful descriptions of the trials of the weather in the tropics. I used to live in Sri Lanka, no too far away from Burma, and I found my skin prickling at his writing about living with the heat. His descriptions of flora were equally vivid. Secondly his characters were not quite stereotypical, he portrayed each as a unique individual, despite their roles in the novel being archetypical. He absolutely skewered the various English colonials, the obsequious Indian, the inscrutable Burman, the impassive barman in the Club, the young woman intent on finding a husband and the ingratiating mixed race individuals. He showed how rapacious the British Empire was and how local people were subjugated, such as when the British were lamenting the days when they could send a local to the Police Station for 15 lashings. His protagonist is interested in Burmese culture but does not recognise his own prejudice when he banished his mistress of two years when an Englishwoman arrives. Each incident is brilliantly realised. It is so accurate that in 2013 when a new translation of the book was made, it won the Burma National Literary Award in the category of "informative literature".
Wikipedia quotes Orwell's 1946 essay "Why I Write", where he says "I wanted to write enormous naturalistic novels with unhappy endings, full of detailed descriptions and arresting similes, and also full of purple passages in which my words were used partly for the sake of sound. And in fact my first complete novel "Burmese Days" ...is rather that kind of book." Exactly!
I absolutely loved this book. First for the wonderful descriptions of the trials of the weather in the tropics. I used to live in Sri Lanka, no too far away from Burma, and I found my skin prickling at his writing about living with the heat. His descriptions of flora were equally vivid. Secondly his characters were not quite stereotypical, he portrayed each as a unique individual, despite their roles in the novel being archetypical. He absolutely skewered the various English colonials, the obsequious Indian, the inscrutable Burman, the impassive barman in the Club, the young woman intent on finding a husband and the ingratiating mixed race individuals. He showed how rapacious the British Empire was and how local people were subjugated, such as when the British were lamenting the days when they could send a local to the Police Station for 15 lashings. His protagonist is interested in Burmese culture but does not recognise his own prejudice when he banished his mistress of two years when an Englishwoman arrives. Each incident is brilliantly realised. It is so accurate that in 2013 when a new translation of the book was made, it won the Burma National Literary Award in the category of "informative literature".
March 13, 2018
A Classic
I am not worthy to detail a review of such a book. However I will say one thing. I have read the book many times but am terrified at the fact that each time I read it , it gets closer to reality. Recent witchhunts such as that levelled against Kevin Spacey shows that we are now being watched not only for what we do or think but what we may have innocently done in the past when rules were different. Spacey has been written out of history , his last film reshot. Our culture is changing. Technology means all our actions are recorded and scrutinised. The mobile phone is our telescreen and our young are keen to report any perceived bad behaviour. Accusations are now accepted as guilt without trial. 1984 is here!!
I am not worthy to detail a review of such a book. However I will say one thing. I have read the book many times but am terrified at the fact that each time I read it , it gets closer to reality. Recent witchhunts such as that levelled against Kevin Spacey shows that we are now being watched not only for what we do or think but what we may have innocently done in the past when rules were different. Spacey has been written out of history , his last film reshot. Our culture is changing. Technology means all our actions are recorded and scrutinised. The mobile phone is our telescreen and our young are keen to report any perceived bad behaviour. Accusations are now accepted as guilt without trial. 1984 is here!!
Read
July 11, 2020Starting at the beginning, a very good place to start, I was amazed at the awakening of Orwell in Burmese Days to the way the British had assumed their 'right' to be there, the pains to which he went to understand poverty in Down and Out, the sadness and eventual submission to their predicament in A Clergyman's Daughter, the remarkable similarities between the 1930's and 2020's in Coming up for air etc, etc, Orwell who died too young, would be amazed at his foresight and we should be grateful for it....too often his name is associated with his eponymous 1984 but he wrote considerably more and readers should consider his less well known works which are so insightful.
December 24, 2023
Shows you that just because an author wrote one really good work doesn't mean that all are equally worthy of your consideration.
You learn that George Orwell(pen name for Eric Arthur Blair) wrote character driven works, the main character's thoughts driving the works far more than any actions. Also, Orwell was anti-Communist& anti-socialist (Animal Farm is little more than an anti-communist screed).
Orwell was well known during his life(1903-1950) as an essayist and a critic. Check out some of his non-fiction works (The Road to Wigan Pier, about social conditions in economically depressed Northern England).
You learn that George Orwell(pen name for Eric Arthur Blair) wrote character driven works, the main character's thoughts driving the works far more than any actions. Also, Orwell was anti-Communist& anti-socialist (Animal Farm is little more than an anti-communist screed).
Orwell was well known during his life(1903-1950) as an essayist and a critic. Check out some of his non-fiction works (The Road to Wigan Pier, about social conditions in economically depressed Northern England).
February 8, 2025
I rated this harshly, after getting stuck in the middle of a kindle edition that I couldn't navigate. I was so very bored by Keep the Aspidistra Flying that I couldn't face either finishing it, or finding my way to the next book. A severe limitation of a big anthology on an electronic device.
I've upgraded my kindle, and can now go straight to the one I want. Will revise once I've read Coming up for Air.
Animal Farm and 1984 are, obviously, masterpieces. They are available in a separate set, which on the whole I would recommend over this for most readers.
I've upgraded my kindle, and can now go straight to the one I want. Will revise once I've read Coming up for Air.
Animal Farm and 1984 are, obviously, masterpieces. They are available in a separate set, which on the whole I would recommend over this for most readers.
September 20, 2021
Animal Farm is a political satire novella. George Orwell articulately describes the human society under the guise of Democracy.It reflects the event of Russian Revolution in 1917. The story is about the rebellion of the animals against the inhumane treatment of their master Mr Jones. But the rebellion bears no fruit as the animals are then ruled under a tyrannical pig Napoleon. But it is beyond the capacity of ordinary beings to realise the treachery of the very revolution.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 17, 2024
And with 1984 I have finished the omnibus edition.
Animal Farm I have always enjoyed. Burmese Days was a bit dated but well enough.The Clergyman's daughter was nowhere near great and keep the aspidistra flying was just shit, as was Coming up for air.
Thus to 1984.
Didn't enjoy it when I studied it at school and nothing has changed I really find that this is just pretentious rather than prescient. I get that it has become a staple of reference but I really don't care.
Animal Farm I have always enjoyed. Burmese Days was a bit dated but well enough.The Clergyman's daughter was nowhere near great and keep the aspidistra flying was just shit, as was Coming up for air.
Thus to 1984.
Didn't enjoy it when I studied it at school and nothing has changed I really find that this is just pretentious rather than prescient. I get that it has become a staple of reference but I really don't care.
August 1, 2024
I am a huge fan of George Orwell's writing.
What infuriates me is Penguin publishing's deception of implying this is a complete collection of all Orwell's novels: it is not.
I had intended to read first - Homage to Catalonia. It is not included, as other titles are not.
So "Complete " means complete, as opposed to incomplete - IE abridged.
What infuriates me is Penguin publishing's deception of implying this is a complete collection of all Orwell's novels: it is not.
I had intended to read first - Homage to Catalonia. It is not included, as other titles are not.
So "Complete " means complete, as opposed to incomplete - IE abridged.
August 23, 2022
I’ve given reviews for each of the novels in this volume separately. Overall this is a good volume with only one of the novels having some issues with typos throughout that one in particular. Even so, definitely recommended
Read
June 4, 2020It's sooo gooooooood
Want to read
July 19, 2020elibrary
December 4, 2020
Classics, superbly written, accessible, contemporary, inciteful and a must read.
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