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Orwell's England
Collected together for the first time, this volume includes the complete text of THE ROAD TO WIGAN PIER - Orwell's vivid and impassioned documentary of unemployment and proletarian life - as well as Orwell's best writing on the political and social condition of England.
432 pages, Paperback
First published May 3, 1948
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About the author
George Orwell
1,303 books51.7k 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 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 27, 2011
George Orwell has always been one of my favorite authors since reading the classics Animal Farm and 1984 in high school. His reputation was further solidified by his collection of essays and subsequent books (Down And Out In Paris and London, Burmese Days, Homage To Catalonia, etc…) read in college and after. I was inspired to read his non-fiction book, To The Road To Wigan Pier, which is included in the collection, after reading Secret Histories: Finding George Orwell In A Burmese Tea Shop by Emma Lark, who referenced it frequently. I came across the British only edition of Orwell’s England, which had it along with The English People, Such Were The Joys, and several other miscellaneous pieces of journalism, letters, reviews, etc… The Road To Wigan Pier, in particular, was fascinating, because in the second part, there was a declaration of how Orwell, personally, became politicized and interested in championing the exploited in society. It gives much insight into his life and intellectual development. For example, he explains his aversion to being an imperial policeman in Burma:
But in Burma it was a double oppression that we were committing. Not only were we hanging people and putting them in jail and so forth; we were doing it in the capacity of unwanted foreign invaders.
He goes onto to say that he didn’t have to go to Burma to find exploitation. It was taking place in England among his own people. I suppose Orwell was more sensitive to class and economic differences since he was a scholarship student in the public schools, otherwise his family couldn’t have afforded to send him to the elite schools he went to. His lack of money was to a burden for most of his life. He explains what it was like to board in one of those school in the essay (fiction?), “Such, Such Were The Joys”, which I believe was included in The Collected Essays.
His analysis and descriptions of the English people and their character, as well as his thoughts on class, socialism, communism, capitalism, and fascism are all well thought out and lucid, as well as being mostly ahead of his time in his opinions on these matters. Sometimes he displays an unexpected sense of humor:
One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words ‘Socialism’ and ‘Communism’ draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, ‘Nature Cure’ quack, pacifist and feminist in England.
He states when trying to come to terms with lack of popular appeal of these ideologies among the true working class. Generally, he comes across as realistic, but optimistic that a better world could be forged despite all that was going badly in his time.
Stylistically he is a master-there’s a section in The English People in which he celebrates The English Language-which he was extremely adept at using in his writing. I essentially agree with much of he says, but the beauty of it sometimes underscores the difficult of learning it: i.e. the great variety and dearth of vocabulary that is possible. He forswears the use of jargon and tries to get his point across as simply as possible, which is evident in his writing in this collection.
But in Burma it was a double oppression that we were committing. Not only were we hanging people and putting them in jail and so forth; we were doing it in the capacity of unwanted foreign invaders.
He goes onto to say that he didn’t have to go to Burma to find exploitation. It was taking place in England among his own people. I suppose Orwell was more sensitive to class and economic differences since he was a scholarship student in the public schools, otherwise his family couldn’t have afforded to send him to the elite schools he went to. His lack of money was to a burden for most of his life. He explains what it was like to board in one of those school in the essay (fiction?), “Such, Such Were The Joys”, which I believe was included in The Collected Essays.
His analysis and descriptions of the English people and their character, as well as his thoughts on class, socialism, communism, capitalism, and fascism are all well thought out and lucid, as well as being mostly ahead of his time in his opinions on these matters. Sometimes he displays an unexpected sense of humor:
One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words ‘Socialism’ and ‘Communism’ draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, ‘Nature Cure’ quack, pacifist and feminist in England.
He states when trying to come to terms with lack of popular appeal of these ideologies among the true working class. Generally, he comes across as realistic, but optimistic that a better world could be forged despite all that was going badly in his time.
Stylistically he is a master-there’s a section in The English People in which he celebrates The English Language-which he was extremely adept at using in his writing. I essentially agree with much of he says, but the beauty of it sometimes underscores the difficult of learning it: i.e. the great variety and dearth of vocabulary that is possible. He forswears the use of jargon and tries to get his point across as simply as possible, which is evident in his writing in this collection.
April 24, 2021
Truly enjoyable
Truly enjoyable - The Road to Wigan Pier and several of the well known essays (e.g. Such, such were the days) in the context of contemporary letters, diary entries, radio broadcast transcripts and so forth. These give an amazing context to not only Orwell and his own attitudes (some of which seem so wrong today) but also of the first half or so of the 20th century, empire, war, fascism, socialism, America, Americans, social class and so on. This is the world of my parents and grandparents in Northern England - this collection somehow helped me to understand why they saw things as they did in the mid and late 20th century whilst I was growing up. Much still resonates and the little glimpses of ideas which later came together in Animal Farm and 1984 are tantalising. Even the prejudices which we would not today accept for a moment - against birth control, vegetarians, beards and same sex relationships to start with - give an insight into what England was like before most of us were born. By this account I do not wish to have been born 60 years earlier.
Truly enjoyable - The Road to Wigan Pier and several of the well known essays (e.g. Such, such were the days) in the context of contemporary letters, diary entries, radio broadcast transcripts and so forth. These give an amazing context to not only Orwell and his own attitudes (some of which seem so wrong today) but also of the first half or so of the 20th century, empire, war, fascism, socialism, America, Americans, social class and so on. This is the world of my parents and grandparents in Northern England - this collection somehow helped me to understand why they saw things as they did in the mid and late 20th century whilst I was growing up. Much still resonates and the little glimpses of ideas which later came together in Animal Farm and 1984 are tantalising. Even the prejudices which we would not today accept for a moment - against birth control, vegetarians, beards and same sex relationships to start with - give an insight into what England was like before most of us were born. By this account I do not wish to have been born 60 years earlier.
January 9, 2024
An interesting collection of articles. If I was writing a thesis on Orwell this would be fascinating. But I’m not. Just read The Road to Wigan Pier.
June 4, 2024
The more dreary companion to Road to Wigan Pier
January 1, 2015
Introduction
Editorial Note
Acknowledgements
--From Burma to Paris
--'A Day in the Life of a Tramp', Le Progrès Civique, 5 January 1929
--'Hop-Picking', New Statesman & Nation, 17 October 1931
--Poem: 'Summer-like for an instant', The Adelphi, May 1933
--Poem: 'On a Ruined Farm near the His Master's Voice Gramophone Factory', The Adelphi, April 1934
--Letter to Brenda Salkeld, 7 May 1935
--Review: Patrick Hamilton, Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky; Katherine M. Williams, The Proceedings of the Society; R. G. Goodyear, I Lie Alone, 1 August 1935
--Extracts from 'The Road to Wigan Pier' Diary, 31 January to 16 March 1936
--Extracts from Orwell's 'Notes on Houses', Barnsley
--Letter to Jack Common, 16? April 1936
--Review: W. F. R. Macartney, Walls Have Mouths: A Record of Ten Years' Penal Servitude, November 1936
--Publication of 'The Road to Wigan Pier', 8 March 1937
--The Road to Wigan Pier
--Orwell's sketch-map of his journey to the North
--Extract from 'Your Questions Answered': Wigan Pier, BBC, 2 December 1943
--Review: Wal Hannington, The Problem of the Distressed Areas; Jane Hanley, Grey Children; Neil Stewart, The Fight for the Charter, 27 November 1937
--Letter from Eileen Blair to Jack Common, 20 July 1938
--Letter to Jack Common, 25 August 1938
--Extracts from Orwell's Domestic Diaries, 9 August 1938 -- 14 April 1939, and War-time Diaries, 8 June 1940 -- 4 July 1942
--'My Country Right or Left', Folios of New Writing, Autumn 1940
--Film Review: Eyes of the Navy; The Heart of Britain; Unholy War, 15 February 1941
--The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius, 19 February 1941
--Part I: England Your England
--Review: D. W. Brogan, The English People, 27 May 1943
--Extract from 'As I Please', 12 (A home of their own), Tribune, 18 February 1944
--Review: Sir William Beach Thomas, The Way of a Countryman, 23 March 1944
--Review: Edmund Blunden, Cricket Country, 20 April 1944
--The English People, completed 22 May 1944; published 1947
--England at First Glance
--The Moral Outlook of the English People
--The Political Outlook of the English People
--The English Class System
--The English Language
--The Future of the English People
--'Survey of "Civvy Street"', Observer, 4 June 1944
--Extract from 'As I Please', 37 (The colour bar), Tribune, 11 August 1944
--'The French Believe We Have Had a Revolution', Manchester Evening News, 20 March 1945
--'Just Junk -- But Who Could Resist It?', Evening Standard, 5 January 1946
--'Poetry and the Microphone', The New Saxon Pamphlets, March 1945
--Review: Mark Abrams, The Condition of the British People, 1911-1945, 17 January 1946
--'Decline of the English Murder', Tribune, 15 February 1946
--Extract from 'As I Please', 77 (Scrapping the British system of weights and measures), Tribune, 14 March 1947
--'Such, Such Were the Joys', 1939?--June 1948?
Further Reading
Index
Editorial Note
Acknowledgements
--From Burma to Paris
--'A Day in the Life of a Tramp', Le Progrès Civique, 5 January 1929
--'Hop-Picking', New Statesman & Nation, 17 October 1931
--Poem: 'Summer-like for an instant', The Adelphi, May 1933
--Poem: 'On a Ruined Farm near the His Master's Voice Gramophone Factory', The Adelphi, April 1934
--Letter to Brenda Salkeld, 7 May 1935
--Review: Patrick Hamilton, Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky; Katherine M. Williams, The Proceedings of the Society; R. G. Goodyear, I Lie Alone, 1 August 1935
--Extracts from 'The Road to Wigan Pier' Diary, 31 January to 16 March 1936
--Extracts from Orwell's 'Notes on Houses', Barnsley
--Letter to Jack Common, 16? April 1936
--Review: W. F. R. Macartney, Walls Have Mouths: A Record of Ten Years' Penal Servitude, November 1936
--Publication of 'The Road to Wigan Pier', 8 March 1937
--The Road to Wigan Pier
--Orwell's sketch-map of his journey to the North
--Extract from 'Your Questions Answered': Wigan Pier, BBC, 2 December 1943
--Review: Wal Hannington, The Problem of the Distressed Areas; Jane Hanley, Grey Children; Neil Stewart, The Fight for the Charter, 27 November 1937
--Letter from Eileen Blair to Jack Common, 20 July 1938
--Letter to Jack Common, 25 August 1938
--Extracts from Orwell's Domestic Diaries, 9 August 1938 -- 14 April 1939, and War-time Diaries, 8 June 1940 -- 4 July 1942
--'My Country Right or Left', Folios of New Writing, Autumn 1940
--Film Review: Eyes of the Navy; The Heart of Britain; Unholy War, 15 February 1941
--The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius, 19 February 1941
--Part I: England Your England
--Review: D. W. Brogan, The English People, 27 May 1943
--Extract from 'As I Please', 12 (A home of their own), Tribune, 18 February 1944
--Review: Sir William Beach Thomas, The Way of a Countryman, 23 March 1944
--Review: Edmund Blunden, Cricket Country, 20 April 1944
--The English People, completed 22 May 1944; published 1947
--England at First Glance
--The Moral Outlook of the English People
--The Political Outlook of the English People
--The English Class System
--The English Language
--The Future of the English People
--'Survey of "Civvy Street"', Observer, 4 June 1944
--Extract from 'As I Please', 37 (The colour bar), Tribune, 11 August 1944
--'The French Believe We Have Had a Revolution', Manchester Evening News, 20 March 1945
--'Just Junk -- But Who Could Resist It?', Evening Standard, 5 January 1946
--'Poetry and the Microphone', The New Saxon Pamphlets, March 1945
--Review: Mark Abrams, The Condition of the British People, 1911-1945, 17 January 1946
--'Decline of the English Murder', Tribune, 15 February 1946
--Extract from 'As I Please', 77 (Scrapping the British system of weights and measures), Tribune, 14 March 1947
--'Such, Such Were the Joys', 1939?--June 1948?
Further Reading
Index
March 11, 2016
This book is a definitely an impulse purchase for me and to be frank I didn't quite know what to expect when I first started reading it. But with the author being one of the most influential English writers of the twentieth century, it comes off as no surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed the book through and through!
The first part of the book includes the "Road to Wigan Pier", which documents vividly the writer's sociological investigations of the bleak living conditions among the working class just before the Second World War. Though non-fiction, the documentary contains a literary convention that is fictional. While remaining an impassioned observer throughout his journey, the essay is written with such acute insights and sentiments that one could not but find compelling.
In the second half of the book Orwell penetrates through the fundamental of class differences and the traditional English bourgeois hypocrisy. His analysis on the English people and their character, as well as the horrors of private school life, and the merits of cricket, gardening and pubs joins together to provide a comprehensive picture of the nation in Orwell’s head. In the author's words Orwell’s England appears to be a territory of contradictions - one would even argue that the so called 'England' is not a place at all, but indeed a mindset that in many ways are still relevant today.
The first part of the book includes the "Road to Wigan Pier", which documents vividly the writer's sociological investigations of the bleak living conditions among the working class just before the Second World War. Though non-fiction, the documentary contains a literary convention that is fictional. While remaining an impassioned observer throughout his journey, the essay is written with such acute insights and sentiments that one could not but find compelling.
In the second half of the book Orwell penetrates through the fundamental of class differences and the traditional English bourgeois hypocrisy. His analysis on the English people and their character, as well as the horrors of private school life, and the merits of cricket, gardening and pubs joins together to provide a comprehensive picture of the nation in Orwell’s head. In the author's words Orwell’s England appears to be a territory of contradictions - one would even argue that the so called 'England' is not a place at all, but indeed a mindset that in many ways are still relevant today.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews