The Complete Works of George Orwell: Novels, Poetry, Essays:

by George Orwell

An Excellent Collection brings together Orwell's Fiction, Non-Fiction, Essays and Poems.Displaying an almost unrivalled mastery of English plain prose, Orwell's Books created a unique literary manner from the process of thinking aloud and continuing to challenge, move and entertain. This Book created and collected in George Orwell's most important Works illuminate the life and work of one of the most individual writers of the 20th century - a man who elevated political writing to an art.This Collection includesNovels· Burmese Days· A Clergyman's Daughter· Keep the Aspidistra Flying· Animal Farm· Nineteen Eighty-FourNonfiction· Down and Out in Paris and London· The Road to Wigan Pier· Homage to CataloniaEssays and Poems.

Genres: Politics, Classics, Fiction, Literature, Science Fiction, Collections, Dystopia

2896 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1949

About the author

Eric 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 authoritarian communism and fascism), 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.

Reviews

[Kimmey Fitts · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Classic

I read this simply because I was needing it, needing a taste of true dystopian fiction. There is nothing like Orwell. It crossed my mind that one day this kind of writing could be taken from us. It terrifies me. Was George Orwell a prophet of sorts? Who knows? He was brilliant.

[Iain Hamill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Added this to capture all the essays and poems that I haven’t reviewed separately. Plenty of food for thought, but nothing as good as Animal Farm or 1984.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glad to have read it all, but didn’t enjoy all of it

I was mainly interested in reading Orwell’s novels, two of which I’d read before (Animal Farm and 1984). The other novels were hit-and-miss for me, but I’m glad I’ve been able to read a lot more of his work, especially the essays and reviews, since they give insights into how his thinking at the time went into the novels. This edition has numerous typos, as many as one. per page, and the formatting is terrible at times: words that must have been in italics in the original are rendered in ALL CAPS which is jarring; and em-dashes are rendered as hyphens, which causes problems with parsing a sentence in one’s head sometimes. On the whole, though, a relatively good reading experience.

[Maryann Gestwicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was an endless stream of enjoyable stories, interesting essays, and purple passages of poetry. I never read anything by George Orwell until this day.

Novels that I liked: The Aspidistra Flying, Book Shop Memories, Poetry and The Microphone, Nonsense Poetry, Why I write.

Poems that I Liked: Ironic Poem About Prostitution, Our Minds Are Married, But We Are Too Young, Poem from Burma, Romance, Sometimes In The Middle Of Autumn Days, Summer-Like, The Lesser Evil, The Pagan.

[Robert Narojek · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a very interesting reading, where you can find great politics, important social issues of post-war Europe, but also interesting observations and reflections on mass culture, English nature and great and popular literature.

Insightful and with his own humor, irony and panache, Orwell talks about important matters as well as about the small things that make up life.

[Adil Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read 1984.

Very interesting book that introduces a lot of the popular concepts such as 'Big Brother' and 'Doublethink' and what it might be like to live in a total authoritarian government. Part 2 of the book is a bit dull, especially the few pages of monologue, but part 3 quickly picks up.

Can highly recommend giving it a read at least once.

[jim gosbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heavy going.

I read all of this book, some I can say was readable but a vast majority was heavy going. There is a very small amount that I may remember but that really will be a small part.

[Bob Cropf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just read Animal Farm. I’ll tackle the others later.

[Charlie Garratt]

I thought the prose was excellent throughout, though the dismal outcomes in many of the stories became a little wearing by the end of the collection. I think my favourite was Burmese Days.

[Human Being · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not ALL of GO writings! It only includes a selection of his essays and for me his critiques and essays are my favorite of his work. So very misleading.
I was trying to find listed on here the complete works of Orwell so I selected this book but it's falsely advertised.

[Katrina Gilmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection

All of orwell's books for such a cheap price! definitely can't go wrong! Great way to discover a brilliant author if you haven't already!

[Sai Mali · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone to sharpen their distaste for the totalitarian instinct within us.

[Henriët]

2011-2012: Animal Farm
Feb 2024: 1984. Why did I never read this before? Rightly a classic.