For Orwell, it was most important to secure the hunk of clay first and worry about sculpting it later. Orwell arrived at his spare style by reading the work of many other authors, internalizing the styles of his favorites. He drew on the their work in many ways, often blatantly. From a very early age, Orwell appreciated literature with a political bent, especially Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, which he read at least seven times during his lifetime, starting on the eve of his eighth birthday.219
