Good read. Short read. I enjoy Orwell. You might, too!

This little book of 120 pages reprints four of Orwell's essays: "Why I Write," "The Lion and the Unicorn," "A Hanging," and "Politics and the English Language." The book contains no introduction or other indication of who selected these four essays or on what basis the selection may have been made.

If you are familiar with Orwell at all, you've probably already read "Politics and the English Language," although it's always worth a reread. I had also previously read "The Lion and the Unicorn" and "Why I Write." I can't recall having read "A Hanging," which is the earliest of these essays, dating from 1931. The other three essays are from the 1940s and all reflect having been written during or immediately after the war. "A Hanging" would seem to be a memoir of an incident from Orwell's time with British police force in Burma, although that's not made explicit. It should actually have been placed before rather than after "The Lion and the Unicorn" because it provides some context for Orwell's views on British India as expressed in that essay.

"The Lion and Unicorn" is the longest and most interesting of the four essays. Apparently written in the fall of 1940, it presents Orwell's understanding of what constitutes the essence of English society and how that essence can be preserved during what he hoped was an imminent transition to socialism. It is a product of its time when the crisis caused by the fall of France, the evacuation from Dunkirk, and the German bombing of London made it seem likely that dramatic political change would have to occur in England or else the war would be lost to Germany. With hindsight, Orwell underestimated the ability of the traditional political order to weather the storm and win the war. Still, it makes interesting reading in light of Labor's unexpected (to most observers) win in the 1945 election.

There are other more comprehensive collections of Orwell's essays available but this one certainly is a reasonable introduction to important aspects of his political outlook. Note that only two of the four essays fit the title. Neither "The Lion and the Unicorn" nor "A Hanging" has anything to do with writing.

Orwell is a great novelist, a clear thinker, and a political mind. His political preferences aside, this book contains and essay, "The Lion and the Unicorn" that gives a concise history of the moment he was living, 1940 with bombs dropping overhead in London. His descriptions of the society and political parties of Britain in the run up to, and the first year of WWII are hauntingly familiar. It reinforces the adage, if we don't learn from history, we are bound to repeat it.

This little book contains four essays written between 1931 and 1946. But the bulk of the book (85 of 120 pages) is taken up by one essay, "The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius," written in 1940. The others are "Why I Write" (1946), "A Hanging" (1931), and "Politics and the English Language" (1946). I am not sure why these four essays are joined in this one volume or why the title of the volume is the title of one of the short essays. All of the essays are about politics in one way or another, but only the first and last deal with the profession of being a writer. Also, there is no introduction by an editor that might explain this collection.

In spite of this mystery, the book is a good introduction to Orwell, the essayist. One gets a taste of him early on in 1931, during the physical and psychological pounding of the Blitz (1940), and in his full maturity in 1946.

In "The Hanging," the young Orwell expresses his moral revulsion at capital punishment. As a policeman in Burma, he had to watch the hanging of a Hindu man. The crime for which the man is being executed is never named. Thus, we are forced to concentrate on the act of hanging a human being, rather than the execution of a criminal. Orwell writes, "I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide." (p. 98)

The long essay, "The Lion and the Unicorn," was written in 1940 as German planes were bombing London. This brings Orwell to reflect on patriotism and its inexplicable strength throughout Britain's highly stratified society. His essay is partly an analysis of three economic/social systems---capitalism, socialism, and fascism---in a time of war. He concludes that England will survive only if it undergoes a socialistic revolution.

In "Why I Write," Orwell admits that he writes for political reasons. In fact, he believes that all good books are political. His goal is to make political writing into an art.

"Politics and the English Language" may be one of his most famous essays. I find it reprinted in different collections of Orwell's essays. Here he is most specific in telling us what makes writing good or bad. He lists several bad practices: dying metaphors, operators or verbal false limbs, pretentious diction, and meaningless words. But he targets lack of sincerity as the worse culprit. He calls it "the enemy of clear language." And, as in "Why I Write," he reminds us that "all issues are political issues." He concludes by helpfully providing us with these six rules:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.

3. If it is possible to cut out a word, always cut it out.

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Orwell confesses that if we look back through his essay, we can probably catch him breaking his own rules. But the point is not to be fastidious, but to work towards clarity of speech. He writes, "If you simplify your English, you are freed from the worst follies of orthodoxy."

Though Orwell wrote the essays in this collection over 70 years ago, their truth and relevance remains strong. Whether he’s discussing why writers write (he identifies four possible motives—egoism, aesthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse, and political purpose), the need for pre-WWII England to embrace true Socialism in its effort to defeat Hitler, or the various ways that writers butcher the English language for the purposes of political deception, Orwell could easily be describing early 21st-century US culture. Perhaps this kind of timelessness is the mark of genuine literary art.

This is one of my favorite books. I originally had to buy this for an English class in college. After studying it in college, I found it to be very useful. Now, I am a high school English teacher and regularly teach Animal Farm, by George Orwell. I often refer to this text as another resource from Orwell. I find Orwell's writing to be very interesting and feel that this book helps give an insight into his life. This book contains many essays written by Orwell.

Orwell's sense of things before WWII is fascinating to read; also fascinating - though few of them have come to pass - his predictions about post-war socio-politics in the UK.

I am making up my mind about the book.

Before telling what I didn't like, here are the lines I liked:

*Hitler will at any rate go down in history as the man who made the City of London laugh on the wrong side of its face.

*War is the greatest of all agents of change. It speeds up all processes, wipes out minor distinctions, brings realities to the surface. Above all, war brings it home to the individual. That he is NOT altogether an individual.

* England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality.

* Nations do not escape from their past merely by making a revolution.

* English language becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.

The book is good, very good, at most of the places.

But some views of George Orwell-- GEORGE ORWELL (Et tu, Brute?)-- were offensive to any Indian who has read Indian history. His opinions on India's struggle for independence (and India's future without British Colony) were not well-researched. I genuinely want to give him a benefit of doubt because I am a die-hard fan of his fictions.

That said, the book is good at most of the places.

Beautifully produced pamphlets worth every penny. A wonderful addition to anyone's Orwell collection.

The 2017 Kindle edition of this book is bogus. It has content taken from a website and a cover pirated from Amazon itself. It is not any kind of Penguin edition, despite what the cover might suggest. The true Penguin edition from 2014 contains much more content.

Its not something you'd expect out of the title, but more about the Orwell's style and its remarkably well thought out about how similar every Writer is in his own unique way. That's the exatly same reason why I write!

I’d say somewhat misleading. It’s more like a pamphlet than a book.

Good book, but the price is too high for the amount of pages. The essay is available from other publishers that include many of his essays.