This is the third of four volumes of essays put out by Nonpareil Books of George Orwell's essays and edited in part by his widow Sonia Orwell. The bulk of this volume is made up of Orwell's "As I Please" column in the left wing Tribune where he was employed as editor for the later part of WWII. These are excellent insights into British life during the war era and into the political culture of the British left of which Orwell was a member.

His column's musings range from commentary on political pamphlets to the effects of the war on clothing and food. Orwell, ever the socialist, sees everything through the prism of class structure and to those who only know of his writings co-opted by the right such as "Animal Farm" and "1984" his definite left wing stance may come as a bit of a shock. He was by no means a dogmatic ideologue. The left gets the benefit of his often scathing criticisms as well as the right. Always willing to call things as he saw them, Orwell made enemies on both sides of the political spectrum.

Included in volume III as well are several letters to friends and acquaintances that are political and literary in nature rather than personal. Especially noteworthy is the first essay in the volume "The English People", a rather famous piece on culture, language and class.

I highly recommend this volume as well as the preceding volume II "My Country Left or Right". Orwell's essays are wonderful windows into the mind of one of the most important individuals of the twentieth century.

In my humble estimation Orwell was, by far, the best writer of the 20th century. Overflowing with compassion for all humanity, Orwell wrote about events happening in his life as if he were reflecting on them years later. His perception of the world was so keen and his analytical senses were so acute, we are blessed to have his best writings available to us in this 4 volume set.

Volume 3, I believe, is the best of this collection because it contains the bulk of the weekly, As I Please, that ran in the "Tribune" magazine from 1943-1945. This is some of his best freelance writing covering a whole range of topics. They capture the essence of his thoughts politically and socially. Here too you gain a view of life in WW2 Britain: rationing, blackouts, air raids, and, more importantly, how it felt to live through it.

I would reccomend you buy all 4 volumes and start at the beginning. You will not regret the experience.

This book contains some of Orwell's best essays, including "A Hanging" and "Shooting an Elephant", which describe his experiences as a policeman in Burma in the twenties, and "Inside the Whale", in which he discusses Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer" and other literature of the thirties. You can browse through it and discover what Orwell thought about poverty in England, the Spanish Civil War, fascism in Europe, the lead-up to the second world war, and lighter subjects such as what boys' comics were like at the time. The numerous letters to friends and colleagues provide a fascinating glimpse into Orwell's private life and his views on a wide range of subjects.

...Country Right or Left is part of a four volume set of essays commissioned by Orwell's wife Sonia. Whatever the criticisms that have been made of her stewardship of Orwell's legacy, these four volumes contain much of the best of Orwell's essays, letters and diary excerpts. This volume covers the early war years and much of the writing is shaded by that war.

This is Orwell at his finest, on one hand a confirmed socialist dedicated to fighting the right whether the Tory party or fascism; one the other hand an anti-Stalinist and critic of the left and always an anti-totalitarian.

Contained within "My Country Right or Left" is some of Orwell's best writing. In "Pacifism and the War", a notorious piece at the time, he accuses pacifists of aiding the fascist cause. "The Art of Donald McGill" is an essay about, of all things, postcards that are popular among the middle and lower classes. The postcards themselves, Orwell argues, say much about England's political and social attitudes. It's actually a perceptive piece of pop art and social commentary. Among my favorites is the essay concerning Mark Twain (Mark Twain- Licensed Jester). Orwell, a great admirer of Twain's, is critical of him for not being forceful enough in his social criticism. He accusation is that Twain pulls his punches far too often. It's a great piece of criticism and is Orwell at his finest.

What holds a large amount of this Volume together are the letters to the Partisan Review, a New York publication that contracted with Orwell to write commentary on England during this early war period. The issues vary from English politics, reflections on the clothing worn by the masses, attitudes towards democracy and so on. All well written, never dull and very often wrong in their predictions. There is much more here including excerpts from his diary, letters to other major figures of the day and reflections on the Spanish Civil War.

This is some of the greatest essay writing in the English language. Even sixty years later the essay's read clearly and give insight to Orwell's thinking.

This is a great collection of essays and other writers by one of the foremost socialist critics of totalitarianism and domination. It is also a great book for admires of writers such as Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn and Edward said, as all share the same overarching purpose: to be a tireless critic of power and domination wherever it may be found. It is ironic to the extreme that so many conservative revisionists attempt to claim Orwell as their own, which is due to the tragically myopic misreading of his writings, especailly 1984 and Animal Farm. Both books are condemnations of totalitarianism, and in the case of Animal farm, the final page attests to Orwell's repugnance of capitalism. Let it not be forgotten that Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil War in the aid of the socialist-anarchists. This is truly a great collection, which should be required reading for those who may not be familar with Orwell's non-fiction work.

This is the second volume of the four that make up Orwell's collected essays, journalism and letters. It is a fascinating work of political and literary commentary and commitment, written at one of the darkest moments in British history, when our nation was under attack from an enemy of monstrous evil.

Not the least inspiring aspect of Orwell's writings at this time - highly topical now, as the free world confronts terrorism - was his determination to rebut the defeatism of leftist intellectuals. This volume contains his famous and invigorating exchange, from the American magazine Partisan Review, with some minor literary figures (a forgotten poet named D.S. Savage; the future writer on sex, Alex Comfort) about the merits of pacifism. Orwell tells the peace campaigners of his day (this was in 1942) defiantly, "Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side you automatically help out that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, 'he that is not with me is against me.' "

That devastating truth has great modern relevance. Those who suppose such people as Noam Chomsky and Susan Sontag to be serious social critics would do particularly well to read this book.

I'm not going to review all four volumes of this collection separately; what I say below applies to them all.

There are lots of reasons to read Orwell's letter, essays and journalism:

1. He's a great writer. It's a pleasure to read him, just for entertainment value. There's a little piece of doggerel from Orwell's school days that he quotes several times that is now stuck in my head:

The rain it raineth every day
Upon the just and the unjust fella
But more upon the just because
The unjust has the just's umbrella

I don't know why that sticks with me, but it's a great illustration of Orwell's use of solid, colloquial and even humorous English.

Moreover, in addition to providing wonderful model prose he occasionally writes essays about writing and language (the use of "Basic English", oratorical versus conversational English, what drives a writer, the totalitarian perversion of word meanings, etc.), which are insightful and interesting.

2. If you're interested in the Second World War (or for that matter, the Spanish Civil War), Orwell's writings amount to a sort of diary, a primary document. Even his book reviews almost inevitably contain some reference to the political and historical scene.

3. Orwell loved socialism (yes, the man who write _1984_ was a democratic socialist), but he loved freedom more. His simultaneous battle for socialism and against totalitarianism (i.e., the Soviet Union) is engaging, even -- or maybe particularly -- where he drops the ball.

...

I think Orwell's heart was in the right place -- he had seen close up (and written a good deal about) the suffering of the poor. Like many people who have their hearts in the right place, he jumped immediately to the idea that redistribution of private property and collective ownership of the means of production were the only way forward.

On the other hand, he was a writer and a man of ideas, a person who greatly prized personal freedom. His essays give an intriguing glimpse into the battle raging inside him between collectivism and individual liberty.

I read this set many years ago, and it's great. There were better novelists, but Orwell was the best 20th Century essayist, at least in English, that I know of. Together with "Down and Out in Paris and London," "Homage to Catalonia," and "The Road to Wigan Pier," these four large volumes comprise the best of Orwell's nonfiction. As an essayist, Orwell was consistently clearminded, idealistic, honest and to the point. He is a pleasure to read, and he is one of my intellectual heroes.

I don't have a copy in front of me as I write this, but I'm pretty sure this first volume contains Orwell's unforgettable essays on the inner life of colonialism, "Shooting an Elephant" and "A Hanging". I highly recommend this set to anyone who is the least bit interested in Orwell.

This fourth and final volume of collected essays, articles and letters of Orwell covers the years from the onset of the Cold War till Orwell's premature death in 1950. It is most revealing for the insights it yields into the political thinking of a democratic socialist and a patriot who despised the anti-anti-Communism then fashionable on the Left. His campaign to expose and isolate fellow-travellers and Communist sympathisers was as necessary as it was principled, and is well-expressed in this volume. The most priceless item here is a little-known article, written in 1947, entitled, with heavy irony, 'In Defence of Comrade Zilliacus'. After the War, there was a strong body of opinion within the Labour Party that was pro-Soviet, and a much wider Left-wing constituency for anti-Americanism. In this article Orwell takes on the most shameless of this bunch, in an elegant hatchet job. (Konni Zilliacus was at that time a Labour Member of Parliament who was a Communist sympathiser. To the Labour Party's credit, he was expelled from membership for his pro-Soviet beliefs.) Orwell disdained the pro-Soviet tendency but he was more worried by the anti-anti-Communists. His point was that at least Zilliacus was openly pro-Soviet, whereas the nominally democratic Left (Michael Foot and the Tribune newspaper) affected to be even-handed but were adopting an intellectually dishonest stance. Orwell wrote, '[T]here is one question that should be answered plainly. It is: 'If you had to choose between Russia and America, which would you choose?' And in spite of all the fashionable chatter of the moment, everyone knows in his heart that we should choose America. The great mass of people in this country would, I believe, make this choice almost instinctively.' For parts of the post-war period - especially the 1980s in Great Britain and the Federal Republic of Germany - the social democratic Left forgot this truth and adopted anti-nuclear and anti-American policies, with predictably awful electoral consequences. Orwell was a permament reminder of the legacy of democratic thought that they had abandoned. His intellectual honesty, plain speaking and understanding of the totalitarian threat to civilised values are of enduring importance, and are amply displayed in this collection.

Essays and journalism and very good footnotes deal with starvation in Europe, prevention of literature, Gandhi, an attempt to form an organization which would deal with issues like expelling people from their homes, people forced back to Soviet Russia, and much more including civil liberities for anarchists.