{"product_id":"narrative-essays-9781846553271","title":"Narrative Essays","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eGeorge Orwell was first and foremost an essayist. From his earliest published article in 1928 to his untimely death in 1950, he produced an extraordinary array of short non-fiction that reflected - and illuminated - the fraught times in which he lived and wrote. 'As soon as he began to write something,' comments George Packer in his foreword to this new two-volume collection, 'it was as natural for Orwell to propose, generalize, qualify, argue, judge - in short, to think - as it was for Yeats to versify or Dickens to invent.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis collection charts Orwell's development as a master of the narrative-essay form and unites classics such as 'Shooting an Elephant' with lesser-known journalism and passages from his wartime diary. Whether detailing the horrors of Orwell's boyhood in an English boarding school or bringing to life the sights, sounds, and smells of the Spanish Civil War, these narrative essays weave together the personal and the political in an unmistakable style that is at once plain-spoken and brilliantly complex.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOrwell continues to be the benchmark for all would-be essayists because he achieved a perfect balance of clarity of prose and originality of insight. Consequently, he's marvellously readable, an effect he achieved without sacrificing a scrap of his fierce, wintry intelligence. There can be few writers who are as delightful discussing the class system as they are the common toad; Orwell was one of them -- Colin Waters * Sunday Herald *\u003cbr\u003eThe fast track to a core of truth that Orwell's essays take on every page can still make your hair stand on end... With an equally well-chosen (by George Packer) companion volume of \u003ci\u003eCritical Essays\u003c\/i\u003e, it delivers to newcomers and aficionados a crash course in the arts of close observing, free thinking - and crystalline writing -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent *\u003cbr\u003eBest known for novels \u003ci\u003e1984\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eAnimal Farm\u003c\/i\u003e, Orwell was also a superb essayist, and these two fine collections display his breadth of topic and depth of skill... Unpretentious, intelligent, compassionate and brilliantly insightful -- Doug Johnstone * Big Issue *\u003cbr\u003eOrwell's sanity and humanity seem especially precious today, when such qualities are in such short supply. How one would love to read him on the subject of our present political pygmies * Daily Telegraph *","brand":"Vintage Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52151367172439,"sku":"9781846553271","price":15.29,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/narrative-essays-9781846553271","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}