if i had to pick 'writer of the twentieth century'... it'd be orwell. no doubt. his masterpiece, 1984, along with conrad's Secret Agent, tells one all she need know about life in contemporary america. his essays, perhaps even more than his fiction, are indispensable. all four volumes should be bought, savored, and read over and over and over.

The third volume in Orwell’s collected non-fiction, As I Please covers the period from 1943 to 1945. At this time Orwell was working as literary editor at a magazine called Tribune, and wrote a regular column called “As I Please” in which he wrote, naturally, about whatever he pleased. This volume takes not only its title but the bulk of its material from that column, and as a result, it’s probably the best in the compendium so far. While the previous volume was heavily political, Orwell’s regular editorial columns wander over all sorts of subjects and never go for longer than a few pages. Orwell discusses the progress of the war, political feeling of all kinds in England, anti-American sentiment amongst the British, the use of language in newspapers, Burma, the drinking of tea, nationalism, and all kinds of things. One of my favourite essays occurs near the beginning, in which Orwell describes his favourite pub, “The Moon Under Water,” only to reveal that it is wholly fictional, checking the ten aspects he thinks the ideal pub should have. (A restaurant in Melbourne has named itself after the essay, and its decor cheerfully violates the “modern miseries” Orwell was against.)

I mentioned in my last review that I was keeping an eye out for the first mention of the Holocaust, but I’m still unsure whether I’ve found it. Orwell mentions that beastly things were going on in the German concentration camps, but it’s unclear whether the scope of the crimes were well-known to the rest of the world – indeed, Orwell mentions it in an essay describing how, because most people didn’t want to hear about it, the knowledge “slid off” them. It’s important to bear in mind throughout this compendium that Orwell was writing for his own time, not for history, and takes for granted the reader’s pre-existing knowledge. (For example, I imagine Hiroshima would have been a day that shocked the world, but Orwell mentions it only in passing, in letters and essays on other topics, written weeks or months after it happened.)

Overall, this volume was good stuff as usual. It’s a shame Orwell didn’t keep a diary during the latter part of the war, since that was one of the most enjoyable parts of the last volume, but I suppose that’s up to him.

I read this in fits and starts over the course of a year, going slow not because it wasn’t good, but because it was a random collection and such things rarely pull me through. Still, I enjoyed this book. I’d read some of the essays before but the journalism and the letters were all new and gave interesting glimpses into the mind of one of the most important writers of the 20th century. Well worth reading if you are an Orwell fan.

I picked this up and read it a bunch of times throughout 2021 - mostly short stories and newspaper articles written by Orwell in the era of WWII and the Post-Depression. Many of his opinions are thought-provoking even today and some of the examples and stories he includes provide a unique insight to the era and at times, quickly bring you to how ornery of a human he could be. You’d have to really want to read Orwell and his wide-range of thoughts on a wide-range of topics to truly enjoy this book. And…if you are trying to figure out what made the man who wrote some of the novels he’s most known for, this might not exactly be the best way to go about it. :). One thumb up.

'There are ideas so crazy that only an intellectual would believe because no ordinary person could."---George Orwell. G.O. was writing of British defeatist intellectuals during the war, yet his message is still timely today. Other gems in this outstanding collection include his warnings against a post-war world government and, alas, his defense of the bombing of civilians at Dresden. Orwell had a disdain of pacifists in general: 'Most self-proclaimed pacifists are no such thing; they are actually pro-war on the other side."

If Goodreads hadn't crapped out at the wrong moment there would have been a detailed, two-paragraph review, but my memory isn't good enough to reproduce it quickly and my web-browser can't recover what was written. I only try once, I don't like to be suppressed, but I deal with it... The book was fantastic and worthwhile, and I could discuss it at length and will not hesitate to read it again within a few years.

These pieces are brilliant. Orwell's style is immaculate and carries you along. His judgements are always interesting. I particularly liked the piece on Dali where he picks apart the relationship between art and morality.

The four volumes of this collection (4 in the old Penguin edition) not only reveal the development of Orwell's thought throughout his literary and political life but provide a wide-ranging view of the intellectual life of his time as well as the social conditions of his country. Settled views and attitudes can be frequently challenged (without having to accept that he is always right!).

Orwell continues to astonish me with

(a) his extraordinary - what's the word I'm looking for - "prolific" doesn't seem to have an associated noun. Fecundity? Industry? productivity? oh, what the heck - just the sheer volume of his output
(b) the quality of his writing, which is clear and devoid of affectation throughout
(c) the breadth of his scope (is there anything he doesn't write about?)
(d) the acuity of his intellect
(e) the depth of his commitment to his political views, which are obviously deeply felt, and which he defends passionately and articulately
(f) the *sanity* that pervades all of the pieces in this book, all written at a time when Europe was plunged in chaos, and jingoistic propaganda was the order of the day. It's fascinating to read Orwell's speculation about the likely political structures in postwar Europe, written when Hitler's defeat was by no means a given.

I will try to write a more comprehensive review once I finish the next, and final, volume in the series.

But it should be obvious by now. This is great stuff!

I think more essays and fewer letters than even the one before, covering up to the tail end of World War II -- it includes an allusion to the atom bomb, namely that the Japanese surrender did much to reconcile the British to it.

More literary criticism and discussion of writing. He objects to the notion of criticism that is actually disapproval of your opponents' point of view -- in the abstract, he doesn't always avoid it with concrete lit crit. His review of Hayek's Road to Serfdom is clearer than most; he admits that Hayek has a good view of the problems of controlled economies, but his belief in historical inevitable hampers him, and he's quite certain that economic competitions have winners -- and there your competition ends.

It occurs to me that I should include a warning about "Benefit of the Clergy", one of the essays. It's about Dali, and it concludes with observations about saying that a work is a magnificent piece of artistry and should be burned by the public hangman. It makes it very clear why he thinks of this of Dali, and it's rather revolting stuff.

Some interesting little bits about English cookery, and the wonders of Woolworth's roses and how the cheap ones he got are still flourishing and bringing joy to passersby long after he left the place where he planted them.

The war and the political developments as they appeared then. At the end of the war, doing a letter for the Partisan Review that summed up his earlier letter he observed that he had often been wrong in his predictions, and that many people were when they did not want what was going to happen. (He does not go on to observe that the accurate ones were probably as much wishful thinking, too.)

Discussion of the birthrate in a manner that shows how very differently the matter was viewed back then.