Pugnacious yet erudite, tough but compassionate, one of the best writers to have ever drawn breath.

This was amazing and really interesting! Although it took me really long to finish it (6 months), I enjoyed (almost) everything about it.

Much of what Orwell was writing then could be written now.

A fantastic collection of not simply how the country was but also an insight into understanding what we are today

"While [Orwell] is best known for Animal Farm and 1984, most of his writing derived from his tireless work as a journalist, and thanks to David Godine’s welcome reissue of The Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters of George Orwell, which has been out of print for a decade, readers can find it all in one place. All of the author’s insightful, hard-hitting essays and journalistic pieces are here…the most complete picture of the writer and man possible."
—Eric Liebetrau | Kirkus Reviews

The following is my list of chosen articles (in order of importance)
1. No, Not One
2. The Lion and the Unicorn
3. New Words
4. Looking Back on the Spanish War
5. The Frontiers of Art and Propaganda
6. Tolstoy and Shakespeare
7. Wells, Hitler and the World State
8. Review of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
9. Poetry and the Microphone
10. Review of Beggar My Neighbor by Lionel Fielden
11. The Art of Donald McGill
12. Charles Reade
13. Rudyard Kipling
14. The Rediscovery of Europe
15. Pamphlet Literature
16. Who Are the War Criminals?
The book contains author’s articles on a great variety of subjects and since these articles were independently published at first, there is a lot of repetition of repetition both within and inter the collection- for none of which author is to blame. The diaries in the end are best example of this type of redundancy.
The letters, specially smaller ones are mostly redundant – dwelling mostly on contemporary environment and government policies – and they often repeats what can also be said in other articles.
‘No, Not One’, for example is, Orwell’s argument against pacifism. The letters that subsequently followed – by his critics and his own reply to them all; establishes nothing beyond the point the author had already made.
‘Looking back at Spanish war shows how Orwell’s experience of war contributed to ideas of his book, ‘1984’.
Most of the articles concern at least one of following two themes:
(i) Language and literature (since author is a writer as well as critic)
(ii) war (Note that these were years of WWII)
Many of these themes are explored in "Animal Farm' and '1984'. In these essays, you find a sophisticated discussion of what prompted the ideas which make them legendary. The thing that ones loves about Orwell is his simpleness of the language in which he speaks - staying away, in fact questioning the jargon every now and then.

To me, not as interesting as Volume 1 of Orwell's collected essays. Volume 2 understandably focuses on WWII (1940-1943). Interesting reporting of various opinions held by Brits in those days. Much emphasis on surviving the Blitz. Orwell hopes if Britain is going to suffer major setbacks than perhaps Socialism will be given a chance.

Skvělá kniha. Skvělá! Je krásně vidět, jak moc se lidé mýlí v tom, kam se bude budoucnost vyvíjet. Jak náročné je odhadnout další vývoj světových událostí. A nezáleží na tom, jestli je člověk vzdělaný literát nebo ne.

Orwellovy deníkové zápisky z druhé světové války taky velmi zajímavým způsobem ukazují, že pro Británii byl v průběhu války zásadní vývoj ne na kontinentu, ale v Indii, na Blízkém východě a v severní Africe. Minimálně jeho záznamy o tom vypovídají.

Další část zápisků se týkala běžných každodenních věcí. Jak lidé reagují na nálety v Londýně, zda je dostatek potravin, jak se Británie připravovala na německý útok či jak válka dopadá na psychiku a pracovní výkonnost. Ze zápisků jsou jasně patrné Orwellovy levicové nálady. Očekával, že tváři v tvář válečnému strádání musí v Británii dojít k revoluci, jelikož nejbohatší část společnosti nebyla ochotna být solidární s lidem.

Jak vidíme, nebyla to jediná věc, ve které se tento výjimečný spisovatel mýlil.

Knihu doporučuji všemi deseti.

When I started this Orwell was my favorite author ever, and one volume of his most personal writings have done nothing to change that status. His typically clear, incisive prose is on full display, while his perpetually calm and reasoned attitude -- especially when speaking about his contemporaries -- continues to give him an aura of being the only adult in a room full of squabbling children. It's very hard to disagree with him when he uses such plain logic.

Orwell's opinion on other writers and famous figures is fascinating and often transformative, highlights being H.G. Wells, T.S. Eliot, Rudyard Kipling, D.H. Lawrence, W.B. Yeats, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Twain, Churchill and Gandhi. His tone towards these folks is one of straightforward modesty, though he does occasionally lapse into a strange mixture of bullheaded arrogance and idealistic naiveté (especially as regards Socialism). The most glaring example of this is his repeated certainty in the first years of WWII that Britain could only win by undergoing revolutionary class upheaval, a prediction which turned out almost shockingly narrow-minded. I couldn't help feeling simultaneously amused and sad at knowing just how wrong his "end of capitalism" proclamations have turned out. He'd sure be horrified today, wouldn't he?

Specific highlights are "No, Not One," "Pacifism and the War" for a glimpse at what those he criticized thought of him, and "Looking Back on the Spanish War," which recalled his excellent and under-read Homage to Catalonia (see my review). But really the whole thing is valuable as a prolonged glimpse into one of the great minds of Western Civilization during such a volatile period.

It actually surprised me that his Wartime Diaries included at the end of the book were perhaps my favorite part, just because they provide such an amazingly clear window into not only the complex political machinations behind the simplified history that we all learn (e.g.: propaganda; British domestic politics and popular wartime attitudes; Anglo-Indian relations; the tense and turbulent relationship between Britain and Russia), but also because of their vivid and often beautiful portrayal of what life for a common citizen during those times must have been.

There's a span between pp. 420-28 where Orwell describes the horror of air raids and food shortages, and it's absolutely amazing to think that actual people suffered through these things only 70 years ago. It's especially powerful for a U.S. audience, since we can literally not comprehend how it must have felt to be subject to threats on our very sovereignty. To put it in terms a North American could understand: it would be like knowing 9/11 is happening beforehand and then experiencing it every night, all night long for months on end. Orwell's portrayal is riveting, but only because he writes without pretense; his goal is only to describe popular morale and give examples but his innate talent makes it so much more. Some of his more poignant entries:

19 October 1941: The unspeakable depression of lighting the fires every morning with papers of a year ago, and getting glimpses of optimistic headlines as they go up in smoke.

22 January 1941: The onion shortage has made everyone intensely sensitive to the smell of onions. A quarter of an onion shredded into a stew seems exceedingly strong. E. the other day knew as soon as I kissed her that I had eaten onions some 6 hours earlier.

4 March 1941: At Wallington. Crocuses out everywhere, a few wallflowers budding, snowdrops just at their best. Couple of hares sitting about in the winter wheat and gazing at one another. Now and again in this war, at intervals of months, you can get your nose above water for a few moments and notice that the earth is still going around the sun.

Overall this book is important not only for Orwell completists but as a historical document. The diaries alone are a treasure in this respect. For ardent fans of Orwell as well as WWII history buffs it's a must-read, but even casual fans or poli-sci enthusiasts will appreciate his political and economic views. I plan on reading the next two volumes, though probably not the first as I am more interested in seeing how his thought develops, now that I know where he was at in his mid-30s.

Not Bad Reviews

@pointblaek

Didn't read the whole book since political journalism is the last thing I'm interested in. But the lit crit part of it is great.

For the true groupie of Orwell.

How did it feel to be involved in WW2? This book gives an insight into one mans war namely George Orwell. He of course is not an average or neutral observer but to have have someones reactions recorded as they occurred is always more interesting than hindsight or hearsay.
Orwell's essays are an absolute pleasure to read. He must be one of the best essayists in the English language. They (the essays) are an exposition of clarity and style which any writer of any kind should have as something to measure them self against.
For a man of the left who, while despising Hitler AND Stalin, also was no apologist for the British Empire, Orwell was always picking a political path that while fastidious was also quite trenchant. At one point he characterizes pacifists as fascifists.
The book gives many clues to the way his mind was working up to his masterpiece '1984'.

Continuing the journey through the collected writings of Mr Orwell. Volume 2 is fascinating, particularly as we are now into the Second World War and Orwell's insightful and often searing views on the conflict. Interesting also to see how much history is written then read for five minutes and then disappears altogether, leaving us with such narrow views of history - unless we choose to research and study and look deeper, which most simply don't or can't. We have indeed been doomed to repeat so much. Loving this immersion into Orwell's world. These volumes are not for the faint-hearted, and will be much more interesting to fans of the novels, but I'm looking forward to discovering what Volume 3 will bring.