George Orwell

[Mrsrobertduvall]

I have just spent the last couple of hours rereading Animal Farm, having last read it in 1975 when I did it for O level.
Really enjoyed it...poor Boxer

has anyone read any others eg Road to Wigan Pier,or Down and Out in Paris.
I read 1984, which I didn't particularly enjoy.

[PaddingtonBearsDuffleCoat]

I recently reread The Clergyman's Daughter and enjoyed it. Coming Up For Air is another I plan to read again soon. I did read The Road To Wigan Pier years ago but can't remember much about it.

[DuchessofMalfi]

I listened to an audio book (unabridged) of Down and Out in Paris and London a couple of weeks ago. Very good, but you'll need to have a strong stomach for the tales of life in the hotel kitchens in Paris. The tales of grinding poverty are heartbreakingly sad.

I listened to a dramatised version of Animal Farm last week, and have 1984 lined up to listen to next week. Quite enjoying Orwell's novels at the moment. I'm aiming to read/listen to more this year.

[Yama]

I tried Homage to Catalonia. Didn't get very far. I was young though.

[HumphreyCobbler]

I love the Road to Wigan Pier and Down and Out in Paris and London. Inside the Whale is also a favourite of mine.

1984 is the scariest book -

"You are the dead" said an iron voice behind them.

Terrifying. The most shocking moment in any book I have ever read.

[Takver]

I much prefer Orwell's non-fiction to his novels, I would say both Wigan Pier & Paris & London have a lot to say still today. (Depressingly so when you read letters in the paper / comments on here about 'there's no reason for people to be going to food banks or eating crap food they should be able to feed themselves & their children on boiled lentils and carrot sticks for 5 p a week' - basically the same things that he talks about being written in the 30s)

I think the Collected Essays is a particularly good place to start with his non-fiction.

[NotGoodNotBad]

Love George Orwell. Road to Wigan Pier and Down and Out are completely shocking mind you. 2nd half to Wigan Pier is rather rambling and a bit dull but they are both worth reading. Little bits in them have really stayed with me.

[MiddleAgeMiddleEngland]

None of them are really lighthearted, that's not what he was trying to do. However, as well as Animal Farm and 1984, I've enjoyed Keep the Aspidistra Flying and Coming Up For Air.

[iamabadger]

I've just read Burmese Days and have Down and Out in Paris and London in my teetering bedside pile! I'd recommend Burmese Days. Not the most cheery subject matter but very cleverly written and compelling I thought.

[KoalaCakes]

Paris and London is one of my all time favourites. His ability to conjour up a character through words is astounding...or maybe that's just my imagination! Wigan Pier is a beautiful ethnographic study...I adore his chapter on working in the coal mines. You can feel the pain!

[tethersend]

Yy, Paris and London is a great book. Also recommend The Road To Wigan Pier and Books vs Cigarettes.

[GranToAirMissiles]

I was very impressed by Burmese Days. Very clear-eyed on relations between the sexes, and between colonials and natives.

[Mrsrobertduvall]

Thankyou!
I do fancy Down and Out and Road to Wigan Pier,

[BestIsWest]

Do it Mrs R!

I have just read Down and Out and I'm half way through Wigan Pier. It has made me cry this morning, The parts about unemployment in the 30s and diet are heartbreaking. And the miners. I am from a mining area myself and I never realised.

As Takver says above, I keep being reminded of AIBU every few pages and the Daily mail. So much hasn't changed

I read 1984 years ago and I can't believe I've never read his non fiction. I have a massive collected edition that my lovely library dug out from the cellars for me.

[Lilymaid]

Road to Wigan Pier - can remember the chamber pot under the dining table (and the awful bread and margarine diet) even though I read the book as a teenager many many years ago.
Coming up for Air worth reading - about the overdevelopment of rural England just before WWII!

[marissab]

I have adored 1984 over and over but never read anything else of his. My dad was very against animal farm so we weren't allowed george orwell in the house. 1984 remains in my top 5 reads of all time. So scary to read it in todays societu.

[NotGoodNotBad]

"My dad was very against animal farm so we weren't allowed george orwell in the house."

Crikey. Time to break free!

[marissab]

Notgood i don't really know why. Did it have communist undertones? I think that was why.

[NotGoodNotBad]

Animal Farm is anti-communist. Or anti-Stalinist, anyway.