# Best George Orwell book?



## Reformed Covenanter (Dec 26, 2013)

I have read half of _Keep the Aspidistra Flying_ today and should finish it tomorrow (dv). Although he wrote more than novels, George Orwell is one of the few writers of fiction that I have ever been able to read - I cannot even read C. S. Lewis's _Narnia_ novels without having seen the films first. At present, I would be of the opinion that The Road to Wigan Pier was his best book, though that is probably because of my own British [upper] working-class background. What is your favourite book by this distinguished author?


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## py3ak (Dec 26, 2013)

_Down and Out in Paris and London_ is undoubtedly Orwell's most entertaining book. I think _A Clergyman's Daughter_ is probably the best of the novels. But it is his essays that are a perpetual delight. If I had to choose just one of the four volumes of collected essays, it would probably be "As I Please".


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## bookslover (Dec 26, 2013)

For those who love Orwell's essays, this collection is, by far, the best: _Essays_ by George Orwell; selected and introduced by John Carey; "Everyman's Library" series #242 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002). It's 1,363 pages of literary goodness. The man could _write_!

The book includes one of my favorites: "Bookshop Memories" (pp. 50-54), originally from 1936. It also includes one of his most important and prescient: "Politics and the English Language" (pp. 954-967), first published in 1946. It also includes all 81 of his "As I Please" essays - representing, as the introduction says, Orwell's "most personal writing." A delight throughout.


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## Reformed Covenanter (Dec 26, 2013)

I found _Inside the Whale_ to be a very useful collection of essays. The book which has (indirectly) had the most influence on me is undoubtedly _Animal Farm_. I recall watching the animated film when I was about 14; it further solidified my anti-Communism. Hence, it was a great delight to watch it again recently on iplayer.


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## Philip (Dec 26, 2013)

I went with _1984_ simply because of the larger impact that it has had on political discourse. The ironic thing about the book is that the _Brave New World_ish internet culture is slowly sliding toward a kind of newspeak.


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## davdavis (Dec 26, 2013)

I've read 1984 and Animal Farm and have Homage to Catalonia on my "to read", pile.(I have little sympathy for Republican Spain though,) The principal thing I've always admired about Orwell is the independence of his mind, very much like Whitaker Chambers, or Solzhenitsyn. Unlike the bulk of the leftist of his day and ours, he was never taken in by the Soviet lie. I,m always reminded in the quote in Paul Johnson's "Intellectuals", where a former friend of Orwell's in a eulogy had said it was a good thing he died when he did because if he lived he would have become a conservative. I always found it intriguing that in his will he asked to be buried in consecrated ground. (Ps If youve never read Chambers review of "Atlas Shrugged" Whittaker Chambers 1957 Review of Ayn Rand . its extremely insightful.


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## toddpedlar (Dec 26, 2013)

This is kind of a tough choice... I put 1984, but as others have noted, it's in his essays where Orwell really shines. I definitely enjoyed _Road to Wigan Pier_ and have _Homage to Catalonia_ in my "to read" pile, but his big volume of Essays (as Richard noted already) is the about the best 25 bucks one can spend on any book.


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## Backwoods Presbyterian (Dec 26, 2013)

I really, really enjoyed "The Road to Wigan Pier".


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## a mere housewife (Dec 26, 2013)

I was thinking this morning of how so many of the visionary people of that time were able to retain their faith in human goodness. They had lost their belief in transcendent goodness and were well acquainted with the horror of human evil. I looked up some notes about the Clergyman's Daughter (which is, I think, my favorite -- there is a great deal of accurate and telling truth in it, not always so much gently as sympathetically presented) and was reminded of how I used to be struck even looking at his picture -- 'it’s surprising that having no fixed belief in the goodness of God he lived through so many experiences of which he writes without more cynicism. Certainly there is the chilling edge of his tone; but he still had faith in the social salvation of humanity. His vision is uncompromising, and often of futility. But there is a hardness in his hope that is harder than all the hard edges of his disillusionment. You can see it in his eyes, actually, in pictures of him.' It is something I have been noticing again recently in reading some essays by Edith Hamilton. She traces her heritage of thought back to the Greeks and her idea of freedom (an all important concept) is a political, social one: she reads that idea into the apostle John's gospel. Somehow that seems to create a buffer in which she can avoid the impact of real disillusionment over the tragedy of man.

One of the telling things missing in the Clergyman's Daughter is a personal consciousness of sin. The character's consciousness of sin is actually rather negligible -- something to skip a small pleasure or inflict a small mortification over. I'm not sure if that's only brilliantly accurate of the particular character Orwell was creating, or telling on a larger scale. The questions associated with politics were more fundamental to him than the questions associated with religion.

Carl Trueman did a book blog for my former dog, and said that The Road to Wigan Pier was a book that changed his life.


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## Steve Curtis (Dec 26, 2013)

a mere housewife said:


> book blog for my former dog


I don't understand this line - sorry!


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## a mere housewife (Dec 26, 2013)

We were offloaded with a dog, when we were living in Mexico, that had not been bathed for a year. It had only three legs and was, I am grieved to say, incredibly unintelligent and even, very depraved. It responded well to Ruben's commands, when he really yelled. But it would do absolutely nothing for me, though I made it chicken soup when it was unwell. I think it considered me the lowest animal in the pack. Naturally it took up blogging, and bothered Professor Trueman into writing a guest blog answering various book related questions. I don't know if that leaves you less confused. It's kind of hard to know how to refer to it all in passing.


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## Steve Curtis (Dec 27, 2013)

Thanks for providing the back-story! As a child, my family had a dog with a very similar disposition, minus the blog (people still used pens back then) and minus the missing leg (or with the addition of a fourth, if you prefer)


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## Reformed Covenanter (Dec 27, 2013)

A few days ago, I put the following extract from _A Clergyman's Daughter_ up on facebook:

George Orwell's character "Mr Warburton" (an infidel) made the following comment to a professing Christian: "Here am I, an infidel and blasphemer and neck deep in at least six out of the Seven Deadly, and obviously doomed to eternal torment. There's no knowing that in an hour's time I mayn't be roasting in the hottest part of Hell. And yet you can sit there talking to me as calmly as though I'd nothing the matter with me. Now, if I'd merely got cancer or leprosy or some other bodily ailment, you'd be quite distressed about it - at least, I like to flatter myself that you would. Whereas, when I'm going to sizzle on the grid throughout eternity, you seem positively unconcerned about it."

I thought that was a perceptive and challenging comment.


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## Reformed Covenanter (Dec 27, 2013)

I just finished _Keep the Aspidistra Flying_; does anyone know why he keeps using the phrase, "Circumcise ye your foreskins, saith the Lord"? It is a bit of an odd book, but an interesting one nonetheless. A friend of mine raves about it, though I do not think it is on a par with some of his other books.


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## a mere housewife (Dec 27, 2013)

I haven't looked into that one in years -- not since before we were married (Ruben broke off our engagement briefly after reading it . A wild guess -- based on what I remember of the Aspidistra theme: circumcision relates to being brought to a point of conformity with societal norms? (Such a connection would reflect what I understand to be Orwell's view of the function of organised religion in society -- so the aspidistra in the window is perhaps the new badge of having cut away something of the self -- belonging to 'the people'.)


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## Somerset (Dec 27, 2013)

I did "Animal Farm" for O level which put me off Orwell for years. I, too, prefer the shorter pieces.


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## Reformed Covenanter (Dec 28, 2013)

a mere housewife said:


> I haven't looked into that one in years -- not since before we were married (*Ruben broke off our engagement briefly after reading it* . A wild guess -- based on what I remember of the Aspidistra theme: circumcision relates to being brought to a point of conformity with societal norms? (Such a connection would reflect what I understand to be Orwell's view of the function of organised religion in society -- so the aspidistra in the window is perhaps the new badge of having cut away something of the self -- belonging to 'the people'.)



Thanks, Heidi. Yes, I think that point about circumcision definitely makes sense in the wider context of the whole book.

I hope the bit in bold was not a serious comment.


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## a mere housewife (Dec 28, 2013)

Reformed Covenanter said:


> I hope the bit in bold was not a serious comment.



It's a superbly written, bitter book; and I think superbly written books create a shattering response (a big reason why I have trouble just picking up a good book and reading). But love is longer than bitter books.


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## Reformed Covenanter (Dec 30, 2013)

Somewhat disappointingly, the results are pretty much as expected: with _1984_ in the lead closely followed by _Animal Farm_. I am somewhat surprised that _Down and out in Paris and London_ has not even got a single vote.


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## py3ak (Dec 30, 2013)

C.S. Lewis argues that _Animal Farm_ is superior to _1984_, containing more consistently and concisely everything in the larger book, with the exception of the section about newspeak.


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