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Library's review
Indeholder "Books v. cigarettes", "Bookshop memories", "Confessions of a Book Reviewer", "The Prevention of Literature", "My Country Right or Left", "How the Poor Die", "Such Such Were the Joys".
"Books versus cigarettes" handler om bogpriser kontra tobakspriser.
"Bookshop memories" handler om
"Confessions of a Book Reviewer" handler om en boganmelders lede over mængden af ukvalificeret skidt han er nødt til at skamrose og hvorledes dette er nedbrydende for sjæl og legeme.
"The Prevention of Literature" handler om PEN klubbens knæfald for russisk ortodoksi og om det generelle i at totalitære stater ikke kan producere litteratur.
"My Country Right or Left" handler om patriotisme - det virker at træne en hel generation i at stå bagved England når der er brug for det.
"How the Poor Die" er en skræmmende beretning fra et fransk offentligt hospital hvor patienter nærmest behandles som kvæg og lever og dør uden hjælp eller medlidenhed.
"Such Such Were the Joys" er en lang beretning om livet som 10-12 årig på en betalingsskole hvor tæsk og hjerneløs terpen af årstal uden mening er hverdagskost. Han er syg, men det skal bare løbes væk. Fysisk overlast og generel dårlig behandling, fx forskel i lommepenge og ingen fødseldagskage. Varmt bad er kun en gang om ugen og der er både for lidt og for dårlig mad. Tæsk og grundløse beskyldning for homoseksualitet, som børnene slet ikke forstår. En "dejlig" skoleuddannelse.
En række velskrevne og tankevækkende essays fra forfatterens barndom og ungdom.
"My Country Right or Left" er selvfølgelig en parafrase over Stephen Decatur: "My country, right or wrong."
"Books versus cigarettes" handler om bogpriser kontra tobakspriser.
"Bookshop memories" handler om
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antikvarkunders mærkelige adfærd."Confessions of a Book Reviewer" handler om en boganmelders lede over mængden af ukvalificeret skidt han er nødt til at skamrose og hvorledes dette er nedbrydende for sjæl og legeme.
"The Prevention of Literature" handler om PEN klubbens knæfald for russisk ortodoksi og om det generelle i at totalitære stater ikke kan producere litteratur.
"My Country Right or Left" handler om patriotisme - det virker at træne en hel generation i at stå bagved England når der er brug for det.
"How the Poor Die" er en skræmmende beretning fra et fransk offentligt hospital hvor patienter nærmest behandles som kvæg og lever og dør uden hjælp eller medlidenhed.
"Such Such Were the Joys" er en lang beretning om livet som 10-12 årig på en betalingsskole hvor tæsk og hjerneløs terpen af årstal uden mening er hverdagskost. Han er syg, men det skal bare løbes væk. Fysisk overlast og generel dårlig behandling, fx forskel i lommepenge og ingen fødseldagskage. Varmt bad er kun en gang om ugen og der er både for lidt og for dårlig mad. Tæsk og grundløse beskyldning for homoseksualitet, som børnene slet ikke forstår. En "dejlig" skoleuddannelse.
En række velskrevne og tankevækkende essays fra forfatterens barndom og ungdom.
"My Country Right or Left" er selvfølgelig en parafrase over Stephen Decatur: "My country, right or wrong."
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Genres
Publication
London : Penguin, 2008.
Description
Beginning with a dilemma about whether he spends more money on reading or smoking, George Orwell's entertaining and uncompromising essays go on to explore everything from the perils of second-hand bookshops to the dubious profession of being a critic, from freedom of the press to what patriotism really means.Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.
Media reviews
Apart from provoking outrage and enlightenment, Orwell’s essays confront the dilemma of progress versus eternal issues of war and peace.
They remind us how far we have come when you read How the Poor Die, from 1946, when Orwell, sick as ever with TB, was admitted to Hôpital X in Paris, enduring
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a compulsory bath first, just as he would in prison or the workhouse. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member nigeyb
What a wonderful book. Seven essays - all of which are interesting, insightful and readable - and it definitely saves the best until last...
As with so much of his work the final essay, "Such, Such Were The Joys", an account of Orwell's school days, combines the personal with the polemical. One
All the essays are interesting. In the opener, "Books v. Cigarettes", Orwell argues, in 1946, that books are a relatively cheap form of entertainment despite many people's assertions to the contrary. He compares the cost of the books he's bought over the years with the amount he's spent on beer and cigarettes, and finds that even with his relatively high book consumption, books cost less than other vices. The same must surely still apply. When Orwell wrote his essay, he states that there were 15,000 books published annually in the UK. According to Wikipedia, in 2011 there were 149,800 books published in the UK. What does that tell us? Has the market for reading expanded ten fold in the interim?
Who'd be a book reviewer if Orwell's description in "Confessions Of A Book Reviewer" is accurate? What's the value of a professional review? Worthless, according to Orwell. Still a book reviewer is better off than a film reviewer who doesn't get to work at home and sells his honour for a glass of inferior sherry
"The Prevention of Literature" makes a passionate, and when written, a topical, argument describing how totalitarianism, or other all prevailing orthodoxies, crush worthwhile literature, and how the destruction of individual liberty cripples the journalist, the sociological writer, the historian, the novelist, the critic and the poet, in that order. Imagination will not breed in captivity.
Patriotism comes under the Orwell gaze in "My Country Right or Left", and Orwell concludes that no substitute has yet been found for patriotism. He even confesses to a faint feeling of sacrilege when he does not to stand to attention during God Save The King.
The penultimate essay "How the Poor Die" is a real eye opener. I was particularly struck how in the Parisian hospital Orwell describes in 1929, and as a non-paying patient in the uniform nightshirt, the patient is primarily a specimen. The doctors and medical students ignoring the individual and discussing the patient as if he were not there. Orwell states he did not resent this but could never get used to it.
This book is a mere 125 pages and every page contains something interesting and enlightening. Proof that good writing never dates.
As with so much of his work the final essay, "Such, Such Were The Joys", an account of Orwell's school days, combines the personal with the polemical. One
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minute we're reading a wince-inducing account of the brutality of St Cyprians (Orwell's prep school) and the next this meanders into social history, philosophy and a deconstruction of the pre-WW1 class system. And all of it written with George Orwell's customary clarity and readability. All the essays are interesting. In the opener, "Books v. Cigarettes", Orwell argues, in 1946, that books are a relatively cheap form of entertainment despite many people's assertions to the contrary. He compares the cost of the books he's bought over the years with the amount he's spent on beer and cigarettes, and finds that even with his relatively high book consumption, books cost less than other vices. The same must surely still apply. When Orwell wrote his essay, he states that there were 15,000 books published annually in the UK. According to Wikipedia, in 2011 there were 149,800 books published in the UK. What does that tell us? Has the market for reading expanded ten fold in the interim?
Who'd be a book reviewer if Orwell's description in "Confessions Of A Book Reviewer" is accurate? What's the value of a professional review? Worthless, according to Orwell. Still a book reviewer is better off than a film reviewer who doesn't get to work at home and sells his honour for a glass of inferior sherry
"The Prevention of Literature" makes a passionate, and when written, a topical, argument describing how totalitarianism, or other all prevailing orthodoxies, crush worthwhile literature, and how the destruction of individual liberty cripples the journalist, the sociological writer, the historian, the novelist, the critic and the poet, in that order. Imagination will not breed in captivity.
Patriotism comes under the Orwell gaze in "My Country Right or Left", and Orwell concludes that no substitute has yet been found for patriotism. He even confesses to a faint feeling of sacrilege when he does not to stand to attention during God Save The King.
The penultimate essay "How the Poor Die" is a real eye opener. I was particularly struck how in the Parisian hospital Orwell describes in 1929, and as a non-paying patient in the uniform nightshirt, the patient is primarily a specimen. The doctors and medical students ignoring the individual and discussing the patient as if he were not there. Orwell states he did not resent this but could never get used to it.
This book is a mere 125 pages and every page contains something interesting and enlightening. Proof that good writing never dates.
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LibraryThing member kidzdoc
This collection of essays was published by Penguin UK last year as part of its Great Ideas series. It consists of two long and five short and humorous essays, including the title essay. In "Books v. Cigarettes" he determines that his yearly cost of buying books is less than the amount he spends on
The two longer essays make up the majority of the book. "The Prevention of Literature" is a critique of left-wing postwar orthodoxy, which at that time strongly favored Soviet communism and limited intellectual freedom. "Such, Such Were the Joys", which chronicles his experiences in a boarding school in late childhood, comprises over half of the book. His middle class parents are unable to pay full tuition, and he is allowed to attend the school at reduced fees, due to his academic promise and the expectation that he will gain a scholarship to a prestigious private school—or so he claims. He and the other lower tier boys are constantly tortured and belittled by the headmaster, his wife, and the older boys in the school. He has nothing good to say about anyone there, and you can't help but think that it couldn't possibly have been that bad. His experiences at St. Cyprian's appear to be the genesis for his interest in social justice and anti-totalitarianism, as he expounds upon the lessons he learned during that time at the end of the essay.
This would a worthwhile read for anyone interested in Orwell, but it is nowhere near as good as Down and Out in Paris and London.
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cigarettes and alcohol, and argues against those who claimed that the cost of reading was prohibitively expensive for the average working man. Other short essays include a hilarious look at the life of a book reviewer, and his barbaric treatment in a Paris hospital.The two longer essays make up the majority of the book. "The Prevention of Literature" is a critique of left-wing postwar orthodoxy, which at that time strongly favored Soviet communism and limited intellectual freedom. "Such, Such Were the Joys", which chronicles his experiences in a boarding school in late childhood, comprises over half of the book. His middle class parents are unable to pay full tuition, and he is allowed to attend the school at reduced fees, due to his academic promise and the expectation that he will gain a scholarship to a prestigious private school—or so he claims. He and the other lower tier boys are constantly tortured and belittled by the headmaster, his wife, and the older boys in the school. He has nothing good to say about anyone there, and you can't help but think that it couldn't possibly have been that bad. His experiences at St. Cyprian's appear to be the genesis for his interest in social justice and anti-totalitarianism, as he expounds upon the lessons he learned during that time at the end of the essay.
This would a worthwhile read for anyone interested in Orwell, but it is nowhere near as good as Down and Out in Paris and London.
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LibraryThing member TakeItOrLeaveIt
Ranging from death in a hospital bed to boyhood apathy and lack of resistance, Orwell’s brilliant mind goes to work in retrospective reflection found in these page-turning essays. His non-fiction work is quite different, first of all the science fiction mind is far from there, a man of absolute
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logic appears, almost justifying the sense of insanity he channeled for the likes of 1984 and Animal Farm or simply proving that these novels are entirely logical, just masked in worlds distant from our reality. This selection of essays from Orwell include everything from the dilapidated tale of a review writer gone astray to growing up in a time where the children of those engaged in the Great War (1917-20) took an apathetic stance to the war their elders were fighting, as a sign of quasi-rebellion. To take any vested interest in the war was to be not the "enlightened" circles, which Orwell couldn't help himself from becoming. Another dips into the employ of a second-hand bookshop and how being an employ in a way tainted his love for books. The gruesome experiences in a hospital in France where no one minds about death, elicits Orwell to praise England, something that happens only so often in his writing. The final essay, a long drawn out explanation of his abuse as a child in a boarding school of England's most brutal makes one pity Orwell less than understand where his angst most likely stemmed from while remaining the most tactful and innocent angst a reader could come across. Show Less
LibraryThing member jbrubacher
A collection of essays by George Orwell, written from 1936-1952.
The first few are a fascinating look into the life of a writer and book reviewer at the time he was writing. An argument for books not being that expensive, and what it's like to work in a bookshop (that hasn't changed much!) As the
The first few are a fascinating look into the life of a writer and book reviewer at the time he was writing. An argument for books not being that expensive, and what it's like to work in a bookshop (that hasn't changed much!) As the
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collection goes on it seems the publisher just started adding things to beef it up, however. The last two essays are unconnected to the rest and not very interesting from a book perspective. Show Less
LibraryThing member madepercy
Orwell is brilliant. My favourite quote: “Political writing of our time consists almost entirely of prefabricated phrases bolted together like the pieces of a child’s Meccano set. It is the unavoidable result of self-censorship. To write in plain, vigorous language one has to think fearlessly,
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and if one thinks fearlessly one cannot be politically orthodox”. Show Less
LibraryThing member P_S_Patrick
A collection of essays, memories, and musings on such memories, by the never-boring Orwell. If you are wondering whether books or cigarettes win out, then you obviously haven't read any Orwell before. He did love a smoke, but he much preferred the joys of literature - to which he contributed
As always, a number of themes are dealt with - society, politics, the experience of the poor, his school days, and of course books.
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much.As always, a number of themes are dealt with - society, politics, the experience of the poor, his school days, and of course books.
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LibraryThing member gypsysmom
I picked up this book at McNally Robinson at the Forks when I was in between appointments and needed something to read. Since then it stayed in my purse and I would read it if I was waiting anywhere. It was really ideal for that. It's one of a number of titles published by Penguin in their Great
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Ideas series. I found some of the essays a little hard to read, especially the ones about his experiences at boarding school. On the whole, though, I enjoyed getting a glimpse into this author's thoughts ranging from the perils of second-hand bookshops to what patriotism really means. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1936-52
Physical description
123 p.; 18 cm
ISBN
9780141036618
Local notes
Omslag: David Pearson
Omslaget er vistnok et askebæger set ovenfra og med titel og forfatternavn angivet
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Penguin Books, Great Ideas, bind 57
Gutenberg, Australien
Side 62: Slasher, Carver, Fillgrave, Sawyer,
Side 92: The porridge itself, too, contained more lumps, hairs and unexplained black things than one would have thought possible, unless someone were putting them there on purpose.
Side 94: Erewhonians
Side 111: Cain, Jezebel, Haman, Agag, Sisera, Ananias, Caiaphas, Judas, Pontius Pilate,
Side 112: The armies of unalterable law
Side 115: Break the rules, or perish.
Side 120: Religious belief, for instance, has largely vanished, dragging other kinds of nonsense after it.
Side 121: Eton collars = spøjst kravetøj
Side 121: The real question is whether it is still normal for a schoolchild to live for years amid irrational terrors and lunatic misunderstandings.
Side 123: Dormouse = hasselmus
Side 125: Kostskoler er en dårlig ide
Omslaget er vistnok et askebæger set ovenfra og med titel og forfatternavn angivet
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Penguin Books, Great Ideas, bind 57
Gutenberg, Australien
Side 62: Slasher, Carver, Fillgrave, Sawyer,
Side 92: The porridge itself, too, contained more lumps, hairs and unexplained black things than one would have thought possible, unless someone were putting them there on purpose.
Side 94: Erewhonians
Side 111: Cain, Jezebel, Haman, Agag, Sisera, Ananias, Caiaphas, Judas, Pontius Pilate,
Side 112: The armies of unalterable law
Side 115: Break the rules, or perish.
Side 120: Religious belief, for instance, has largely vanished, dragging other kinds of nonsense after it.
Side 121: Eton collars = spøjst kravetøj
Side 121: The real question is whether it is still normal for a schoolchild to live for years amid irrational terrors and lunatic misunderstandings.
Side 123: Dormouse = hasselmus
Side 125: Kostskoler er en dårlig ide
Similar in this library
Pages
123
DDC/MDS
| 824.912 |