Colonial politics in Kyauktada, India, in the 1920s, come to a head when the European Club, previously for whites only, is ordered to elect one token native member. The deeply racist members do their best to manipulate the situation, resulting in the loss not only of reputations but of lives.
Amid this cynical setting, timber merchant James Flory, a Brit with a genuine appreciation for the native people and culture, stands as a bridge between the warring factions. But he has trouble acting on his feelings, and the significance of his vote, both social and political, weighs on him. When Elizabeth Lackersteen arrives-blonde, eligible, and anti-intellectual-Flory finds himself the hapless suitor.
Orwell alternates between grand-scale political intrigue and nuanced social interaction, mining his own Colonial Indian heritage to create a monument of historical fiction.
"A well integrated, fast-moving story of what life was like in a remote backcountry Asiatic station."-Chicago Tribune
In this enlightening and often shocking expose of life on the streets of two of Europe's most romanticised and celebrated cities, Orwell describes in detail the day-to-day life of himself as a 'down-and-out', which involves hunger, filth, derision and often prejudice and violence. Alcohol is also a staple distraction on both sides of the channel for the destitute, and Orwell's comments on issues such as the emasculation of a man when he becomes a tramp are truly fascinating. An absorbing autobiographical report and an early exercise in 'fly-on-the-wall' and, arguably, 'gonzo' journalism, Down and Out in Paris and London follows Orwell as he tramps around both Paris and London (more often than not with his charismatic sidekick Boris).
Here's the brilliantl BBC radio version of George Orwell's 1984 circa 1965 Starring Patrick Troughton as Winston Smith. Nineteen Eighty-Four, sometimes .
Part social reportage, part socialist polemic, The Road to Wigan Pier sets out a hellish vision of a broken Britain before delivering a meditation on how we can create a more egalitarian society.
Having travelled to the industrial north of England on assignment from his editor, Orwell's confronting, stark descriptions of the social injustice, cramped slum housing, squalor, hunger, and growing unemployment he encounters are written with unblinking honesty, anger, and humanity.
The Road to Wigan Pier remains a powerful portrait of poverty, injustice, and the strive for a fairer society.
George Bowling, an insurance salesman, hits middle age and feels impelled to "come up for air" from his life of quiet desperation. With seventeen pounds he has won at a race, he steals a vacation from his wife and family and pays a visit to Lower Binfield, the village where he grew up, to fish for carp in a pool he remembers from thirty years before. But the pool is gone, Lower Binfield has changed beyond recognition, and the principal event of Bowling's holiday is an accidental bombing by the RAF.
Bowling's everyman life provides a sort of cavalcade of England from 1893 to 1938. Written when the clouds of World War II were already gathering, this story of Bowling's journey into his own and his country's past is told with humor, warmth, and nostalgia that will surprise and delight George Orwell's many readers.
Un rotundo alegato a favor de la libertad y en contra del totalitarismo que se ha convertido en un clásico de la literatura del siglo XX.Esta sátira de la Revolución rusa y el triunfo del estalinismo, escrita en 1945, se ha convertido por derechos propio en un hito de la cultura contemporánea y en uno de los libros más mordaces de todos los tiempos. Ante el auge de los animales de la Granja Solariega, pronto detectamos las semillas de totalitarismo en una organización aparentemente ideal; y en nuestros líderes más carismáticos, la sombra de los opresores más crueles.La crítica dijo...
Una obra literaria perfecta.
T.S. Elliot
George Orwell es un hombre con extraordinario sentido moral y con un enorme respeto por la justicia y la verdad.
Evelyn Waugh
El libro que todo el mundo, toda la gente de a pie, debería leer. No ha perdido un ápice de lucidez en cincuenta años.
Ruth Rendell
Casi antes que nadie él comprendió que la corrupción de las palabras es un síntoma y a la vez la causa de la corrupción del pensamiento.
Antonio Muñoz Molina
Desde
Los viajes de Gulliver no se ha escrito una parábola tan profunda, mordiente y satírica como
Rebelión en la granja.
Arthur Koestler
Un intelectual radicalmente independiente cuya obra es de una claridad moral insobornable.
Guillermo Altares,
El País
George Orwell ofrece una de las reflexiones más lúcidas sobre los nacionalismos.En tiempos como los que estamos viviendo, los nacionalismos y los extremismos en todas sus formas resurgen con fuerza. En este extraordinario ensayo, publicado en mayo de 1945, en los estertores de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, George Orwell establece una definición del nacionalismo que vas más allá del vínculo con un lugar geográfico, como un pernicioso estado de rigidez mental en el que no tiene cabida ni el debate ni la reflexión.
Escucha ahora esta obra maestra del reportaje del siglo XX por el autor de 1984 y Rebelión en la granja.
«Hay otra sensación que constituye un gran consuelo en la pobreza. Creo que cualquiera que haya pasado apuros económicos la habrá experimentado. Es una sensación de alivio, casi placentera, al saber que por fin estás sin blanca. Has hablado tantas veces de la posibilidad de acabar en el arroyo... y resulta que ya estás en él y puedes soportarlo. Eso te quita muchas preocupaciones.»
Sin blanca en París y Londres es el vívido relato del tiempo que Orwell pasó entre los más pobres de la sociedad, un recorrido por los bajos fondos. Fue la primera obra que publicó Orwell, escrita cuando era un escritor primerizo, y narra su primer contacto con la pobreza. En este audiolibro, Orwell describe meticulosamente un mundo de miseria y penalidades, duerme en hostales infestados de insectos, en casas de acogida, trabaja como friegaplatos en un inmundo restaurante parisino, se alimenta de migajas y colillas de tabaco, vive con vagabundos, un soñador artista callejero y un ex militar ruso muerto de hambre... Al revelar una realidad impactante que hasta entonces permanecía oculta, Orwell dio por primera vez un rostro humano a las estadísticas de pobreza, y además encontró su voz.
Los mejores autores del siglo XX disponibles en formato audiolibro.
La crítica dijo...
«Los libros de Orwell son una poderosa advertencia.»
Erich Fromm
«La reacción incandescente de un joven sensible, observador y generoso a la pobreza.»
Devila Murphy
«Orwell fue la fuerza moral de su época.»
Spectator
«Orwell siempre resulta interesante. Y eso se debe en parte a la claridad de su prosa, pero también a que muchos de sus juicios siguen teniendo una fuerte presencia a día de hoy.»
Alex Massie, The Independent
«Un trabajo extraordinario.»
The New York Times Book Review
ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.
In this book, Orwell describes the establishment and the improvement of fascism in a tremendous way. All animals unite against the savagery of men and carry out a great revolution. But things end up unexpectedly.
'1984' by George Orwell is a dystopian novel that was published in 1949. The story is set in Airstrip One (formerly known as Great Britain), a province of the superstate Oceania in a world of perpetual war, government surveillance, and manipulation of truth. The novel follows the life of Winston Smith, a low-ranking member of the Party who becomes disillusioned with the oppressive regime led by the enigmatic figure known as Big Brother.
It’s 1984. Winston Smith lives alone in London. He is a secret rebel plotting his escape from the Party: the deadly dictatorship led by Big Brother. Winston dreams of finding freedom, love and peace: everything that is outlawed. His act of defiance will get him killed - but his courage is unshaken. He risks everything in his desperate search for truth and humanity as he once knew them. The story of Winston’s rebellion, and his need to love others, reveals the strength of the human spirit against the darkest sides of human nature. This audio experience is an immersive re-telling of the original book.
Animal Farm is an allegorical novella by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. The book tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. Ultimately, however, the rebellion is betrayed, and the farm ends up in a state as bad as it was before, under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon.
According to Orwell, the fable reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union. Orwell, a democratic socialist, was a critic of Joseph Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism, an attitude that was critically shaped by his experiences during the Spanish Civil War. The Soviet Union, he believed, had become a brutal dictatorship built upon a cult of personality and enforced by a reign of terror. In a letter to Yvonne Davet, Orwell described Animal Farm as a satirical tale against Stalin ('un conte satirique contre Staline'), and in his essay 'Why I Write' (1946), wrote that Animal Farm was the first book in which he tried, with full consciousness of what he was doing, 'to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole'.
