Such, Such Were the Joys and Other Es..., George Orwell
Such, Such Were the Joys and Other Es..., George Orwell
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Such, Such Were the Joys and Other Essays

Author: George Orwell

Narrator: Frederick Davidson

Unabridged: 12 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/26/2011

Synopsis

Viewed as too libelous to print in England until 1968, the title essay in this collection reveals the abuse Orwell experienced as a child at an expensive and snobbish boarding school and offers insights into his lifelong concern for the oppressed. Why I Write describes Orwells sense of political purpose, and the classic essay Politics and the English Language insists on clarity and precision in communication in order to avoid the Newspeak later described in 1984. Other essays focus on Gandhi (he disinfected the political air), Dickens (no novelist has shown the same power of entering into the childs point of view), Kipling (a jingo imperialist), Henry Miller (who told Orwell that involvement in the Spanish war was an act of an idiot), and England (a family with the wrong members in control).

About George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair (1903-1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism. He is best known for the allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). Orwell's work continues to influence popular and political culture, and the term Orwellian - descriptive of totalitarian or authoritarian social practices - has entered the language together with many of his neologisms, including Big Brother, Thought Police, newspeak, doublethink, and thoughtcrime.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sam on August 05, 2016

When George Orwell was a young boy, he won a scholarship to a prestigious private school called St Cyprian’s, almost exclusively catering to the children of the upper classes and the occasional bright “lower-upper-middle class” (as Orwell described his circumstances as) kid, like Orwell was. The tit......more

Goodreads review by Kevin on December 18, 2022

The title story is a biographical essay of Orwell’s time at St Cyprian's boarding school in Eastbourne, Sussex. From age eight to age thirteen (1911 - 1916), Orwell was a witness to both the class favoritism and the austere corporal discipline of St Cyprian. For the most part, Orwell’s essay reads l......more

Goodreads review by Martha on May 08, 2025

In this essay, George Orwell reflects on his time at St Cyprian's preparatory school in Eastbourne, Sussex. Orwell attended on a scholarship and was therefore treated differently to the boys who came from money. The headmaster and his wife held him to higher and harsher expectations and would wield ......more

Goodreads review by Elena on March 28, 2014

What a writer, my God! (Or 'what a writer, by Jove', if one wishes to sound more English). I read 'Homage to Catalonia' - in Italian translation - as a leftist, passionate, troubled teenager, and absolutely adored it. I moved on to 'Down and out in Paris and London' - again in Italian translation -......more

Goodreads review by Trevor on September 17, 2019

In my 20's I set myself the task of reading everything that George Orwell had written. I made a fairly decent stab at it in that I read of all the major works but got lost somewhere in the depths of his collected essays. Glad, then, that I came across 'Such, such were the joys'. This is a short essa......more

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