Inside The Whale

by George Orwell

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140011854
• ISBN13: 9780140011852
• Release Date: January 1957
• Publisher: Penguin UK
• Length: 203 Pages
• Weight: 0.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 1.0" x 1.0"

Customer Reviews

All's well with Orwell

Please note that this review is of the book, and not the audio tapes. Also, please check out www dot yourwords dot ca for this review and others.While there is normally (and quite understandably) a certain stigma attached to essay collections, this is one very noteworthy exception. Covering topics from political discourse and sociological perspective to Shakespeare and "penny-dreadfuls," each essay is written fluidly and intelligently, with insight and understanding. In fact noteworthy is a perfect word to describe Orwell's writing, as I found myself jotting down notes constantly while I read. In my final year of high school, my English teacher whom I'd respected very much handed out photocopies of an essay called "Politics and the English Language" and encouraged us to read it on our own time- assuring us that it had blown him away. Needless to say, and though I had understood significantly little of the essay at first reading, I too was taken by the ideas within the text and have read it repeatedly since then. After randomly picking up "Inside the whale..." in a used-book shop and seeing "Politics..." in the index, I knew I had to have this book. There are far too many ideas in the book to discuss at length, but what can be said is that Orwell's breadth of ideas is staggering. I find myself reluctant to continue this review because I cannot intelligently say enough to give anyone a proper idea of just how influential several of these essays were on me, so consider my words to be inadequate as you read on. 'Politics and the English Language' and 'The Prevention of Literature' both observe the decay of language and literature in the face of oppressive governments in so accurate an analysis that this reader couldn't help but nod in solemn agreement as the words enlivened my imagination. It is within these two essays that many ideas later used in 1984 can be found germinating in the writer. The only essay I found to be laborious was the last of the collection, 'Boys' Weeklies,' in which he describes various comics that many young men of his generation grew up reading. This simply didn't interest me because I had never heard of any of the comics, and so the point was ultimately lost on me. 'Shooting an Elephant' could well have been a chapter straight out of Burmese Days, and is particularly noteworthy for Orwell's very personal account of social expectation forcing one to do what one otherwise would not. If you're into Orwell's writing, this book is a must-have. If you aren't, there are several essays within the collection that everyone should read- even if only to consider the ideas put forth, as they are ideas that do and will affect anyone born into a society such as ours.