George Orwell: An Author of Talent and Versatility

George Orwell

I would expect that almost anyone in Britain has, at one time or another, read Orwell’s work.  Perhaps you studied ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ at school, or else have been moved to read his political essays.  Maybe you had simply heard his name, and wanted to see what all the fuss was about.  For whatever reason, most people have read at least some Orwell in their lifetime.

Such widespread popularity is testament to his skill as a writer, for people would not still be reading his work now, seventy years on, if it was not worth it.  I myself have recently come into possession of a copy of ‘Animal Farm’, and look forward to adding to it to my repertoire.

One of the things that makes him such an appealing author is his range of subjects.  Most of his work has political undertones, but the surface topic varies quite radically.  The English language, for instance, is one of his favourites, and can be found in the same book as an essay on ‘Shooting an Elephant’, from 1936.

His depth of feeling is another.  Orwell, I think it is safe to say, does not emote by halves.  It is impossible to read a single page of his work without stumbling over some adjective or verb which instils the reader with a powerful mental image, and an understanding of the situation described as few writers are capable of creating.

In addition, the imagery in Orwell’s writing is spectacular.  One of his expressed ‘rules’ is that an author ought to ask himself, “Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?”  To this end, he often invents new metaphors, to fit the situation he is describing.  For instance, in his essay ‘Politics and the English Language’, he says:

...an accumulation of stale phrases chokes him like tea leaves blocking a sink.

Or, to take a more affecting example, in ‘Down the Mine’ there appears the phrase:

…the unending rattle of the conveyor belt, which in that confined space is rather like the rattle of a machine gun.

Such terms as the above cannot help but move the reader to emotion, which is, of course, his precise aim.

George Orwell causes one to feel, to sympathise, to become enthralled in his writing until the only possible source of satisfaction has become the turning of the page.  Such an ability is, in a writer, invaluable, but is rarely seen performed with such skill.  That is why he is such a popular author, even so long after the public were first exposed to his works.  He manages to create an intimacy between author and reader that could only be replicated by, say, a fireside chat in winter, and at the same time causes one to think in ways that one has never before even considered.  In short, George Orwell remains popular because he performs exactly as an author should.