George Orwell

'The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's reals and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink. In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics'. All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia. When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer.'

Politics and the English Language

George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Politics and the English Language, the second in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell takes aim at the language used in politics, which, he says, ‘is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind’. In an age where the language used in politics is constantly under the microscope, Orwell’s Politics and the English Language is just as relevant today, and gives the reader a vital understanding of the tactics at play. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times

Jagoda

This was interesting, my first Orwell books. It was good - next read will be 1984
4/5⭐

Fatin Allen

I really like Orwell’s frankness in his critics towards the way English language in his time deteriorating which is also linked to the politics. 

I may have to tone down a bit my dumbness but I get his point, there are some that I agree and some not. Would love a reread!

Curious if anyone had done a further research with more examples on what Orwell’s trying to demonstrate.

Euodias

4.5 Stars! It's a great read, very insightful and relevant. This actually made me question the way I speak and write.

Politics and the English Language

Reviews