George Orwell

Note: The University of Adelaide Library eBooks @ Adelaide.

Shooting an Elephant

Jade Flynn

I've read both 1984 and Animal Farm and they were both breathtaking. Orwell is fast becoming one of my favourite fiction and non-fiction writers. I think more people need to check out his non-fiction as it is just as impactful as his fiction. I will probably be picking up Down and Out in Paris and London or Keep the Aspidistra Flying next. 

Honourable mentions - A Hanging, Bookshop Memories, In Defence of English Cooking, Some Thoughts on the Common Toad, Confessions of a Book Reviewer, Decline of English Murder, Politics and the English Language.

Ilia Markov

The ultimate master of the language. Orwell can write literally about anything (English cuisine for example), but because he has something to say about it and a great way to say it, it never feels dull.

alex

Stephanie Honour

'Shooting an Elephant' is Orwell's searing and painfully honest account of his experience as a police officer in imperial Burma; killing an escaped elephant in front of a crowd 'solely to avoid looking a fool'. The other masterly essays in this collection include classics such as 'My Country Right or Left', 'How the Poor Die' and 'Such, Such were the Joys', his memoir of the horrors of public school, as well as discussions of Shakespeare, sleeping rough, boys' weeklies and a spirited defence of English cooking. Opinionated, uncompromising, provocative and hugely entertaining, all show Orwell's unique ability to get to the heart of any subject.

Shooting an Elephant

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