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Essays

Penguin Modern Classics

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Essays

By: George Orwell, Bernard Crick
Narrated by: Ben Arogundade
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

The articles collected in George Orwell's Essays illuminate the life and work of one of the most individual writers of this century - a man who elevated political writing to an art.

This outstanding collection brings together Orwell's longer, major essays and a fine selection of shorter pieces that includes 'My Country Right or Left', 'Decline of the English Murder', 'Shooting an Elephant' and 'A Hanging'. With great originality and wit Orwell unfolds his views on subjects ranging from a revaluation of Charles Dickens to the nature of socialism, from a comic yet profound discussion of naughty seaside postcards to a spirited defence of English cooking. Displaying an almost unrivalled mastery of English plain prose, Orwell's essays created a unique literary manner from the process of thinking aloud and continue to challenge, move and entertain.

This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Bernard Crick.

Public Domain (P)2021 Penguin Audio Politics & Government

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The reading does Justice to this extremely influential essays written with passion and honest opinion.

The reading does Justice to this extremely influential essays written with passion and honest opinion.

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One of the things about Orwell that I love is his curiosity and willingness to change his mind when better information is available. everything is up for criticism, every ideology, everyone, even himself.

Excellent insights into the mind of a genius...

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Is Geo. Orwell the supreme essayist? I learned to enjoy the narration. Where’s Crick? (Introduction). As others have mentioned, the lack of a Chapter Index is very slack by Penguin. You have to scroll through the chapters to find the essay you want - How the poor die.

Where’s Crick?

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Classic essays, but the titles are not given in the chapter screen, which makes it difficult to navigate the audiobook.

Essay titles missing

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An unusual choice of voice but it was, I think, an inspired choice. I really loved Ben Arogundade reading and go back to listen to it often. And the essays are of course some of the greatest written – insightful and truly truthful.

An unusual choice of voice but great

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I don't know what other title they could give to this. But from "Essays" I was expecting something altogether much drier and less charming than this. Although they are very much a product of their times (the mid-twentieth century), much of what Orwell observes here remains eerily relevant today. But on top of that, even when he is describing quite miserable situations, like his time at prep school, he remains charming and fairly lighthearted. There's some use of language that would be inappropriate in an author today. But if you can get over that and listen to what is being said, it is a super listen. In particular, I found his observations about the English laugh-out-loud funny and will certainly listen to this whole collection again.
The performance is generally fine. As often happens, I get the feeling that the performer hadn't been very thoroughly directed, because there are a few mispronunciations. But that doesn't really detract from the overall positive effect.

Unexpectedly very entertaining

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I found this book enjoyable and insightful.
This particular edition is excellent value because it contains over 24 hours' worth in one book.
It includes the famous ones, too, but as has been pointed out by other reviewers, the headings are missing.
I thought the narrator was excellent, too. There were a couple of mispronunciations (one in particular that someone really should have picked up during the editing) but I thought the voice fitted very well. Looking for a voice exactly like Orwell's own doesn't make sense to me, especially as Orwell had a severe throat injury of course. The essays are brilliant whether the voice is young or old, male or female, etc. I look for a narrator with a pleasant voice, good narration, and not many mispronunciations, which is just what we have.
I was spurred to write this review by seeing the one-star reviews mentioning the narrator. I consider these to be unjustified to the extent that would make me question their motivation.
(One claims he is unable to delete the book, which I don't believe, and moreover, an audiobook sample is usually sufficient to be able to tell whether you like the narrator's voice or not. Moreover, both these one star reviewers have, at this moment of writing, only one review/rating to their name, which is this book. I can't prove this but in my judgement, the one star reviews are in bad faith.)
This is one of my favourite audiobooks.

Excellent

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Listened to all of these essays - I notice there has been some criticism of the reader as 'monotone', but really I thought the fairly neutral style suited the prose very well. Letting Orwell do the talking in this understated and appropriate performance.

Wonderful listening

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Orwell’s essay are incredible but couldn’t get over the choice of voice actor. Orwell writes with great passion and this just didn’t shine through in this audio. I would highly recommend anyone to listen to Peter Nobles version of Orwell’s essay as a comparison.

great essays - bad choice of voice over

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George Orwell was one of the greatest writers of the 20th century and one of its keenest social observers - honest, erudite and bitingly intelligent. I have read many of his essays and wanted to listen to them on the move, so I was pleased to find this audiobook. Sadly, I can't listen to it for very long - the stolid, monotonal and irrhythmic narration is completely wrong for Orwell's razor-sharp and vivid prose and renders parts unintelligible. The reader simply doesn't give the sense that he enjoys or even understands what he's reading - the extracts from Dickens are excruciating. Cannot recommend to anyone who loves Orwell. If I could delete it from my Library, I would.

Wonderful essays, but totally the wrong voice

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