作者是位享誉世界的作家，这部小说堪称他的“西班牙内战亲历回忆录”。在西班牙内战中，他参加了西班牙加泰罗尼亚的民兵组织，以战争亲历者的身份描绘了战争的艰辛、民众的热情、局势的变幻、媒体的歪曲、信仰的危机等等，提供了翔实可信的战争经历，让人们从事实的角度去理解战争。在诉说自己感受的同时，作者冷静地剖析了战争的表象与实质，传达了“向加泰罗尼亚致敬”的主题思想,就是这场战争所带来的意义,是让人们更加坚信人类的高尚品质。本书文风简洁凝练,在静默的言说里蕴含着巨大的动人力量。

乔治•奥威尔可谓是20世纪最发人深省且文笔最为生动的随笔作家之一，他以过人的精力和毫不妥协的语言，用笔和纸与其时代的偏见进行抗争，也因此而闻名于世。本书收纳了作者最有影响力的社会、政治与文学随笔共14篇，其中包括较为著名的《所谓欢乐，不过如此这般……》,《猎象记》，《政治与英语》，《回顾西班牙内战》等，以及他不太为国内读者所知的文学随笔，如《查尔斯·狄更斯》，《拉迪亚德·吉卜林》，《置身鱼腹》，《我为什么写作》等。对初涉奥威尔的读者而言，本书是一部极好的入门读本；而对奥威尔烂熟于胸的读者来说，《我为什么写作》将是一部珍贵的合集，无价的文选。

Autobiographical work by George Orwell, published in 1933. Orwell's first published book, it contains essays in which actual events are recounted in a fictionalized form. The book recounts that to atone for the guilt he feels about the conditions under which the disenfranchised and downtrodden peoples of the world exist, Orwell decides to live and work as one of them. Dressed as a beggar, he takes whatever employment might be available to a poverty-stricken outcast of Europe. In Paris he lives in a slum and works as a dishwasher. The essay "How the Poor Die" describes conditions at a charity hospital there. In London's East End, he dresses and lives like his neighbors, who are paupers and the poorest of working-class laborers. Dressed as a tramp, he travels throughout England with hoboes and migrant laborers.

A collection of short essays by George Orwell:
Politics And The English Language
Politics Vs. Literature: An Examination Of Gulliver's Travels
The Prevention Of Literature
Why I Write
Writers And Leviathan
Poetry And The Microphone

In these timeless and witty essays George Orwell explores the English love of reading about a good murder in the papers (and laments the passing of the heyday of the ‘perfect’ murder involving class, sex and poisoning), as well as unfolding his trenchant views on everything from boys’ weeklies to naughty seaside postcards. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.