George Orwell Autobiographical Collection?

Byron85

Hey folks. I'm just wondering if anyone knows if there is a collection of Orwell's autobiographical/non-fictional writings? I own The Complete Novels of George Orwell, which is all of his fictional work, and there are collections of his essays, but I can't seen to find a collection of his autobiographical/non-fictional writings.

Has anyone here come across such a collection?

ThirdMan

There isn't one, at least not that I'm aware of. And there certainly isn't a companion piece to the Complete volume. I own a copy of that myself, and it's a beautiful object.

To get my hands on his non-fiction works I bought some of the Penguin Modern Classics themed collections. These are collections of his journalism, essays, private letters and other bits and pieces. They are compiled from the larger (20 volume) Complete Works of George Orwell (edited by Peter Davidson).

Importantly, the Penguin themed collections contain the full texts of his major autobiographical works.

For example, Orwell in Spain includes Homage to Catalonia, Orwell's England includes The Road to Wigan Pier, and Orwell and the Dispossessed includes Down and Out in Paris and London.

I'd also recommend the Essays collection, but be careful to purchase this one, and not the newer white edition, which is incomplete.

Alternatively, you could just buy the single edition of each of the non-fiction works, but the collections offer you much more content for a couple of quid extra. And Orwell's journalism and private letters really help to place everything else in context.

Byron85

I was actually going to buy this copy of his Essays Collection.

Thanks for the above links by the way!

ThirdMan

That's actually a better version, and judging by the customer reviews it's the first complete collection of his essays. It contains 'The Lion & the Unicorn', which isn't in the Penguin edition, but is in Orwell and Politics (another of the themed collections). I just recommended the Penguin version as it nicely compliments the collections, but if I was buying just one I'd go for the Everyman's version. I have a few of those in my collection already, and they're a quality product.

Byron85

ThirdMan wrote: »

That's actually a better version, and judging by the customer reviews it's the first complete collection of his essays. It contains 'The Lion & the Unicorn', which isn't in the Penguin edition, but is in Orwell and Politics (another of the themed collections). I just recommended the Penguin version as it nicely compliments the collections, but if I was buying just one I'd go for the Everyman's version. I have a few of those in my collection already, and they're a quality product.

Excellent. If that's the case I might as well just buy regular copies of The Road to Wigen Pier, etc.

Thanks for your replies!

ThirdMan

Anytime.