The Greatest Works Of George Orwell Box Set

Reading age 18+
All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.

Revolution is in the air at Manor Farm after old Major, a prize boar, tells the other animals about his dream of freedom and teaches them to sing 'Beasts of England'. Mr Jones, the drunken farmer, is deposed and a committee of pigs takes over the running of the farm. The animals are taught to read and write, but the dream turns sour, the purges begin and those in charge come more and more to resemble their oppressors.

Orwell's allegory of the Soviet Revolution remains as lucid and compelling as ever. In beautifully clear prose, he gives us a vivid gallery of characters and a fable that conveys the truth about how we are manipulated through language and the impossibility of finding heaven on earth.

Homage to Catalonia - Reading age 16+
Above all, there was a belief in the revolution and the future, a feeling of having suddenly emerged into an era of equality and freedom.

In late 1936, the idealistic young George Orwell set out for Spain to join the Republican Army in its battle against the fascists. There he encountered a country in chaos. From the heady promises of revolutionary Barcelona to the betrayals, logistical nightmares, and petty factional conflicts, Orwell describes the war in all its gruesome detail withhis characteristic flair for language.

A fascinating, deeply personal account of how a movement gave up its ideals in pursuit of a victory that never came, Homage to Catalonia is a remarkable chronicle of the Spanish Civil War.

The Road to Wigan Pier - Reading age 16+
We are living in a world in which nobody is free, in which hardly anybody is secure, in which it is almost impossible, to be honest and to remain alive.

In 1936, at the behest of his publisher, George Orwell set out for Wigan to observe what life was really like in some of the most deprived areas of Britain's industrial heartlands. The result was a revealing and unflinching portrait of the working class of northern England.

Brilliantly written, strongly opinionated, and uniquely affecting, The Road to Wigan Pier provides insights into the poverty caused by the Great Depression, from the horrendous working conditions in the mines to the daily struggle of working people to provide enough food for their families. It is followed by a personal and often humorous consideration of the state of socialism in the country.

Part polemic, part social reportage, Orwell's classic work is a harrowing and intimate account of inequality filled with observations that remain relevant today.

Down and Out in London and Paris - Reading age 16+
The mass of the rich and the poor are differentiated by their incomes and nothing else, and the average millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a new suit.

In 1928 the young George Orwell arrived in Paris, a city known as a thriving art scene and home to some of literature's most esteemed figures. It was not long before the money ran out, and Orwell, now destitute, was forced to take on the menial work of a dishwasher to survive.

Drawing on Orwell's own experiences, Down and Out in Paris and London lays bare the realities of life among the poorest members of society and reveals a hidden world of drudgery, squalor, and anxiety.

This insightful memoir brings home the evils of poverty and reminds us that before we

judge those less fortunate than ourselves we first should live as they do.

Burmese Days - Reading age 16+
George Orwell's Burmese Days is a deep insight into life in Burma during the days of the British Empire. Ilt is a delightful slice of Burmese culture and way of life with dark undertones. The story revolves around the life of British pukka sahibs in their Club in Kyauktada. Their lives are inadvertently intertwined in the local rivalry between the corrupt magistrate U Po Kyin and the good doctor, Dr Veraswami. The latter is befriended by Flory who appreciates the Burmese way of life and enjoys 'cultured conversation' with the doctor regularly over a drink or two. The arrival of Elizabeth stirs up the interest of the menfolk. Flory falls deeply in love with her. But will she reciprocate his love or will the twisted plots and revolts engineered by U Po Kyin reduce them to mere pawns in his political game?

A Clergyman's Daughter - Reading age 17+
Dorothy, the dutiful daughter of the Rector of Knype Hill, performs her duty as an ideal clergyman's child by running the household and church affairs to the best of her abilities on a less-than-shoestring budget. Every spare minute of her day is spent on making costumes for the church play or figuring out how to make the bacon stretch for more than one meal without upsetting her temperamental father.

An attack of amnesia lands her in the heart of London-penniless and at the mercy of drifters in the cold, reduced to stealing and begging. Will her memory return? Will she survive the scandal of her supposed elopement? Will she accept the strange marriage proposal by the old Mr Warburton? Will her belief in God remain shaken forever?

Keep The Aspidistra Flying - Reading age 16+
Set in 1936 England, Keep the Aspidistra Flying is George Orwell's commentary on middle class life. The protagonist, Gordon Comstock believes that money can hold one at ransom and so consciously snubs any aftempts at getting a 'Good Job' that could see him settle into a simple, comfortable existence where he lives the life of every other middle-class family around him, nurturing the aspidistra plant as a symbol of such a life.

Despite the presence of a supportive family, his large-hearted sister Julia, his friend Ravelston and his steadfast love, Rosemary, Comstock resists the steady life and plunges himself into a life of self-inflicted penury as a symbol of all things anti-capitalist and anti-consumerist

It is only when Rosemary announces to him that she is going to have his baby that he decides to put this kind of thinking behind and in a moment of clarity realises that the aspidistra is the tree of life'.
Does he manage to accept this way of life or revert to his destructive self?

Reading Age 16+

Coming Up for Air is a lesser-known masterpiece by George Orwell. Orwellian socialist ideology is explored subtly and effectively through the story of its protagonist, George Bowling, an overweight salesman. George's almost detached observation of human nature throughout has a tongue-in-cheek quality and makes for entertaining reading.Having won seventeen pounds on a horserace on a whim, George hides the money from his wife Hilda and leaves her and the children behind to take a trip down memory lane into Lower Binfield, to rediscover his childhood. This holiday is his idea of Coming Up for Air, to escape the drudgery of daily life. He is fearful of the future as he gets the sense that war is approaching. anticipating food queues, soldiers, tyranny and despotism, and so he wants to make the most of this windfall. But the complete change in his boyhood hometown makes him face the bitter reality that time and tide wait for none. As he says, 'What's the good of trying to revisit the scenes of your boyhood? They don't exist. Coming up for air! But there isn't any air.

Take a trip with George to Lower Binfield. Does he manage to finally go fishing - a dream he has been nurturing for decades?Find out if running into Elsie Flowers, his 'first woman' turns out to be a romantic encounter after all.