The Critical Writings (Annotated)
Enriched Edition. 69 Essays and Articles in One Edition: Books vs. Cigarettes; The Lion and the Unicorn, Antisemitism in Britain, Reflections on Gandhi, Not Counting Niggers, Prophecies of Fascism…By George Orwell
Length38h 58m
About this audiobook
The Critical Writings gathers George Orwell's essays, reviews, and cultural commentaries into a sustained inquiry into literature's relation to truth, power, and ordinary life. Written in Orwell's lucid, sinewy prose, these pieces move from literary criticism to political diagnosis, treating language not as ornament but as a moral instrument. In the context of mid-twentieth-century upheaval—imperial decline, totalitarianism, class conflict, and mass media—Orwell's criticism becomes a form of civic vigilance. Orwell's authority as a critic arose from a life spent crossing social and ideological borders: colonial service in Burma, poverty in Paris and London, investigations of English working-class life, and combat in the Spanish Civil War. These experiences sharpened his distrust of cant, euphemism, and abstract dogma. They also explain the urgency with which he defended intellectual honesty, plain style, and the writer's duty to resist political falsification. This volume is essential for readers who know Orwell chiefly through Animal Farm or Nineteen Eighty-Four. It reveals the disciplined critical intelligence behind those works and offers enduring lessons in how to read literature, propaganda, and public language with skepticism, clarity, and moral seriousness.
This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience.
- A comprehensive Introduction outlines these selected works' unifying features, themes, or stylistic evolutions.
- The Author Biography highlights personal milestones and literary influences that shape the entire body of writing.
- A Historical Context section situates the works in their broader era—social currents, cultural trends, and key events that underpin their creation.
- A concise Synopsis (Selection) offers an accessible overview of the included texts, helping readers navigate plotlines and main ideas without revealing critical twists.
- A unified Analysis examines recurring motifs and stylistic hallmarks across the collection, tying the stories together while spotlighting the different work's strengths.
- Reflection questions inspire deeper contemplation of the author's overarching message, inviting readers to draw connections among different texts and relate them to modern contexts.
- Lastly, our hand‐picked Memorable Quotes distill pivotal lines and turning points, serving as touchstones for the collection's central themes.
Audiobook details
GenreLiterary Classics
Length38 hrs 58 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateAug 31, 2019
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1The Critical Writings (Annotated)
26Antisemitism in Britain
2Introduction
27In Defence of English Cooking
3Author Biography
28Decline of the English Murder
4Historical Context
29Politics and the English Language
5Synopsis (Selection)
30Reflections on War and Society
Show all chaptersShow less
6Thoughts on England
31Spilling the Spanish Beans
7Down the Mine
32Not Counting Niggers
8North and South
33Prophecies of Fascism
9Democracy in the British Army
34Wells, Hitler and the World State
10The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius
35Looking Back on the Spanish War
11PART ONE: England Your England
361
12I
372
13II
383
14III
394
15IV
405
16V
416
17VI
427
18PART TWO: Shopkeepers at War
43Who Are the War Criminals?
19I
44Future of a Ruined Germany
20II
45Revenge is Sour
21III
46You and the Atomic Bomb
22PART THREE: The English Revolution
47Notes on Nationalism
23I
48Catastrophic Gradualism
24II
49Freedom of the Park
25III
50How the Poor Die
Down and Out in Paris and London (Annotated)George Orwell8h 48m4.1 (104.7K)$2 · $0.00
100 Meisterwerke der englischen Literatur - Klassiker, die man kennen muss (Kommentiert)George Orwell, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Katherine Mansfield, H. P. Lovecraft, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Robert Burns, John Milton, William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Geoffrey Chaucer, Laurence Sterne, Henry Fielding, Mary Shelley, Emily Brontë, Charlotte Brontë, Anne Brontë, William Makepeace Thackeray, George Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, Herman Melville, Thomas Wolfe, Virginia Woolf, Joseph Conrad, Sinclair Lewis, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe, Oscar Wilde, Jerome K. Jerome, Washington Irving, Bram Stoker, H. G. Wells, Daniel Defoe, Lew Wallace, James Fenimore Cooper, Jonathan Swift, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, Lewis Carrol, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jack London, Henry David Thoreau, G. K. Chesterton, Edith Wharton, Henry James, Thomas Hardy, Margaret Mitchell, Kate Chopin, Willa Cather, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, James Joyce, John Galsworthy, Francis Hodgson Burnett, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Louisa May Alcott, Rudyard Kipling1274h 12m4.3 (22)$2 · $0.00
Nineteen eighty-four (Annotated)George Orwell12h 42m4.3 (5.9M)$2 · $0.00
George Orwell: The Complete Autobiographical Works (Annotated)George Orwell35h 36m$2 · $0.00
The Complete Novels of George Orwell (Annotated)George Orwell54h 10m4.5 (1.5K)$2 · $0.00
1984George Orwell12h 19m4.3 (5.1M)$30 · $0.00
Homage to Catalonia (Annotated)George Orwell10h 31m4.3 (118.4K)$2 · $0.00
The Road to Wigan Pier (Annotated)George Orwell9h 15m4.3 (3.3K)$2 · $0.00
Coming Up for Air (Annotated)George Orwell10h 19m4.1 (1.3K)$2 · $0.00
Keep the Aspidistra Flying (Annotated)George Orwell11h 26m4.1 (35)$2 · $0.00
The Essential Works of George Orwell (Annotated)George Orwell114h 12m$2 · $0.00
Gesammelte Werke (Kommentiert)George Orwell88h 34m$3.50 · $0.00
Burmese Days (Annotated)George Orwell12h 31m$2 · $0.00
1984 & Animal FarmGeorge Orwell15h 30m4.4 (265.3K)$1 · $0.00
Homage to CataloniaGeorge Orwell10h 1m4.2 (96K)$1 · $0.00
The Collected Works of George OrwellGeorge Orwell114h 58m4.5 (1.6K)$1 · $0.00
1984George Orwell12h 27m4.3 (6.1M)$1 · $0.00
ANIMAL FARMGeorge Orwell4h 29m4.2 (5M)$1 · $0.00
Rebelión en la granjaGeorge Orwell3h 52m4.2 (4.9M)$3 · $0.00
The Jeeves and Wooster Stories: The Complete Collection (33 Books)P. G. Wodehouse21h 57m4.7 (2.8K)$15 · $0.00
The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn21h 56m4.7 (8.9K)$46 · $0.00
The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America (Annotated)Howard Irving Chapelle, Tappan Adney13h 9m4.8 (150)$0.99 · $0.00
This Side of Paradise - The Original 1920 Edition (Annotated)F. Scott Fitzgerald11h 30m4.6 (1.6K)$2 · $0.00
The Great Gatsby: Original 1925 Edition (An F. Scott Fitzgerald Classic NovelFrancis Scott Fitzgerald4h 45m4.6 (9.3K)$18 · $0.00
Ivanhoe (Annotated)Walter Scott22h 52m4.8 (88)$2 · $0.00
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin2h 25m4.6 (159.1K)$15
The Complete Histories / History Plays of William Shakespeare (Annotated)William Shakespeare29h 42m4.6 (2.3K)$0.99 · $0.00
Braving the TruthRachel Held Evans11h 31m4.7 (359)$29 · $0.00
Richard Wagamese SelectedRichard Wagamese3h 14m4.6 (594)$15
The Old Man and the Sea (Annotated)Ernest Hemingway4h 27m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
Twelfth Night (The Unabridged Play) + The Classic Biography (Annotated)William Shakespeare, Sidney Lee16h 38m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
Henry V (The Play, Historical Background and Analysis of the Character in the Play)William Shakespeare, William Hazlitt8h 40m4.6 (1.3K)$1 · $0.00
Pathways to LightPrakash Amte7h 6m4.6 (1.3K)$8
These Vital SignsSayed Tabatabai3h 20m4.7 (215)$18 · $0.00
H. P. LOVECRAFT Ultimate Collection: Novellas, Short Stories, Poetry & Essays (Annotated)H. P. Lovecraft12h 28m4.6 (2.3K)$2 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust15h 54m4.5 (10.6K)$2 · $0.00
Lessons in TruthH. Emilie3h 50m4.6 (1.4K)$4.70 · $0.00
TORAH - Bilingual Edition: English/Hebrew (Annotated)Max Margolis, JPS28h 26m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
The Poetic EddaJackson Crawford6h 24m4.5 (19.8K)$17
You may also like
The Origins of TotalitarianismHannah Arendt23h 24m4.3 (23.3K)$32
EssaysGeorge Orwell38h 52m4.5 (17.5K)$1 · $0.00
The Rest Is NoiseAlex Ross23h 8m4.2 (16.1K)$32
Defying HitlerSebastian Haffner8h 18m4.4 (9.5K)$17
Socialism Is EvilJustin T. Haskins2h 16m4.4 (385)$15 · $0.00
After the Ivory Tower FallsWill Bunch11h 12m4.2 (1.3K)$29 · $0.00
Autocrats vs. DemocratsMichael McFaul19h 25m4.1 (271)$40 · $0.00
Psychology of CrowdsGustave le Bon6h 21m3.9 (26.8K)$3.50 · $0.00
America's Cultural RevolutionChristopher F. Rufo11h 24m4.5 (3.9K)$29 · $0.00
Suicide of the WestJames Burnham10h 51m4.2 (1K)$21
The Republican BrainChris Mooney10h 54m3.8 (1.8K)$23 · $0.00
HitlerJoachim C. Fest41h 19m4.4 (2.5K)$30
PropagandaJacques Ellul15h 36m4.3 (4.7K)$23 · $0.00
10 Books Every Conservative Must ReadBenjamin Wiker PhD10h 34m4.2 (827)$20 · $0.00
White GuiltShelby Steele5h 28m4.3 (3.6K)$24 · $0.00
Knowledge and DecisionsThomas Sowell20h 53m4.5 (2.8K)$30
The Authoritarian MomentBen Shapiro6h 12m4.2 (5.8K)$24 · $0.00
THE ENGINEERS AND THE PRICE SYSTEM (Annotated)Thorstein Veblen4h 53m4.4 (12)$2 · $0.00
A History of Fascism, 1914–1945Stanley G. Payne21h 35m3.9 (769)$30
Condensed Guide for the Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon Intelligence TestsLewis M. Terman2h 40m$2 · $0.00