Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Masterpieces, 5 Nov 2003
Orwell is my favourite author. I read many books, but everytime I come back to Orwell it's like a breath of fresh air. The clarity with which he writes is his greatest skill and his powers of observation a close second.
As far as this particular book is concerned what you get are his two best known novels 1984 and Animal Farm, and then four other less well known works. All of these works tell tales of society 'going wrong', but from different perspectives of empire, money, individual freedom, totalitarism, and state control. Comming up for Air and Keep the Aspidistra Flying are particuarly good tales of individual rebellion against 'the system'. Most of these were written between the wars, but seem even more relevant today.
Although titled 'The Complete Novels' other works such as Road to Wigan Pier, Down and Out in Paris and London and Homage to Catalonia are absent, probably because they are more social comentaries based on his real life, rather than novels. If you like this book then you'll also like these.
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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The collected fiction of a great writer - horrible edition, though, 20 Aug 2008
I have huge admiration for Orwell's work as a writer and I am a strong admirer of his fiction, although apart from his last two novels I don't think it was the field he was best at. I urge any reader interested in his stuff to seek out his novels and read them. However, this is definitely not the best edition to read them in. Orwell's work was only subjected to proper editorial scrutiny in the late 1980s, with the release of Peter Davison's magisterial Complete Works. This book is a modern reprint of much earlier collection of uncorrected texts of his novels. The type is so tiny that the book is hard on the eyes, plus the texts of the novels are in most cases very corrupt.
If you want to read these books, the only reason you should get this edition is that you are very young, new to Orwell, have really good eyesight, and are too broke to afford buying each novel in the current individual Penguin editions, which are corrected texts. Otherwise, get them all individually; this book is both unreliable and almost unreadable.
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47 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
PLEASE READ, 13 Feb 2004
Hi there, I'm principally writing concerning the review below, stating that this book does not contain the complete novels. Actually, it DOES contain the complete novels. George Orwell wrote 5 Novels: _Burmese Days_, _Keep the Aspidistra Flying_, _A Clergyman's Daughter_, _Animal Farm_, and _Nineteen Eighty-four_. These are all present in this collection, the three titles mentioned below which are not included (_Homage to Catalonia_, _The Road to Wigan Pier_, and _Down & Out in Paris & London_) are not included because they are NOT novels. The five novels included, however, are quite possibly Orwell's most enchanting work -- I first read _Keep the Aspidistra Flying_ over 10 years ago, and Orwell hasn't left my side since. I've read nearly all of the published works, and am slowly but surely making my way through the variety of newspaper columns, etc. But if you are unsure as to where to begin your Orwell education, for it is that, START HERE.
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