The essays of George Orwell, from which we present a small selection, demonstrate that Orwell was not only a writer who brought to the political writing of his generation the deepest moral concern and spiritual integrity, but also a sensitive and cultivated connoisseur of literature.

The internal coherence and dynamic relationship between these two traits of the author is illuminated better than any other analysis by his brief intellectual autobiography "Why I Write," which, due to its "introductory" and representative nature, takes the corresponding place in this edition.