George Orwell, vlastným menom Eric Arthur Blair, je jedným z najvplyvnejších britských autorov 20. storočia. Jeho diela sú známe pre svoju kritiku totalitarizmu, autoritárstva a sociálnej nespravodlivosti. Orwellove knihy, najmä dystopický román "1984" a alegorický príbeh "Zvieracia farma", sa stali ikonickými literárnymi dielami, ktoré upozorňujú na nebezpečenstvo politického útlaku a manipulácie. Jeho príspevok do literatúry a politickej filozofie je neoceniteľný a jeho diela sa dodnes považujú za zásadné v rámci svetovej literatúry.
Medzi jeho najznámejšie diela patrí už spomenutý román "1984", ktorý ponúka desivý obraz totalitného režimu, kde je kontrola nad myslením a správaním obyvateľov absolútna. Ďalším dôležitým dielom je "Zvieracia farma", alegória ruskej revolúcie a kritika komunistickej ideológie. Obe knihy získali medzinárodné uznanie a boli preložené do mnohých jazykov vrátane slovenčiny. George Orwell bol nielen autorom, ale aj esejistom, novinárom a kritikom, ktorého ostrý intelekt a zmysel pre spravodlivosť ho priviedli k písaniu diel, ktoré nielen zabávali, ale aj nútili čitateľov zamyslieť sa nad povahou moci a slobody.
All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others. It's just an ordinary farm - until the animals revolt. They get rid of the irresponsible farmer.The other animals are sure that life is improving, but as systems are replaced and half-truths are retold, a new hierarchy emerges...
A new edition of Orwell's savage satire of the Soviet Revolution, introduced and annotated by his biographer, D.J. TaylorFirst published in 1945, just as the allied forces had begun to parcel up the post-war world, Orwell's satire of the Soviet Revolution was instantly acclaimed as a Cold War classic.
Set in...
In 1943, there was an urgent need for Animal Farm. The Soviet Union had become Britain's ally in the war against Nazi Germany, and criticism of Stalin's brutal regime was either censored or discouraged. In any case, many intellectuals on the left still celebrated the Soviet Union, claiming that the...
Harper Collins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. We walk about under a load of memories which we long to share and somehow never can. John Flory, a white timber merchant in 1920s Burma, has unorthodox views. To him, the Burmese culture and people should...
'You can live on a shilling a day in Paris if you know how. But it is a complicated business'As a struggling writer in his twenties, Orwell lived as a down-and-out among the poorest members of society. In this, his early memoir, Orwell recalls with vivid clarity his time working...
Down and Out in Paris and London was George Orwell's first published book. It is at once a very personal account, and a vivid expose of hard lives weighed down by poverty in France and England between the wars.Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized...
George Orwell is a difficult author to summarize. He was a would-be revolutionary who went to Eton, a political writer who abhorred dogma, a socialist who thrived on his image as a loner, and a member of the Imperial Indian Police who chronicled the iniquities of imperialism. Both the books...
Dorothy, dcera ovdovělého faráře, vede chudý, ale zbožný život – odolává svodům místního chlípníka, za sebemenší zhřešení, byť jen myšlenkou, se bodne špendlíkem. Jednoho dne se probudí po osmidenní ztrátě paměti na ulici a musí se protloukat spolu s vandráky – sbírá chmel, přespává v ubytovnách, nakonec skončí ve vězení...
THE AUTHORATITIVE TEXT 'There are occasions where it pays better to fight and be beaten than not to fight at all' Both a memoir of Orwell's experiences during the Spanish Civil War and a heartfelt tribute to those who died, Homage to Catalonia is an extraordinary first-hand record of him...
'This is the story of one man who went to Spain with an intellectual sympathy for socialist doctrine and came back...with a fervent, almost religious belief in its necessity'Both a memoir of Orwell's experiences during the Spanish Civil War and a heartfelt tribute to those who died, Homage to Catalonia...
HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. I sometimes fear we shall never wake till we are jerked out of it by the roar of bombs In 1936, George Orwell volunteered as a soldier in the Spanish Civil War. In Homage to Catalonia, first published...
Homage to Catalonia remains one of the most famous accounts of the Spanish Civil War. With characteristic scrutiny, Orwell questions the actions and motives of all sides whilst retaining his firm beliefs in human courage and the need for radical social change.Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of...
Orwellov knižný debut Na dne v Paríži a Londýne sa pohybuje na pomedzí sociálnej reportáže a memoárov. Autor v knihe na základe vlastných skúseností a zážitkov ukazuje odvrátenú stranu dvoch európskych metropol na konci dvadsiatych rokov minulého storočia. Privádza nás medzi ľudí na úplnom okraji spoločnosti zbedačených pracovníkov vychýrených parížskych hotelov a reštaurácií a anglických...
George Orwell's masterwork, now in the Penguin Clothbound Classics series with a cover designed by Coralie Bickford-SmithOne of the BBC's '100 Novels that Shaped the World''Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past' Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of...
George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of the most famous and influential novels of the 20th century. This terrifying dystopia, which he created in a time of great social and political unrest, remains acutely relevant and influential to this day.Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound,...
George Orwell, perhaps one of the most perceptive writers of the twentieth century, wrote extensively about English life and politics. This selection of his essays and journalism brings together his most provocative and insightful writing on England and Englishness.Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized...
HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. If there is one man to whom I do feel myself inferior, it is a coalminer. In the mid-1930s, George Orwell was given an assignment from his publisher - to write a book about unemployment and social conditions...
One of the most famous works of literature in the world, 1984 is a landmark of dystopian science fiction. It is an indictment of the communist dictatorship of Big Brother that controlled everything in 1984. The readers immerse themselves in the life of the honest, sensitive and thoughtful Winston Smith,...
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. George Orwell's fable of revolutionary farm animals - the steadfast horses Boxer and Clover, the opportunistic pigs Snowball and Napoleon, and the deafening choir of sheep - who overthrow their elitist human master only to find themselves subject...
John Flory pracuje v Barmě jako obchodník s teakovým dřevem. Je otrávený britskou imperiální politikou a jediné povyražení nachází v rozhovorech s indickým doktorem Vérasvámím a později i ve vztahu s mladou Angličankou Elizabeth Lackersteenovou. Když chce pomoci doktoru Vérasvámímu vstoupit do klubu, jehož členové jsou pouze běloši, naplno...
Orwellův psychologicko-společenský román, kritizující mamon a nadvládu peněz v meziválečné anglické společnosti.Gordon Comstock je mladý spisovatel, který pohrdá „bohem peněz“ a jeho nadvládou nad celou meziválečnou anglickou společností. Odmítne proto práci v reklamní agentuře a nechá se zaměstnat v malém knihkupectví. Výsledkem je však pocit, že jím jeho dívka Rosemary...
Z politické bajky a alegorie se brzy po vydání stal bestseller. Důvodů obrovského úspěchu knihy je hned několik: vedle nezpochybnitelných literárních kvalit a estetické působivosti to byla kritika stalinského režimu, ve své době velmi řídká. Navíc realitu tehdejšího Sovětského svazu představila způsobem veskrze komickým a důvěrně známým, takže banalita zla...
'The feeling that the very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world ... this prospect frightens me much more than bombs'On the 70th anniversary of George Orwell's death, a new collection of his brilliant essays written during the Second World WarFascism and Democracy collects five brilliant examples...
Orwellův méně známý román z roku 1939 zachycuje život v Anglii před druhou světovou válkou očima pojišťovacího agenta, Georga Bowlinga. Jde o průměrného obyvatele středoanglického předměstí, s průměrným platem a nadprůměrnou váhou - má přezdívku Tlusťoch. Byť je navenek typickým příkladem středního stavu, se společenskou realitou se nedokáže vyrovnat. Také...
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. The year is 1984, and life in Oceania is ruled by the Party. Under the gaze of Big Brother, Winston Smith yearns for intimacy and love - "thought crimes" that, if uncovered, would mean imprisonment, or...
Including Animal Farm'Orwell is the most influential political writer of the twentieth century' New York Review of BooksThroughout his life George Orwell aimed, in his words, to make 'political writing into an art'. This collection brings together the best of his matchless political essays and journalism with his timeless satire...
Including Down and Out in Paris and London'Orwell was the great moral force of his age' SpectatorThe powerful writings collected together in this volume chronicle George Orwell's first-hand experiences of life among the underclass of the 'two nations' of rich and poor. Down and Out in Paris and London is...
Including Homage to Catalonia'Spain not only defined Orwell as an individual, it also gave him his first glimpse of totalitarianism' D. J. Taylor, GuardianGeorge Orwell's experience of the Spanish Civil War had a transformative effect on his life and work.This volume brings together his complete writings on the war, including...
Including The Road to Wigan Pier'No one wrote better about the English character than Orwell' New York Review of BooksMuch of George Orwell's best writing, brought together in this collection, is concerned with his complex, often contradictory attitude to England. In the brilliantly perceptive The English People, he lists the...
George Orwell, vlastným menom Eric Arthur Blair (*25. jún 1903, Motihari, India – †21. január 1950, Londýn, Spojené kráľovstvo), sa narodil v Indii, ktorá bola v tom čase súčasťou Britskej ríše. V ranom veku sa presťahoval do Anglicka, kde navštevoval prestížnu školu Eton. Po štúdiu sa pridal k Indickej imperiálnej polícii v Barme, kde začal vnímať problémy koloniálnej moci, čo ovplyvnilo jeho neskoršiu tvorbu. Po návrate do Anglicka sa začal venovať písaniu, pričom jeho prvé diela boli ovplyvnené jeho skúsenosťami z koloniálnej služby a z života medzi chudobnými v Paríži a Londýne. Jeho literárna kariéra nabrala na obrátkach po vydaní románu "Na dne v Paríži a Londýne" (1933), kde opísal život v chudobe. Orwellove diela sa postupne stali známymi pre ich sociálnu kritiku, pričom vrcholom jeho tvorby sú knihy "1984" a "Zvieracia farma".
Tieto knihy boli ovplyvnené jeho skúsenosťami z občianskej vojny v Španielsku a jeho rozčarovaním z totalitných režimov, ktoré pozoroval v Európe. Orwell vo svojej kariére pôsobil aj ako novinár a esejista, pričom prispieval do mnohých periodík, kde analyzoval politické a spoločenské otázky svojej doby. Jeho eseje sú dodnes cenené pre ich jasnosť, priamočiarosť a analytickú hĺbku. George Orwell zomrel v roku 1950 na tuberkulózu, ale jeho literárny odkaz žije ďalej, pričom jeho diela sú dodnes čítané a analyzované po celom svete. Bol priekopníkom v písaní o politických a sociálnych otázkach spôsobom, ktorý je prístupný širokému publiku a zanechal nezmazateľnú stopu v literatúre 20. storočia.