By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Down the Mine’ is an essay by George Orwell (1903-50), originally published as the second chapter of his 1937 book The Road to Wigan Pier but later reprinted as a separate essay. In ‘Down the Mine’, Orwell describes his experience of going down an English coal mine to see the conditions of coal miners in the 1930s.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘A Hanging’ is a short essay by George Orwell. However, to this simple statement we should probably add two caveats. One is the difficulty of categorisation, when Orwell himself described this ‘essay’ as ‘a story’, suggesting it was fiction rather than an account of a real-life event.
The other caveat is about the by-line under which ‘A Hanging’ first appeared. It was one of his earliest published works, and indeed, it didn’t originally appear in print under the name ‘George Orwell’ but under Orwell’s real name, Eric Blair.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Decline of the English Murder’ is one of a number of famous essays by George Orwell which appeared in something of an annus mirabilis for him, 1946, just after the end of the Second World War. But ‘Decline of the English Murder’ is a particularly intriguing case because it sees Orwell turning from two of his usual subjects – literature and politics – in favour of discussion the types of murder cases that have gripped the English newspaper-reading public over the years.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Politics vs Literature: An Examination of Gulliver’s Travels’ is a 1946 essay by George Orwell (1903-50). In the essay, Orwell explores Swift’s depiction and view of humanity in Gulliver’s Travels (1726), a novel we have analysed here.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Shooting an Elephant’ is a 1936 essay by George Orwell (1903-50), about his time as a young policeman in Burma, which was then part of the British empire. The essay explores an apparent paradox about the behaviour of Europeans, who supposedly have the power over their colonial subjects.