One of the most celebrated novelists in the English language, George Orwell was also a prolific essay writer and literary reviewer, penning articles on such diverse subjects as the craft of writing, international politics and British cookery, and on such varied authors as Charles Dickens, H.G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling and P.G. Wodehouse. This volume collects all of Orwell's major essays, including 'Shooting an Elephant', 'Inside the Whale', 'Politics and the English Language', 'Why I Write' and 'Politics vs. Literature', as well as a comprehensive selection of shorter pieces on a variety of literary and political subjects. As a whole, this collection will provide useful insights into Orwell as a committed intellectual and serve as an indispensable companion to his fiction.