Monday, March 03, 2008

George Orwell -- A tribute

I am surprised that I am writing an article about an author and his works. Such is the impression that George Orwell's works have left on me that I feel it is my responsibility to tell the few bloggers who frequent my blog to be aware of this great writer and read his works when that opportunity presents itself. The first work of George Orwell that I read is ‘Animal Farm’, an entertaining and thought provoking novella. This book dealt with communism with allegorical references to Stalin and other Russian leaders of that period. What was so impressive about this novella is the fact that most of the concepts that are mentioned are immortal and will be relevant as long as humans survive in this universe. The work that propelled Orwell to great stardom is the novel ‘1984’. I am raring to have a go at this novel and would surely be doing that in the next 3 months.

If ‘Animal Farm’ gave me a leeway to start liking Orwell’s works, what clinched the deal would be the collection of essays called “Shooting an Elephant & Other Essays” that I picked up from the library. If the language flows freely like Tendulkar’s cover drives, the impact that it creates is similar to a tennis ball meeting Dhoni’s heavy bat. The profound nature of his writing is something that can never be described in words but can only be felt while reading. Happy Reading!!!

P.S:
Check out his website here. Almost all of his work can be read from this site.

2 comments:

mathi said...

Orwell is one of the few writers whose name is immortalized in the form of adjectives - Orwellian - Kafka being the other.
Orwell's 1984 is a masterpiece and a must read as you have stated :).
One of the very few and very early voices advocating the cause of personal liberty and the vulnerability of human liberty.

Howard Roark said...

Mathi,
Have you read his essays? I particularly liked his one on Gandhi. U can find it in this below link.

http://www.george-orwell.org/Reflections_of_Ghandi/0.html

Cheers,
Nagesh