Essay Club: Why I Write by George Orwell

"What I have most wanted to do throughout the past ten years is to make political writing into an art..."

Welcome to the first instalment of Essay Club! I’m very excited to get started, and I think our first essay—Why I Write by George Orwell—will be the perfect piece to kick things off. If you haven’t read it yet, click the link above and take the time (only about 10-15 minutes) to familiarise yourself. If you have no idea what Essay Club is, you might also like to read my inaugural post to catch up.

George Orwell in 1946.

George Orwell (1903-1950) needs little introduction. Born Eric Arthur Blair, he was born in India, raised in England, and came to be regarded as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. He’s best known for his fiction works—chiefly Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four—but his writing spanned the gamut from journalism to literary criticism, from polemics to poetry. He was also a talented essayist, and in Why I Write, Orwell turns his critical eye on himself.

Let’s jump into it.