Penguin Books Australia

'It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thriteen.'  

George Orwell was perhaps the twentieth century's best chronicler of English culture and one of our most significant political thinkers. In this covetable boxed set are collected together four of his essential works, including the seminal novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Gordon Comstock loathes dull, middle-class respectability and worship of money. He gives up a 'good job' in advertising to work part-time in a bookshop, giving him more time to write. But he slides instead into a self-induced poverty that destroys his creativity and his spirit. Only Rosemary, ever-faithful Rosemary, has the strength to challenge his commitment to his chosen way of life. Through the...

Edited with an Introduction by Peter Davison

'Arguably the most influential writer thrown up by the West in the twentieth century … the real Orwell — whoever he is — continues to take shape'
The Times

First published in 1949, George Orwell's 1984 has lost none of its impact and vision with which it first hit readers.

Beginning with a dilemma about whether he spends more money on reading or smoking, George Orwell's entertaining and uncompromising essays go on to explore everything from the perils of second-hand bookshops to the dubious profession of being a critic, from freedom of the press to what patriotism really means.  

With a new Introduction by
Jeremy Paxman

'A writer who is still vividly contemporary … Orwell told the truth' 
Christopher Hitchens

With a new introduction by
Emma Larkin

'The greatest writer of the twentieth century'
Philip French, Observer

Based on his experience as a policeman in Burma, George Orwell's first novel presents a devastating picture of British colonial rule. It describes corruption and imperial bigotry in a society where, 'after all, natives were natives – interesting, no doubt, but finally . . . an inferior...

Homage to Catalonia, his passionate memoir of fighting in the war, captures the revolutionary fervour and high hopes of joining up in Barcelona, the fear and chaos of the front, and the bullet wound and bitter betrayal that nearly cost...