Foreword for George Orwell essays: Urban Voice II

Ramachandra Guha

Years ago, as a student at Delhi University, I bought Homage to Catalonia from a pavement bookstall and stayed up all night to finish it. Ever since, George Orwell has been the political writer I most admire.

His clarity of language, his moral courage, and his principled independence from party politics set him apart from the other writers of his generation, and from those who have followed since.

The seminal essays reprinted here state Orwell’s own view of his craft. I commend the publishers for bringing them to an audience of new and (without question) appreciative readers.