Why I Write

This book contains four essays. “Why I Write” is sort of too short to be very useful. The longest essay is “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius”, in which Orwell argues that World War II should be a revolutionary war for socialism. It's fairly interesting in a historical sense. “A Hanging” is a well-observed vignette of an execution. The last essay is “Politics and the English Language”, in which Orwell sets out his prescriptions for good (or less awful) political writing. It's got good advice that I should heed more often.