A review by httpgeorgie
Decline of the English Murder and Other Essays by George Orwell

So I only bought this because I really love Orwell's fiction (meaning 'Animal Farm' and '1984'), but turns out that the dude is an amazing essay-writer as well. His essays show much more of his personality, his incredible knowledge (did this dude read every single Dickens book?? mad respect), life and travel experience as well as his political views, and I really enjoyed reading this collection. My favourite essays were 'How the Poor Die' (an account of Orwell's stay in a working class hospital in Paris), 'Charles Dickens' (an incredibly long but fascinating dissection of Dickens' works) and 'Why I Write' (An attempt to explain why authors write and a talk about his own ambition to turn political writing into an art). I can definitely recommend these essays to readers looking to get into Orwell as well as fans of Orwell's fiction alike.