George Orwell
'The English People'
Collins, 1947
Print run: 26,000 copies; Price: 5 s.
Collins, 1947
Print run: 26,000 copies; Price: 5 s.
Contents:
Index (in Russian only so far)
- Part I: England at First Glance
- Part II: The Moral Outlook of the English People
- Part III: The Political Outlook of the English People
- Part IV: The English Class System
- Part V: The English Language
- Part VI: The Future of the English People
From Daniel J. Leab (one of the owners):
This short book was commissioned in September 1943 and was written in the Spring of 1944, after the completion of Animal Farm. It was published in 1947; because of the delay in publication (apparently caused by the "wartime paper shortage") Collins – the publisher – updated bits of it in 1946. Part of the series "Britain in Pictures," which in the 1980s was "much sought after by collectors," it covers very much the same terrain as did The Lion and the Unicorn, though the text is much milder. Orwell emphasized the "decency" of the English people. This work, too, he later requested not be reprinted. The book is divided into six sections, one of which dealing with language, anticipates his subsequent discussions of the various uses to which English can be put.