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Can Socialists be Happy?

Series: Penguin Archive
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Brief Description
90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books No thinking person can or does genuinely keep out of politics, in an age like the present one. Unfailingly wise and often startlingly prophetic, George Orwell's essays are masterpieces of plain English prose. This stirring new collection... Read More
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90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books

No thinking person can or does genuinely keep out of politics, in an age like the present one.

Unfailingly wise and often startlingly prophetic, George Orwell's essays are masterpieces of plain English prose. This stirring new collection brings together his most cherished pieces with lesser-known gems, ranging over everything from tree planting to living with the atom bomb, sleeping rough to the perils of getting what you want in politics.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780241746905

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 17 April 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Classics

Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 7.0mm

Width: 110.0mm

Height: 180.0mm

Weight: 82g

Pages: 128

About the Author

Eric Arthur Blair (1903-1950), better known by his pen-name, George Orwell, was born in India, where his father worked for the Civil Service. An author and journalist, Orwell was one of the most prominent and influential figures in twentieth-century literature. His unique political allegory Animal Farm was published in 1945, and it was this novel, together with the dystopia of Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), which brought him world-wide fame. His novels and non-fiction include Burmese Days, Down and Out in Paris and London, The Road to Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia.

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