George Orwell is best known for his two late books, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four: the former an allegory of revolution betrayed told in a beast fable of the purest simplicity of style; the latter a violent and pessimistic nightmare of life under totalitarianism. He wrote much more, however: a dozen books in all, including novels, plus documentary works, and hundreds of essays, reviews and other writings.

He was a craftsman in language, with his own strong personal voice and also a command of a whole range of literary and journalistic styles. Orwell was accomplished in many shades of realist writing, from documentary through naturalism to surrealism; he mastered picturesque and pastoral styles as well as trenchant parody; and he was adept at rendering the inner life of thought and feeling.

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The Language of George Orwell is the first detailed study of Orwell's language and style. Drawing on contemporary critical theory and the analytic methods of linguistic criticism, Roger Fowler sheds new light on Orwell's achievement as a literary artist who engaged passionately with the life and ideas of his time.

This novel approach, which will be of great interest to students and to others who wish to know Orwell's work better, is accessible to those without a linguistic training; technical terms are kept to a minimum, and are carefully explained.