In this collection of articles that make up this volume, George Orwell doesn't indulge in the cultivation of prophecy, as he did so brilliantly in 1984 or in that impeccable allegory, Animal Farm (1945). Instead, he offers an invaluable testimony of the turbulent era in which he lived (but... is there any era that isn't turbulent for the contemporary who experiences it?), which is also one way of articulating an autobiography, even though it doesn't dare to speak its name.

Whether in his fiction, his dystopian novels, or in these articles, Orwell doesn't consider in the abstract the role of the intellectual in society, the function of the writer, or the degree of commitment that the practice of literature should entail. Instead, he ponders a single theme: the human condition. Perhaps, and indeed, there is no other theme.