Book Review: "Diaries" by George Orwell

George Orwell’s Diaries are absolutely fascinating. Split between international travels and domestic travels, it shows how the Orwells moved all over the world during the time they were alive. It also shows the various payments and commissions, royalties and expenses of George Orwell in his great lifetime. Journeys across Morocco and stops off in Spain, adventures in Casablanca and the history of the fall of France to Spain in the early to mid-20th century. It is not actually as much about the states and affairs of Britain as you would like and neither is it the obsession with the destruction of the iron curtain that you though Orwell was heavily involved in. But instead, there is a great viewing of a man who had keen observation of everything around him. There is everything from political observation to the way in which people were dressed. There were observations on market places, money, stalls and women. There are government observations and reads from the snippets of newspapers. Orwell had a keen eye for everything and it does not stop at the start of his diaries. It is perhaps more ardent in pursuit of meaning than any of his novels. He never glosses over a detail but stands to admire it long after the detail in question has possibly already passed him by.

I remember this one anecdote which, at the time of reading it, seemed so very unimportant and yet, when I look back on it perhaps it is important to understand Orwell rather than what he is observing. He observes the military uniforms of the Spanish government and he is stating how red they are and how they look like uniforms he has seen before. Within this we can see that we are not actually observing the uniforms themselves but in fact, we are observing Orwell who is observing the uniforms. Orwell not only notices that these uniforms are alike to others he has seen in government offices, but he also takes his time to really look at them. Something that would have been considered a detail to be brushed over in anyone else’s diary seems to have its own paragraph in Orwell’s. The importance is not of the uniforms again, but it is the way in which Orwell recognises government officials. It is always the case when you read Orwell that the government officials seem to stand out from the rest. There is ‘Big Brother’ in ‘1984’ and then we have the pigs underneath Napoleon in ‘Animal Farm’. We even have any form of authority figure we meet in my personal favourite Orwell book, ‘Down and Out in Paris and London’. It seems to us that Orwell has an eye for pointing out members of the government, figures of authority and people who have the job of keeping other people in line.

I cannot express enough how great it was to actually read this book. I have waited a very long time, until I had finished all of Orwell’s novels, to read his diaries purely because I was afraid I wouldn’t understand key contextual items without it. It is one of the most fascinating diaries I have ever read and honestly, there is a lot to be said about Orwell’s own life when it comes to the way in which he wrote about the ruling classes of certain countries. The fact that some of his novels made royalties of just over £600 back in the days in which he was alive not only made him a richer man than most, but the very fact he had this money and kept himself grounded in the prospects of socialism is something far beyond the reach of the normal, average man. Even of our own time.