George Orwell: A Centenary Tribute [essay]

Abstract

Despite all the horrors of his age, there remained in Orwell, even as illness overtook him, a feeling in his limbs, an exuberance of spirit, a fascination with the details of life, a love of the world. Orwell tells us that, when he was shot through the throat in Spain and believed he was about to die, what he experienced was 'a violent resentment at having to leave this world which, when all is said and done, suits me so well'.