White himself, the essays in this volume span a lifetime of writing and a body of work without peer.  "I have chosen the ones that have amused me in the rereading," he writes in the Foreword, "alone with a few that seemed to have the odor of durability clinging to them." These essays are incomparable; this is a volume to treasure and savor at one's leisure.

    The other masterly essays in this collection include classics such as "My Country Right or Left", "How the Poor Die" and "Such, Such were the Joys", his memoir of the horrors of public school, as well as discussions of Shakespeare, sleeping rough, boys' weeklies, and a spirited defence of English cooking. Opinionated, uncompromising, provocative, and hugely entertaining, all show Orwell's unique ability to get to the heart of any subject.

    Grown-Up! Sluggards, Ahoy! Sweet Solitude Penguin Feud Coffee Versus Gin The Early Worm Truffle Poisoning My Untold Story

    

    They range from boyish exuberance to solemn meditation; from that irrepressible gaiety which leaves the impression of a man with a richly stored mind thinking aloud, to the majestic prose in which he sets to music his response to a profound emotion. Here is the poet's eye for a landscape, the easily kindled imagination which could bring the dead past to life, the wit and wisdom of one who lived ardently and knew the bitterness as well as the joys of this world.