London: Secker & Warburg, 1950

8vo, pp. 212. Original pale green boards, lettered in red to spine. Top edge red. Printed dust jacket. Offsetting to endpapers, boards just a little faded, but a very good copy in a very good dust jacket, usual fading to the red of the spine, some chipping to top edge and wear to spine ends.

First edition.

George Orwell the essayist was the greatest stylist of the twentieth century, and one of its towering consciences; Shooting An Elephant, published in the year of his death, gathers together his finest shorter pieces. As well as the anti-imperialist title essay, the collection includes Decline Of The English Murder, a playful rumination on the types of stories favoured by Sunday red-tops and their middle-England readers; Politics And The English Language, Orwell's peerless treatise on literary style; and A Hanging, still one of the most compelling arguments against the death penalty ever written.
195
A lovely copy of a book seldom found in collectable condition, showcasing Orwell at his peerless best.