Shooting an Elephant

George Orwell

Jan 2021 · Penguin UK

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'It was a tiny incident in itself, but it gave me a better glimpse than I had had before of the real nature of imperialism - the real motives for which despotic governments act'

Shooting an Elephant was the first piece of writing by George Orwell to be published by Penguin, in 1940. It is a searing and honest account of his experience as a police officer in imperial Burma: killing an escaped elephant in front of a crowd, solely to avoid looking like a fool.

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Eric Arthur Blair (1903-1950), better known by his pen-name, George Orwell, was born in India, where his father worked for the Civil Service. An author and journalist, Orwell was one of the most prominent and influential figures in twentieth-century literature. His unique political allegory Animal Farm was published in 1945, and it was this novel, together with the dystopia of Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), which brought him world-wide fame. His novels and non-fiction include Burmese Days, Down and Out in Paris and London, The Road to Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia.