From a public school education, to service with the Imperial Police in Burma, to life as a tramp on the streets of Paris and London and action in the Spanish Civil War, George Orwell has remained a figure whose literary legacy is steeped in controversy. Orwell's creative and critical work has positioned him as both the champion of the political left and occasionally its enemy. This text establishes Orwell as more than a "voice of the left" and examines his enduring position in the English tradition. The essays in this volume study Orwell's love-hate relationship with England, together with his views on the British Empire, as well as offering readings of his classic texts, "Nineteen Eighty-Four" and "Animal Farm".