“Good Bad Books”, “Revenge Deceives Expectations”, “The Triumph of Open Fire”, “Can Socialists Be Happy?”, “Books Against Cigarettes”, “Hanging”...Orwell’s essays included in this book when- then caused a sensation, scandal and heated discussion in the English press and society. And even now, no matter how paradoxical it may sound, their polemics are not at all outdated, and they are read fresh and bright, no matter what they are talking about, from politics to poetry, from social problems to fiction. The reason for this is the unique authorial style of Orwell, who knew how to write inimitably original, deeply personal and very thorny texts even on abstract topics.