Catalan specialist publishes new collection of Orwellian articles

George Orwell was obsessed with how the truth is presented, a trait most evident in the numerous articles he penned. In homage of the great English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic, Catalonia’s most recognised specialist in his work, Miquel Berga, has selected 10 of Orwell’s essays on language, politics and truth and compiled them in a new work entitled El poder y la palabra. 10 ensayos sobre lenguaje, política y verdad.

For many readers, Orwell’s writing represents a genre of literature even more devalued than the essay: that of the committed writer who, unashamed of the ideology he defends, refuses to budge from the ethical position he has adopted. Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia is a book that has resisted the passage of time for many reasons, one being the conviction, the iron moral integrity, that guides the entire text.

For others, Orwell is the author of memorable works of fiction, even if they come under the umbrella of fable or political satire, such as Nineteen Eighty-four and Animal farm.

But behind all this hides a more ambitious literary Orwell: the journalist who, contrary to all orthodoxy, pursued the truth with absolute integrity, and that is what Berga captures in his new collection.