Some of George Orwell’s most celebrated works are coming to the online publishing platform Substack.
The Orwell Foundation is set to launch Orwell Daily, which will serialise for free at least a portion of the author’s famous books and other writings.
Orwell Daily begins on October 28th with his debut, Down And Out In Paris And London, the author’s expose of poverty in two of the world’s wealthiest cities.
Over the following several weeks, the Substack will run excerpts of some 1,000-1,500 words.
The foundation’s director Jean Seaton said: “We’re here to honour and celebrate and get people to think about Orwell.”
Some news... we're serializing George Orwell on @SubstackInc, and you can sign up today! One of the world's most influential writers delivered direct to your inbox. Daily. 📚📲https://t.co/sZbw8UJgh4
— The Orwell Prizes (@TheOrwellPrize) October 21, 2022
George Orwell – the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair – is best known for his allegorical work Animal Farm, from 1945, and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, published in 1949, the year before his death.
Admirers cite the British author often when warning about democracy’s decline, but the foundation also wants to raise awareness of his writing about homelessness in Down And Out In Paris And London, first published in 1933.
“It was his first piece of real reportage,” Orwell’s son, Richard Blair, said in a statement released on Friday.
“Orwell wanted to see what it was like to be in the gutter — what it was like to be seen as a ‘tramp’.
“There are many miniature essays you can extract, but it’s also terribly descriptive. It grabs you.
“And there’s a degree of humour too, which is important. He puts you right there alongside the people he was writing about.”
Jeremy Wikeley, the foundation’s project officer, says future serialisations will be announced later in the year.
Numerous works, old and new, have been serialised on Substack.
They range from Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to such contemporary releases as Anand Giridharadas’ The True American: Murder And Mystery In Texas.
Substack newsletters such as Dracula Daily and Edgar Allan Poe Daily are dedicated entirely to excerpts from a given book or author.
The Orwell Foundation, which also oversees a Substack newsletter of Orwell news and commentary, recently announced the Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness.
The award is a partnership with The Centre for Homelessness Impact, and “will celebrate the art of evidence-led storytelling, accurate investigation and innovative policy reporting”, according to the foundation.
