George Orwell's essays are better than his novels and I have thought about why. The novels have the ideas but the essays have the ideas plus the voice, and the voice in Orwell's best essays — 'Shooting an Elephant,' 'Why I Write,' 'Politics and the English Language' — is one of the most honest voices in the English language. He says things he knows will make him look bad.

The prose rules from 'Politics and the English Language' are routinely misapplied as style mandates (never use a long word where a short one will do, etc.) but the underlying argument is not about style. It's about honesty. Orwell's contention is that vague language is the refuge of cowardice and political manipulation. Every sentence that obstructs rather than communicates is a small act of power.

I reread the essay every year. My prose gets better for about a month afterward.