Starting today, entries from George Orwell's diaries (annotated by Orwell scholar Peter Davison) will be posted online. The first entry, from August 9, 1938, is a brief description of Orwell's encounter with a snake. Future entries promise to be more enlightening:

What impression of Orwell will emerge? From his domestic diaries (which start on 9th August), it may be a largely unknown Orwell, whose great curiosity is focused on plants, animals, woodwork, and – above all – how many eggs his chickens have laid. From his political diaries (from 7th September), it may be the Orwell whose political observations and critical thinking have enthralled and inspired generations since his death in 1950. Whether writing about the Spanish Civil War or sloe gin, geraniums or Germany, Orwell’s perceptive eye and rebellion against the ‘gramophone mind’ he so despised are obvious.