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With an Afterword by Erich Fromm. ... Read more

Product Description
Esta es una fabula en la que la adjudicacion de las aflicciones y las necesidades humanas a los animales protagonistas vencio la resistencia nacional de los primeros lectores a mirar lo que no querian mirar. Lo que nos cuenta el autor ya estaba en los periodicos: la historia sobre los crimenes estalinistas en la Union Sovietica. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Excellent
One of my favorite books. It describes exactly what the present day communist society is all about. Excellent book condition, fast delivery. Thank you.

Excelente!
Dado que es un libro en español, el "review" va en español: excelente entrega, llegó a tiempo y en perfecto estado. ¡Genial!

Un esbozo de 1984
Vale la pena leerlo, es un clásico. Sin embargo no tiene la calidad y la imaginación de 1984. Si disfutan la oportunidad de comprender e internarse en el desarrollo del pensamiento de un autor clásico, se los recomiendo; sin embargo, no deben dejar pasar por ninguna manera la obra maestra de Orwell, sin duda, 1984. Les recomiendo eso sí, para que no les altere la percepción del libro, NO LEAN EL PRÓLOGO o háganlo hasta el final.

Excelente obra sobre que ilustra la Revolucion Rusa
El Sr. Jones no sabe lo que estaba a punto de ocurrir en su granja pero continuaba con su patron de explotacion hasta el dia en que los animales se levantaron para hacer justicia y buscar la igualdad. La trama gira en torno a la manera en la que los animales producen y llevan a cabo esta revolucion. Este es un clasico el cual estuvo prohibido y censurado en muchos lugares. Hoy podemos disfrutar de esta excelente obra de George Orwell. En esta edicion encontrara un prologo nunca antes publicado escrito por el autor, el cual es analizado en su contexto. Excelente obra facil de leer, entretenida y con un potencial historico extraordinario.

It's the truth about the "revolutions for The People"
It's a must read for whoever whants to know the truth about "equality" and "justice" in all communist countries. ... Read more

Product Description
Big Brother, Newspeak, Room 101, Doublethink. Few writers can boast the brilliant legacy of George Orwell, both in his numerous additions to the English language and in his profound influence on world literature. This book attempts to bring to life the man behind the words. It explores the influence of his childhood and Eton education, his experience as a policeman in Burma, his deliberate plunge into poverty and his experiences in the Spanish Civil War in the creation of the consciousness of the man who produced Animal Farm and 1984. The book includes new material on Orwell's complex and sometimes reckless sex life, new evidence of his being hunted and spied on in Spain, his paranoia about possible assassination, the strange circumstances of his first marriage and his deathbed wedding to a woman fifteen years his junior. This new material enables this biographer to cast new light on Orwell, the inner man, as well as on Orwell, the great author.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Orwell biography
This biography provides excellent research material for students engaging in critical analysis while examining relevant influences from the author's life.It's well organized and thorough.

Small factual errors in this Orwell bio
In general this is a useful biography of George Orwell.However, after at first clearly distingushing between the POUM, the lefist party in whose militia Orwell fought during the Spanish Civil War, and Trotskyism, the author then goes on to refer to "Trotskyists" in Spain and equate the POUM and Trotskyism.The POUM weren't Trotskyists.This is made clear in all the credible works on the history of the Spanish Civil War.This is a small point but it indicates some lack of understanding on the part of the biographer of the larger political context of the Spanish Civil War.

Also, on page 235, the author refers to "the distinguished American Journalist Stephen Schwartz."Schwartz is a long time San Francisco colorful character and professional repentant former leftist whose work as a journalist has been limited mostly to his former job as an obituary writer at the San Francisco Chronicle.In the 1980's he worked as a public relations man for the Nicaraguan Contras and the Reagan Administration's war moves in Central America.Today Schwartz is a minor league neo-conservative war bird. There are no grounds on which Schwartz can be described as "distinguished," let alone as a distinguished journalist.

The following article explains this further.

Neo-conservatism and Stephen Schwartz: the further adventures of an obituary writer.

[...]

Kevin Keating

An Inside view of the GREAT author
The title is indeed descriptive as the author probes the inner workings of the great author - Eric Blair (aka George Orwell). Bowker exposes the dualism of Blair/Orwell to describe many of the man's layers.
Blair, in his twenties, was a policeman for the empire in Burma. He came to loathe the job and what he did. Just what he did can only be conjectured - but one can imagine the power of a colonial authority in Burma in the early 1900's. In later years George Orwell would write about power in a far more pervasive atmosphere - notably in his two great twentieth century works - "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four".
While it is true, as Bowker says that his two major works were miss-interpreted, they are so substantial and multi-faceted in scope that they can be given many different interpretations. In their beauty, power and longevity they are multi-faceted. I feel that Bowker left out one for "Nineteen Eighty-Four" which is the cult of mediocrity (as seen through the proles). We certainly have been experiencing this for many years on TV, newspapers and magazines which constantly aim for the lowest common denominator.
Also, while Bowker explores Orwell's relationship to several British authors (Maugham, Wells), he has skipped over the American side. What about Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tools" which is the most popular book on the Spanish Civil War. As Bowker points out it was Orwell's participation with the Republicans in Spain that led almost directly to "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four". Also what of Sinclair Lewis whose social satire books were extremely popular during Orwell's era?
Nevertheless he does paint a portrait of an extremely troubled man - his many affairs, his constant health problems. His dualism to experience poverty with people who were barely literate I found perplexing and as Bowker says anthropological. His accent would immediately set him apart and made him ill-suited to assimilate with homeless people - even though it led to his `poverty books'.
Also Orwell could miss-read events - he sided with Chamberlain on the Munich appeasement. During the onset of war (the London Blitz) he predicted a forthcoming revolution to a classless society.
Bowker's description of Orwell's essay on Dali's paintings is illuminating. Was Orwell seeing something of his inner self in the surreal and underworld Dali paintings - perhaps getting an all to close glimpse of himself in Burma, his philandering and sexual mis-treatment of women (Orwell was not one to shy away from direct sexual approaches to woman).
Orwell died at age 46 - what other major works were hidden within him?

REVIEW OF GORDON BOWKER'S INSIDE GEORGE ORWELL BY JOHN CHUCKMAN
This book is the best of the newer Orwell biographies, but it still falls short in some respects. Bowker does a far better job than D. J. Taylor at creating a sense of continuity and purpose in Orwell's life. Bowker is a good writer, occasionally showing bits of inspired analysis, but still there are passages of utility-grade stuff.

The two biographies, Bowker and Taylor, published in the same year, offer readers an opportunity to compare two quite different treatments of the same life, treatments that both use previously unknown materials. Taylor's treatment is more episodic and seems to lose no opportunity to highlight something dark, unflattering, or unpleasant about Orwell.

Bowker gets at Orwell's quintessential Englishness. I was happy he used exactly that word, Englishness, which I think is an important and appealing aspect of Orwell. It is a word I've always associated with Orwell much as I do with figures such as Dickens or Graham Greene. This is a quality virtually ignored by Taylor, unless you accept his references to old-boy school snobbery as a rough substitute, references I believe are clear distortions.

Bowker is sympathetic to his subject without ever being servile or sentimental, a position which is right for a biographer. While Taylor makes some effort to convince us of his old admiration for his subject, his words ring false. Taylor displays strong antipathy towards his subject, releasing it slowly through the book, and to my mind this is never the correct position for a biographer. Moreover, the clash between Taylor's claims of admiration and his clear antipathy introduces a howling note of falseness that warns of the author's intent.

Bowker does an excellent job of summarizing the saga of Orwell's widow (his second wife) Sonia and his literary legacy - a tale in which the new Cold War becomes an important element - an interesting topic with which Taylor doesn't do much. Bowker also does a nice job of explaining why a biographer would write about Orwell despite the author's well-known wish that he wanted no biography.

The portion of new material in either book dealing with Orwell's sex life does not shed a pleasant light on part of his character. I couldn't help thinking of passages in Benita Eisler's Byron dealing with the poet's grotesque servant-boy swapping and Mediterranean tours to buy boys in various countries - activities that would put him in prison today - passages that frankly left me feeling as though I needed fresh air. No, Orwell wasn't as twisted as Byron, but he was double-dealing in his sexual affairs and apparently sometimes found the charms of young girls selling themselves in exotic lands an irresistible purchase.

I very much agree with Arthur Koestler's observation, quoted in Bowker, "I don't think George ever knew what makes other people tick, because what made him tick was very different from what most other people tick." Orwell was in many ways what contemporary speech might describe as "out of it." He was, if you will, an authentic English eccentric. This may help explain why Orwell was such a powerful critic and observer while remaining a second-tier novelist.

In a way, something like this may be said of many incisive critics and great artists. The divine Mozart with his scatological letters and often buffoonish behavior. Beethoven's constant moving to new apartments, thunderous emotional storms, and self-destructive attachment to a worthless nephew. The ticks and quirks of the magnificent Samuel Johnson. Dicken's unbelievably obsessive, compulsive behavior.

At the more extreme end of the scale, we have Rousseau's bizarre temperament, always ready to attack friends and admirers. The strange Herman Melville who may just have murdered his wife. Marcel Proust's sadistic penchant for sticking pins into live mice.

Sometimes I think it is better just to enjoy the work of genius rather than digging too deeply into the lives of its creators. For this reason I am almost fearful of reading Norman Sherry's third volume on Graham Greene (reported to focus heavily on the unsavory aspects of Greene's life), one of my favorite twentieth-century writers and critics. But then again, we want to understand, and we find it almost irresistible to read about the lives of artists we have come to love. And whatever unpleasant we may learn, it remains the greatness of their work that drew us to them.

Orwell wrote some of the twentieth century's best essays and occasional pieces, and, in 1984, not long before his death, he displayed a kind of penetrating political insight rarely seen before or since. Since great writing is so often the work of mature people, we undoubtedly missed a great deal when he died at 46.

An Absorbing Read
I studied George Orwell years back in College and wish I had had this book to read then. It's the best I've read so far, not only well and clearly written and firmly-based in research (including some fascinating new discoveries), but also a real page-turner. I hadn't realized how adventurous Orwell's life was (not only as a man but also as a man of ideas) and how closely his writing followed his experiences. This book is very convincing in exploring Orwell's state of mind - as a down-and-out in London and Paris, as a fighter in Spain, living through the Second World War in England, and writing '1984' at the start of the Cold War. It also very good in showing just how his last two books were misunderstood in the US.I took this book to read on a plane trip and found myself absorbed in it completely till we landed. ... Read more

Product Description
About George Orwell 6
Introduction to Nineteen Eighty-Four 59
Summary in Brief 63
Characters 78
About Major Characters 81
Major Themes 86
Motifs 99
Symbols 101
Summary and Analysis 105
Book One 105
Chapter I 105
Analysis 107
Chapter II 111
Chapter III 112
Analysis 113
Chapter IV 117
Chapter V 119
Chapter VI 121
Analysis 121
Chapter VII 124
Chapter VIII 127
Analysis 128
Book Two 131
Chapter I 131
Chapter II 133
Chapter III 134
Analysis 134
Chapter IV 137
Chapter V 138
Chapter VI 139
Analysis 139
Chapter VII 143
Chapter VIII 145
Analysis 145
Chapter IX 148
Chapter X 150
Analysis 151
Book Three 153
Chapter I 153
Chapter II 155
Chapter III 157
Analysis 158
Chapter IV 160
Chapter V 161
Chapter VI 162
Analysis 163
Newspeak 165




PrintISBN: 978-0-557-58422-2 ... Read more

Product Description
Gordon Comstock is a poor young man who works in a grubby London bookstore and spends his evenings shivering in a rented room, trying to write. He is determined to stay free of the “money world” of lucrative jobs, family responsibilities, and the kind of security symbolized by the homely aspidistra plant that sits in every middle-class British window.
Amazon.com Review
London, 1936. Gordon Comstock has declared war on the money god; and Gordon is losing the war. Nearly 30 and "rather moth-eaten already," a poet whose one small book of verse has fallen "flatter than any pancake," Gordon has given up a "good" job and gone to work in a bookshop at half his former salary. Always broke, but too proud to accept charity, he rarely sees his few friends and cannot get the virginal Rosemary to bed because (or so he believes), "If you have no money ... women won't love you."On the windowsill of Gordon's shabby rooming-house room is a sickly but unkillable aspidistra--a plant he abhors as the banner of the sort of "mingy, lower-middle-class decency" he is fleeing in his downward flight.In Keep the Aspidistra Flying, George Orwell has created a darkly compassionate satire to which anyone who has ever been oppressed by the lack of brass, or by the need to make it, will all too easily relate. He etches the ugly insanity of what Gordon calls "the money-world" in unflinching detail, but the satire has a second edge, too, and Gordon himself is scarcely heroic. In the course of his misadventures, we become grindingly aware that his radical solution to the problem of the money-world is no solution at all--that in his desperate reaction against a monstrous system, he has become something of a monster himself.Orwell keeps both of his edges sharp to the very end--a "happy" ending that poses tough questions about just how happy it really is. That the book itself is not sour, but constantly fresh and frequently funny, is the result of Orwell's steady, unsentimental attention to the telling detail; his dry, quiet humor; his fascination with both the follies and the excellences of his characters; and his courageous refusal to embrace the comforts of any easy answer. --Daniel Hintzsche ... Read more

Customer Reviews (52)

Another Panegyric to a great book
I must confess upon beginning this review, that this book has been reviewed many times and often very well by many other people. I have little to add beyond my own opinion.

I will say that George Orwell is sometimes misidentified only as the writer of 1984 and Animal Farm. His many other works seem, to me at least, to be lacking the acclaim and the praise amongst the average reader as his most famous works.

In short Keep The Aspidistra Flying is a marvelous book. It is short enough for a weekend read, one day if you really want to finish it, but this is a novel that I tried to stretch out over many days in reading. I forget when the last time a book gave me so many reasons to smile, and while at work plot when and where I'd next be able to devour the words upon its pages. Orwell was a masterful writer and in this novel, he brilliantly tells the story of Gordon Comstock who in Britain in the nineteen Thirties deals with what many deal with today, the seemingly all powerful and controlling influence of money in their lives. He finds many occasions where against better judgement he reveals to the people around him this tyranny and his helplessness to do anything about it. If this were the only theme of the novel, it wouldbe interesting but there is more.

Woven into this is the struggle between Gordon Comstock the poet, and Gordon Comstock the man. The Man is in love with his girlfriend Rosemary and often has cause to feel the effects of money invading and destroying the love between them. And then their is Comstock the poet who wishes to do away with these things, to be free, and to be able to live as a free man.

Orwell is often regarded as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century and if it is ever a crime to agree with this, then I'd gladly plead guilty. Keep the Aspidistra Flying!

RATHER PATHETIC
The protagonist Gordon Comstock is a a rather pathetic, sad character and I couldn't relate to him as anyone going anywhere and he's a kind of lifeless fellow. Can't figure out why Rosemary is so patient with him and doesn't get him of his grubby bookstore..and existence...or move on.Not Orwell's best but I had to read just to find out my friends thought the book to be a bore.Pass on it if you have something else to read.

Abortion Angst
This novel is one of the three early Orwell novels produced in dire poverty and in the case all but "Burmese Days" pressure to publish. "A Clergyman's Daughter," and "Burmese Days" being the other two early Orwell proto-novels. I gave "A Clergyman's Daughter" a bad review, I believe quite arbitarily, since the three novels share the same problem.

The best of the three is "Burmese Days," because Orwell over compensated on his strong descriptive skills in writing it. Gordon Comstock is the main character here. It is interesting to note whether the name Comstock came from the infamous Comstock Act which limited the importation of objectionable books into the USA. Comstock's struggles are widely seen to be the early life of Orwell as a writer working at the Booklover's Corner...now a pizza joint. The struggles seem to have the characteristics of clinical depression which is an interesting possibility for Orwell's life. Gordon struggles as he views an obnoxious BOVRIL testimonial ad that makes its character look like a "well fed, slickened" servile rat with a steaming cup for breakfast. Gordon is confronted with the struggle between the Money God and artistic freedom and for a while chooses the latter which leads him to seedy lodgings and aimlessness.

Gordon's long suffering girlfriend gets pregnant which awakens in him a responsibility for the preborn child and the fate of his girl after he spends a day at the library studying fetal development.An interesting side light: abortion appears in Orwell essays on England's birth dearth; Orwell once remarked that abortion should be seen as something more than "a pecadillo." Would Orwell today be a prolifer? Thanks to his girl friend, Gordon gets a advertising job writing jingles for the very culture he professes to despise, much like Winston succumbing to the power of Big Brother in "1984." BOVRIL finds a new accomplice.

Objectively, these three novels are high pulp writen under economic duress,yet this novel I can not erase from my mind-the images are endearing. I see my student youth in Gordon. This is not very objective is it? The story images are compelling...the drunk tank...the soup kitchen...the horrid boarding house...the run down bookstore.

The source material for ASPIDISTRA can be found in "In an Age Like This" various journals in this book are helpful..."The Clink"..."The Spike"..."Boarding Houses"..."Bookshop Memories" as are the manipulative (?) letters to Eleanor Jaques, an early Orwell mentor, who helped his career during its Gordon Comstock phase.

This book, like the other two, is saved to an extent by the rich time capsule material or unique details that fasten our attention to the grimy scenery of the story as it unfolds. This is the novel version of the masterpiece "Down and Out in Paris and London"-thus it succeeds! Orwell was bad with characters and Gordon is no exception...he is internally silent. There is no deep introspection here as Gordon agnonizes over life purpose...Sarte would be disappointed with this novel, but I am attached to it for no real reason.

Interesting character who refuses to give up - makes for a good story
The main character in this story refuses to go along with the 'normal' way of life and earn a decent income.This leads him through a variety of adventures (most of which ending humorously badly) that kept me entertained.I did laugh out loud a fair amount of times.The only thing that was hard for me to understand was their money system of quid and joeys and pence.Aside from that, I enjoyed the book.

Not Orwell's Best
I enjoy Orwell a great deal. But this story does not move as interestingly as 1984, Animal Farm, Down and Out in Paris and London, Homage, and so forth. It starts off well, but loses energy in the middle. I'm reading it now, and I find it a bit of a struggle to complete. ... Read more

Product Description
This title contains the complete novels of George Orwell: "Animal Farm", "Burmese Days", "A Clergyman's Daughter", "Coming up for Air", "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four". ... Read more

Product Description
Classic / British English (Available February 2008) Winston Smith lives in a society where the government controls people's lives every second of the day. Alone in his small, one-room apartment, Winston dreams of a better life. Is freedom from this life of suffering possible? There must be something that the Party cannot control something like love, perhaps? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Timeless classic
This is a wonderful, although depressing, book. I bought it for my granddaughter for Christmas because it was on her list. However, I did not pay attention to the rating as far as scolastic rating and it is far too simple for her. That is my only problem with the book. I do not recall if that was clearly explained in the ordering process. But that has nothing to do with the story which is amazing. It was much more alarming when I first read it in 1962, however, than it is now.

Ruins the story's meaning
A book about stopping oppression, tyranny, totalitarianism, and censorship gets dubbed into a simple censored version. An insult to the original book. People might say that this makes it more accessible to more people, but it doesn't. It doesn't because unless they read the full book they won't understand the real meaning, they'll understand some person at penguin readers opinion.

This is an abridged version.
Just so you know, the Penguin Readers series was created for readers whose whose first language is not English (ESL students) and for young readers.Don't expect the full version.These are great books for ESL students and I have my students read them.Level 4 is approximately intermediate level.

Seller not clear on what exactly this IS!
I expected to receive a copy of the entire book '1984'...instead I received something like a Cliff's notes but really dumbed-down. I won't return it because shipping it back (in addition to shipping expenses incurred initially) would end up costing as much as the book! A HUGE disappointment :(

Got ripped off
Was expecting full version and had to send it back. Was charged more for shipping then what I paid for book ... Read more

Product Description
Monarch Notes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Deviates corrected for their own good
In a society that has eliminated many imbalances, surplus goods, and even class struggle, there are bound to be deviates; Winston Smith is one of those.He starts out, due to his inability to doublethink, with thoughtcrime. This is in a society that believes a thought is as real as the deed. Eventually he graduates through a series of misdemeanors to illicit sex and even plans to overthrow the very government that took him in as an orphan.

If he gets caught, he will be sent to the "Ministry of Love" where they have a record of 100% cures for this sort of insanity.They will even forgive his past indiscretions.

Be sure to watch the three different movies made from this book:
1984 (1954) Peter Cushing is Winston Smith
1984 (1956) Edmond O'Brien is Winston Smith
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) John Hurt is Winston Smith

1984
... Read more

Product Description
The world of 1984 is one in which eternal warfare is the price of bleak prosperity, in which the Party keeps itself in power by complete control over man's actions and his thoughts. As the lovers Winston Smith and Julia Learn when they try to evade the Thought Police, and then join the underground opposition, the Party can smash the last impulse of love, the last flicker of individuality.But let the reader beware: 1984 is more than a satire of totalitarian barbarism. "It means us, too," says Erich Fromm in his Afterword. It is not merely a political novel but also a diagnosis of the deepest alienation in the mind of Organization Man.George Orwell writes with a swift clean style that has come down from DeFoe. Like DeFoe, he creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing - from the first sentence to the last four words...words which might stand as the epitaph of the twentieth century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Timeless Overview
This volume used to be easily available up until the mid-80s and can still be easily purchased in most second-hand bookstores. I hope that Penguin decide to reissue it again as I think every essay contains certain timeless elements that add very much to many contempory events.

Both the left and the right like to claim Orwell as their own. As this book of essays proves, he belongs to no one and eschews all those stinking orthodoxies that via for the souls of mens. This is a recurring theme. In his long Essay on Dickens he reminds us that Dickens is particulalry great because of the things he DOES not do, rahter than what he describes and the moral tales he tells. Dickins is no social theorist. Dickens is a great moraliser where revolution has no place and people being decent to each other solves the majority of the world's problems.

There are some anti-imperial essays here. "How the Poor Die" is rather an indictment of French Culture or uncaring and "A Hanging" has as much dealing about Imperialism as it does with the general notion that "man can get used to anything" when they are exposed to it enough.

"Notes on Nationalism" could easily be called "Notes on Crooked Thinking."In this essay Orwell lays out the follies of ideology in general on peoples thinking processes... It should be read and re-read and quotes like "every nation that becomes a country thinks it necessary to depreciate all other foreigners."It may be cynical, but it is food for thought, such as when everyone is cheering their medals won in the olympics... Orwell doesn't stop at Nationalism. He locates the same diseased thinking in Marxism, Fascism, Orthodox Catholicism and Anglicanism. The tendancy for Trade Unionists to see nothing but evil in corporations and for capitalists to only see baleful influences in Trade Unionism. By extension there are the very disturbing debates we see in the US at the present time, when the so-called cultural wars are really just short-hand for people to think only in terms of ideological maxims -- the era of good old fashioned, even-handed common sense is truly in trouble in the US. A good read of this essay could help a lot of people.

The essay on Raffles and Miss Blandish tells the story of how the morality of characters changes within our heros over time. In reality this may be one of the first essays on the anti-hero. As such it is not important if anyone knows either of the above Characters (I think that only Raffles would be even vaguely known), it is far more important for a person to grasp the fact that writing tells us about the things we deem important, good or bad. For those who bemoan the tide of violence sweeping the world and the loss of good ol-fashioned morality this is an important essay.

A man who walks to the sound of his own drummer
Orwell writes in a number of different ways in these essays. To my mind the most powerful is the journalistic autobiographical essay on 'How Poor People Die'. This is his description of the time he spent in a public hospital when down- and- out in Paris. His descriptions of the barbarity of the medical practices, the pain and indifference suffered by the patients' make a moving cry against human cruelty. In the longest literary essay Orwell also moves in the realm of moral judgment. He reads the works of Dickens and sees in him not a practical reformer but rather a moralist crying out against human injustice. Orwell sees Dickens as a person of neither aristocracy nor proletariat but of the middle commercial class. He sees Dickens as one who is not a real revolutionary but rather as one who aims for some idealized and perfect version of a presently unsatisfactory status- quo. Orwell also writes about Kipling another of the most popular British authors in his own time. He argues that however objectionable Kipling's imperialism his sympathy for the clerks and soldiers of the Empire gave his work a strongly positive human quality. Orwell also writes a long essay of political philosophy in which he redefines the concept of Nationalism seeming to see it as any kind of chauvinistic, selfish collectivism. And he concludes the work with an essay explaining why he writes.
No matter what form he works in Orwell is a very clear and readable writer. However I find him to be far more convincing as journalist than as theorist. And this when the strong spirit of individual independence, of hearing his own drummer, of judging his own way pervades this fine work.

Analytical and balanced essays, and still relevant
George Orwell was a master of the critical, analytical essay and this collection gives us ten of his best.


*Decline of the English Murder
*A Hanging
*Benefit of Clergy
*How the Poor Die
*Rudyard Kipling
*Raffles and Miss Blandish
*Charles Dickens
*The Art of Donald McGill
*Notes on Nationalism
*Why I write

The essay on Kipling stands as an excellent example of analytical criticism. It contains my single favourite line from the book. "A good bad poem is a graceful monument to the obvious." There's no question Orwell enjoys Kipling and admires his talent and his understanding of the world. At the same time, Orwell disapproves of Kipling and of Kipling's values. Orwell knows that Kipling is a British imperialist and that Kipling believes the British man superior to other races, but Orwell sees that Kipling also knows what it is to rule. Orwell also sees that Kipling, unlike many others who glorify military death, understands that the common soldier would perhaps prefer to run away rather than face bullets.

Death stalks many of the other essays, e.g. a Hanging or How the Poor Die, but the Art of Donald McGill is a pleasant enough examination of low-brow humour, and the essay on Charles Dickens explains much of what makes Dickens so enjoyable and instantly recognizable.

But by far and away, the most important essay in this collection is "Notes on Nationalism". It has coloured my own political thinking since I first read it in 1990 and hardly a month goes by without my thinking of it. Orwell defines nationalism as the state of mind for people who identify so strongly with a group that they are unable to admit any wrong if that wrong makes the group more powerful, and who could never admit the truth of their group owing something to another. He sees this form on nationalism in British colonial officials who could not accept "natives" ruling India for themselves, he sees it in Irish and Scottish republicans who could not admit they owed their freedom to the United Kingdom's protection. He sees it in Catholic writers who see the population oppressed in (Protestant) Britain but freed in Mussolini's (Catholic) Italy. Perhaps today Orwell would have used the word "fundamentalism" instead of nationalism.

Vincent Poirier, Tokyo ... Read more

Product Description
In this widely acclaimed biographical essay, Christopher Hitchens assesses the life, the achievements, and the myth of the great political writer and participant George Orwell. In true emulative and contrarian style, Hitchens is both admiring and aggressive, sympathetic yet critical, taking true measure of his subject as hero and problem. Answering both the detractors and the false claimants, Hitchens tears down the façade of sainthood erected by the hagiographers and rebuts the critics point by point. He examines Orwell and his perspectives on fascism, empire, feminism, and Englishness, as well as his outlook on America, a country and culture towards which he exhibited much ambivalence.

Whether thinking about empires or dictators, race or class, nationalism or popular culture, Orwell's moral outlook remains indispensable in a world that has undergone vast changes in the fifty years since his death. Combining the best of Hitchens's polemical punch and intellectual elegance in a tightly woven and subtle argument, this book addresses not only why Orwell matters today, but how he will continue to matter in a future, uncertain world.

Christopher Hitchens, one of the most incisive minds of our own age, meets Orwell on the page in this provocative encounter of wit, contention and moral truth. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (39)

A different perspective of Orwell
As a christian, I have not read many of Christopher Hitchens book due to some his viewpoints; I have however read most of his brother's books (The Broken Compass, The Abolition of Britain and A Brief History of Crime).I have decided to take one of Christopher's books for a spin and found it to be a refreshing, well balanced essay of the life of Orwell and the meaning of his works.At 211 pages, the author goes through various perspectives of Orwell including his experiences of the British Empire, America (never came to these shores despite several abortive attempts), his views of feminism and the author's explanation of Orwell's advocates on the left and right.The main point that I got from this book is that Orwell was very faithful to idea of words and language and his disdain from disingenuous sloganeering that form some of the background for his novel 1984.Hitchens stated in his conclusion that a man like Orwell could live by "supposedly" Christian virtues without holding to any belief or piety.However, that begs the question of what constitutes virtue.Does it change over time?Pilate stated in his famous quote to Jesus "What is truth?"Truth and virtue must hold constant over time or we will be lost in the millieu of poltical correctness forever.

A great effort by Mr. Hitchens, but course my ideoolgy leans more toward his brother Peter.

OPPORTUNISTIC DE-CAFFEINATED ORWELL
The only thing I remember about this awful book was it went straight into the trash. But I do find it worrying to find 38 reviews on Amazon US whereas the British treat Hitchens with the contempt he deserves with only 4 tepid Amazon UK reviews.But I suppose this does explain why he's now an American citizen.

Seeking wealth by repeatedly publishing books with ORWELL on the cover is one thing but going after big bucks to please Americans who still can't separate Osama Bin Laden from Saddam Hussein is an unforgivable sin.Apparently he had a séance with his "idol" Orwell who told him he would have invaded Iraq!Yet it appears a bunch of academics took the bait. Many more words were wasted - another Orwell book brought in more shekels for Hitchens - all of which achieved absolutely nothing.

Thankfully it appears American intellectuals are now "onto" Hitchen's hypocritical search for any kind of Fame (money. That he still rates here has no more significance than Petula Clark's mysterious popularity in France.As such he's safely sidelined as "resident English wag".

Timing an Amazon review can be very important.Orwell triumphed in -mid June 2010.An American Senator told another English schyster (Tony Hayward) he was using "doublethink". Everyone knew what she meant.The President informed millions of Americans a Government Watchdog Agency was totally CORRUPT.That he never mentioned firing them one would not shock Orwell.In "1984" he pointed out (for the first time) corrupt bureaucrats are a self-perpetuating breed.The few caught with their hands in the cookie jar are shuffled elsewhere while a million others handling money in bureaucracies all over the world continue to thrive.

In "1984" Orwell vividly portrayed "brainwashing" before the word even became known - during the Korean War.How could he come up with a feudal Chinese torture in 1948?In my view 3 years spent at the BBC fired his imagination.After this he understood left and right wing politics were becoming irrelevant.Acquiring POWER (money) was the name of the game and to gain it only required manipulating inbuilt human FEAR. E.g. study Stalin and Hitler.

But however dramatically Orwell explained this threat to freedom his sense of humour was never far behind. At the end of "1984" when explaining the crazy duplicity of Newspeak and doublethink he settled scores with every pseudo-intellectual who ever crossed his path.He would have made hay in Las Vegas.Caesars Palace opened a "Shadow Bar" where underclad girls dance behind a scrim. But they had to assure nervous tourists it was not a "Gentleman's Club" which of course is where lap-dancing takes place.

Orwell would also love the irony of the words Value Engineering - which also means exactly the opposite.Translated into English this is when someone (usually a VP) cuts money from a project to earn points with his boss and shareholders. The BP oil rig disaster could well turn out to be a consequence of "Value Engineering".

Whether in a bureaucracy or a large private company those in upper-middle-management can do unbelievable harm in their quest to get to the top.As mine is a visual field I'll try to download an example of Value Engineering to prove the point.





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All lovers of the written word should read Why Orwell Matters, Hitchens writes the definitive book on Orwell.
No other book on George Orwell compares to Why Orwell Matters, Christopher Hitchens` perspective is unlike any other. This book will make you go out and read all of Orwell`s works and give you a new appreciation for the man, his works, and his life. Thank you Christopher for inspiring so many of us to delve into the wonderful world of Orwell.

Orwell Is Always Right -- But Is That The Measure Of Great Art?
This is a provocative , sharply written book that reveals many fascinating facts about the author of ANIMAL FARM and 1984. The only problem is, Hitchens celebrates Orwell almost exclusively as a political seer and hardly at all as a literary artist.

The idea seems to be that Orwell "matters" because he was so totally right about Stalin, Hitler, totalitarianism, etc. But is the highest function of art really to handicap "winners" and identify the coming trends? In actual fact, many of the most loved and best remembered literary artists were on the wrong side of history.

Shakespeare was wrong about the Divine Right of Kings. William Faulkner was wrong about Jim Crow. Edith Wharton was wrong about just about everything! But these are the writers who really "matter" because they created people who make us feel, not because they came up with ideas that make us think.

It's a lot easier to cry over Lily Bart in Edith Wharton's THE HOUSE OF MIRTH than it is to cry over Winston Smith in 1984 precisely because Lily is not just sensitive, intelligent, and refined. She's also selfish, spoiled, and weak -- and in a word, human. She's not destroyed by an infallible, superhuman state, but by a combination of bad luck, two-faced friends, social injustice, and her own personal flaws. Real life is like that.

Furthermore, the uncomfortable fact is that Orwell was wrong a lot of the time -- even on his own terms. Hitchens makes a big show of acknowledging his racism without any inkling of how it distorted his judgment. Orwell could never have imagined the Viet Cong humiliating the American superpower, with or without Russian and Chinese support. He could never have imagined the Civil Rights movement in America -- especially not if the leader was a Christian minister drawing inspiration from the New Testament instead of Marx. Most especially, he could not have imagined the resurgence of Islam as a political force.

Orwell had a cold, sterile, fundamentally shallow view of human nature, which entirely excluded religion as a motivating factor in world events. For better or for worse, human beings are far more passionate, emotional, and intuitive in their judgments than men like Orwell, or Christopher Hitchens. This is why the cerebral analysts so often fail to identify the coming trends.

Or to create great works of art.

Why I love to read
For one thing, Orwell matters because clear thought put to clear prose is a delight.Here Hitchens does Orwell proud.

Every page reveals a new historical perspective on the great author. We find that Orwell never visited Russia or the US. He did fight in the Spanish Civil War, and rejected totalitarianism earlier than any of his Marxist contemporaries, all things I didn't know.

Like Whittaker Chambers, who never left the US, Orwell understood the deaths and cultural destruction taking place behind Stalin's borders.

If only Orwell's modern admirers would be so clear-minded as to see that Marxism is the root of almost all 20th Century misery, including some of the current destabilization in the Middle East.

Hitchens mentions the sectarian crabbiness of English and American communists in the twenties and thirties, notoriously ignorant of Stalin's mass murders and shocked, shocked at his pact with Hitler.

Hitchens also harpoons modern political hacks who want to handcuff Orwell to leftist or right-wing allegiance.

After this, I'll be going back to find the Orwell items I've never read. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The authoritative and exhaustive collection.
If you're planning to do any serious research on George Orwell, this collection is an absolute necessity. Rare clips and literary bursts allow the most complete picture of this literary giant you could dream of. Don't call yourself an Orwell critic without having read all four fat volumes. Really. ... Read more

Product Description
Orwell's novel of a one man's determined battle against Big Brother and the forces of totalitarianism has contributed more to political sensibility-to say nothing of its hold on our imagination and political vocabulary-than any other book in this century. ... Read more

Product Description
First appearing in 1949, the novel 1984 seemed like a nightmarish vision of the future in a totalitarian world. Playing on the public's worst fears about governmental control, different readings saw the former Soviet Union as the object of satire, while others focused on increasingly powerful democratic governments.

The title, George Orwell’s 1984, part of Chelsea House Publishers’ Modern Critical Interpretations series, presents the most important 20th-century criticism on George Orwell’s 1984 through extracts of critical essays by well-known literary critics.This collection of criticism also features a short biography on George Orwell, a chronology of the author’s life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

George Orwell is masterful at capturing the truth about comm
It was a very good book. I liked it a lot. I will definitly read it again and again and again. ... Read more