THE WORLD OF GEORGE ORWELL

by Miriam -- Ed. Gross ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1972

A handsome and remarkably perceptive collection of sketches and critiques on the on-going enigma of George Orwell, ne Eric Blair. Contributors include John Wain, William Empson, Malcolm Muggeridge, Edward Crankshaw and a score of others who crossed Orwell's thorny path sometime between the nightmares of Eton and the nightmares of 1984. Twenty years after his death Orwell bids fair to belated recognition as the conscience of the Left in the '30's. A socialist who made the socialist intelligentsia ""his favorite targets of ill-will,"" an impassioned champion of the working class who was frankly repelled by their stupidity and squalor (""the working classes smell""), an anti-imperialist who disdained the natives, Orwell vexed everyone -- and still does. In lieu of a definitive biography (which Orwell prohibited in his will) the present volume maps his intellectual development: the shattering encounter with the white man's burden in Burmese Days; the self-imposed vagaries in the lower depths of Paris and London; the graphic reportage of working class degradation in Wigan Pier; the bitter recognition of Homage to Catalonia that Communism had become an anti-revolutionary force; the mounting disgust with the intellectual subservience of the European Left to the Moscow line; the ""incorruptible pessimism about the future"" that produced the chilling prophecies of totalitarianism. Only one real debunker is included here, D. A. N. Jones, who airs the standard cantankerous ""Mrs. Gummidge"" picture of Orwell and you might wish for the inclusion of Raymond Williams and Conor Cruise O'Brien, but this is a splendid volume -- and brilliantly illustrated with photographs of Orwell's progress from boyhood to premature death.

Pub Date: March 1, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION