Orwell: The Life

by D.J. Taylor

Book Overview

Orwell has become one of the most potent and symbolic figures in western political thought. Even the adjective 'Orwellian' is now a byword for a particular way of thinking about life, literature and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0701169192
• ISBN13: 9780701169190
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Vintage/Ebury (a Division of Random
• Length: 448 Pages

Customer Reviews

Orwell biography

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Complete but Rather Wintry.

Well, I guess idols routinely crumble under scrutiny, so I shouldn't really be surprised that I came away from D.J. Taylor's biography of George Orwell viewing the famous author more as a man than as a hero. That is how it must be, however. When we study our fellow humans their flaws become discernible regardless of their greatness. As a man, Eric Blair was far from grand. He appeared to have the same faults present in many writers (all-be-they to a lesser extent). I now have a better appreciation of the author, and for the suffering he went through along with the challenges of his life. My one complaint is that Taylor did not treat his subject with the respect to which he was entitled. More empathy and less Thackeray would have been immensely appreciated. As for me, I'll always treasure 1984, Down and Out in Paris and London, Homage to Catalonia, and Keep the Aspidistra Flying. Hitchens was right; Orwell remains relevant. This biography heightens our awareness of the man even though it comes at the cost of his no longer seeming transcendent. Orwell's creative genius is not something undermined by these pages, but I do think that it's hard to appreciate his political outlook after closely examining it. His animosity towards Marxism is rather comical when one considers his continuing, quasi-religious belief in socialism. His time at the BBC taught him a little bit about the way in which bureaucracies function and we can only hopefully speculate that, if he had lived longer, he would have eventually renounced his love for statism and seen the light.

The best of several Orwell bipgraphies

I have read many biographies of Orwell before encountering this one, but have learned more about Orwell the person in this book than in all of the others combined. Taylor's insight into the man and sparkling prose style make this a must read.

Orwell the centuries conscience

Orwell's work and his life should hang over us like the conscience of the 20th century. In the 20th century a series of ideological political thought systems came to the fore that tried to offer man salvation(since man had found no salvation in god for more then 2000 years and was tired of waiting). Socialism and its brother communism and fascism uised the new weapons and mass media of the day to crush humanity into slavery. Orwell first witnissed this in Spain when he saw Fascism confront COmmunism and seven Anarchism on the battlefield. Orwells books Anamial Farm and 1984 show us a bleak world in which idealists control our daily lives and force us to do what we are told or risk death and imprisonedment(alla Stalinism). In some ways we must fear this as the future. With technology and weapons as powerful as they are the chances of us all becoming slaves to a dictatoprial government that wants us tot hink and act a certain way is ever present. Orwell came to understand the evils of communism(he had been a big slinging socialism when younger). Orwell, having died young, saw through a lens of humanity and pored into his few works the conscience of the 20th century.This is a good read and this book renews our interest in orwell after so many years of his virtual eclipse.