The Cambridge Companion To George Orwell

Description

George Orwell is regarded as the greatest political writer in English of the twentieth century. The massive critical literature on Orwell has not only become extremely specialized, and therefore somewhat inaccessible to the nonscholar, but it has also attributed to and even created misconceptions about the man, the writer and his literary legacy. For these reasons, an overview of Orwell's writing and influence is an indispensable resource. Accordingly, this 2007 Companion serves as both an introduction to Orwell's work and furnishes numerous innovative interpretations and fresh critical perspectives on it. Throughout the Companion, which includes chapters dedicated to two of Orwell's major novels, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, Orwell's work is placed within the context of the political and social climate of the time. His response to the Depression, British imperialism, Stalinism, World War II, and the politics of the British Left are also examined. Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Notes on contributors......Page 8 Preface......Page 11 Chronology......Page 13 1 A political writer......Page 18 2 Orwell and the biographers......Page 29 3 Englands His Englands......Page 45 4 The truths of experience: Orwell’s nonfiction of the 1930s......Page 60 5 The fictional realist: novels of the 1930s......Page 76 6 Orwell’s essays as a literary experience......Page 93 7 ‘My country, right or left’: Orwell’s patriotism......Page 104 8 Orwell and the British Left......Page 117 9 Orwell, anti-Semitism and the Holocaust......Page 129 10 Orwell, Socialism and the Cold War......Page 143 11 Animal Farm: history as fable......Page 150 12 Nineteen Eighty-Four: context and controversy......Page 163 13 Orwell, the academy and the intellectuals......Page 177 14 Orwell for today’s reader: an open letter......Page 196 15 George Orwell: a bibliographic essay......Page 207 16 Why Orwell still matters......Page 218 Further reading......Page 225 index......Page 228