- Paperback: 128 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (May 1982)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140063277
- ISBN-13: 978-0140063271
- Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11.2 x 1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 214,528 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In this brilliant pamphlet written during the Battle of Britain "to the tune of German bombs", Orwell seeks to demonstrate the feasibility of a socialist revolution in England. In the first part of the book, he describes with deep insight those features of the English national character that make him hope in a revolution at last establishing that equality so deeply ingrained in the history of the nation but never fully accomplished. In the following two chapters he states with intellectual brilliancy and warm passion the need for patriotism and socialism to work together to create a better society after the experience of a revolutionary war. Even though I do not agree with Orwell's socialist outlook of society, I can't help admiring his deep love for his country, her tradition, and her brave long-suffering people, together with one of the most powerful minds of the century.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
One of the great written works about English Culture. This extended essay of Orwell's was written during the blitz when the country and probably the author were at their lowest ebb. Yet Orwell succeeds in producing a masterful work that pulls no punches and spits out many home truths. Of course the establishment never liked this work (or much of Orwell's other writings) because this is not a mild sweep at British hypocrisy this is a sledgehammer full in the face of a ruling and middle class that had brought us to the brink of defeat and catastrophe.
In addition to his hits on the establishment the author also gives us an astute and enlightening insight into our very individual and unique culture. With this and his other 'Cultural' works Orwell established himself as one of the great English cultural historians of the 20th Century. Hated by the extreme Right, the Hard Left, Post-War Marxists and much of the Socialist and Tory middle-ground he stood up for common decency and fairness in a deeply unfair, divided and class-driven nation.
Those who rule our nation and more importantly, those who RUN our country today should read this and feel uncomfortable-why? Because as Orwell reminds us it takes a seismic shift to change a culture and nothing much has changed in our society since 1940 to bring about that change. As I write...we have a national and global economic melt-down, the rise of extremist groups, a traditional English mistrust and hatred of outsiders, greedy bankers and dividend-drawers, riots and demonstrations, an intolerance of the needy and the different and a self centered, foolish and insular belief that we are somehow better than everyone else and we couldn't possibly be wrong about anything. All these and more exist today just as they did in the 1930s as we sped towards disaster.
Orwell is hated by many, yet today idolised by so many more because he told it as it was and more importantly told it how it might be in the future. This important work of British culture should be on every school reading list; that won't happen of course, why...because as he points out, the more we change, the more we stay the same.
In addition to his hits on the establishment the author also gives us an astute and enlightening insight into our very individual and unique culture. With this and his other 'Cultural' works Orwell established himself as one of the great English cultural historians of the 20th Century. Hated by the extreme Right, the Hard Left, Post-War Marxists and much of the Socialist and Tory middle-ground he stood up for common decency and fairness in a deeply unfair, divided and class-driven nation.
Those who rule our nation and more importantly, those who RUN our country today should read this and feel uncomfortable-why? Because as Orwell reminds us it takes a seismic shift to change a culture and nothing much has changed in our society since 1940 to bring about that change. As I write...we have a national and global economic melt-down, the rise of extremist groups, a traditional English mistrust and hatred of outsiders, greedy bankers and dividend-drawers, riots and demonstrations, an intolerance of the needy and the different and a self centered, foolish and insular belief that we are somehow better than everyone else and we couldn't possibly be wrong about anything. All these and more exist today just as they did in the 1930s as we sped towards disaster.
Orwell is hated by many, yet today idolised by so many more because he told it as it was and more importantly told it how it might be in the future. This important work of British culture should be on every school reading list; that won't happen of course, why...because as he points out, the more we change, the more we stay the same.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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3 reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Orwell at his most radical.
23 Oct 1998
Format:Hardcover
The Lion and the Unicorn
George Orwell's The Lion and the Unicorn I believe shows him at his best,not afraid to call out for revolution in the middle of the Blitz.In the third part of the book (The English Revolution) Orwell describes his belief that if the war is to go on there must be a Socialist revolution in England and "The Gutters of the streets will flow with blood",if neccesary. This is one of his most differential pieces of work contradicting to an extent almost everthing else he has written .He still calls for the destruction the class system and a fair electoral system but now he comes out in favour of the revolution and putting across (and I believe rightfully so) the true Socialistic principles as told by Karl Marx. His most provocative work.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
England's greatest democratic-socialist
15 April 2002
Format:Hardcover
When people think of Orwell, they remember him as an anti-Communist and a defender of liberal democracy. This is most certainly correct, but it should also be remembered that he was also a socialist, and a socialist of the old school. In The Lion & The Unicorn, originally published as a pamphlet in the style of Paine or Cobbett, he attacks both the class system of England and its capitalist economic system. He thought that the "inefficiency of private capitalism has been proved all over Europe" and that World War II has "turned Socialism from a text-book word into a realisable policy." As a socialist, he thought that socialists had to make "our words take physical shape." He advocated a 6 point plan that would transform England into a socialist country, which included "Nationalisation of land, mines, railways, banks and major industries" and the "Limitation of incomes, on such a scale that the highest tax-free income in Britain does not exceed the lowest by more than ten to one." One gets the impression that Orwell and Castro would have found a broad area of agreement. For Orwell, freedom, democracy, and socialism, were not incompatible, but were tightly bound together. He went to fight in the Spanish Civil War for the democratic republic, but fought alongside Marxists, Trotskiests, and Anarchists. Calling himself a "democratic socialist" was no contradiction to Orwell.
However, it should be remembered that this book was written in the 1940s. The world was a different place then. The political landscape has changed. If Orwell were alive now, what would his political opinions be? Who knows? You might as well ask what would Thomas Paine's political beliefs be if he were alive today. Anyone who hazards a guess, and there have been many, usually transposes their own political beliefs onto Orwell. Only one thing is certain: Orwell was a man of his time. This book, as do his other writings, reflect this. This is why he will be remembered. To read Orwell is to capture a moment in history, articulated by a man who was deeply involved in the political life of his time, in much the same way as Paine, Hazlett, or Cobbett was. One comes to Orwell and breaths the political atmosphere of the age, and takes from him what is relevant to one's own self. What that will be will vary from one person to another. For my own part, it is satisfying to read someone who believes as passionately in socialism as he does in democracy, and argues for both with the same conviction; who believes in physical courage in fighting against injustice, -"manliness", if you will; who saw through the myth of British Imperialism; and who saw through the horrible snobbishness of the English class system.
1 of 11 people found the following review helpful
What?
15 Dec 1999
Format:Hardcover
This book is an endorsement of Marx like the Irish are an endorsement of Pat Buchanan.
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