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"Hitchens presents a George Orwell fit for the 21st century. "-Boston Globe. 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 faade 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.
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First Sentence
It was once written of George Orwell that by consorting with the unemployed and destitute of England he 'went native in his own country'. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
It was once written of George Orwell that by consorting with the unemployed and destitute of England he 'went native in his own country'. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
57 of 58 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Ignore what is painfully obvious. This book is not a diatribe about the folly of the Iraq war, it is a re-evaluation of a much maligned, much misunderstood, frequently hated icon, who after his death was subjected to a tug-of-war competition between the Right and the Left as to who should own him. This short book aims to correct the incessant harping of the 'Orwell was anti-women, anti-Semitic, anti-everything' Brigade. Such criticisms deserve an answer, not an excuse, and they are provided amply in this book. If you really do wish to uncover the myth of what some people believe is a well-worn topic, you should definitely give this a read.
42 of 43 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Great book, but be warned; it is the same publication as 'Orwell's Victory" Pub Penguin. Without checking, I bought both. Never mind...maybe it I was a victim of "double-speak".....
As for the negative reviews here, mmmmm, Hitchens is uncomfortable at times, and I think that is why I like him. Like Orwell, he challenges our pre-conceptions and sloppy thinking. You can learn a great deal from thinkers like Orwell and Hitchens without liking or agreeing with everything they says. Is he a warmonger and an unquestioning freind of the pro-Iraq war? Or is he asking awkward questions about our knee-jerk reactions to the issue. I think the war is wrong, but I am glad a "lefty" like Hitchens challenges me to concider why I might be wrong.
As for the negative reviews here, mmmmm, Hitchens is uncomfortable at times, and I think that is why I like him. Like Orwell, he challenges our pre-conceptions and sloppy thinking. You can learn a great deal from thinkers like Orwell and Hitchens without liking or agreeing with everything they says. Is he a warmonger and an unquestioning freind of the pro-Iraq war? Or is he asking awkward questions about our knee-jerk reactions to the issue. I think the war is wrong, but I am glad a "lefty" like Hitchens challenges me to concider why I might be wrong.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Am I alone in finding Christopher Hitchens' account of George Orwell's life and
works somewhat disappointing? It is partly Hitchens' literary style - a bit dense and sometimes elliptic - and partly that I am not quite sure whether Hitchens really does provide an answer to the question "does Orwell matter?"
Both Hitchens and I believe that he does. Hitchens does a good job in showing how Orwell's uncompromising belief in liberty and equality (expressed very clearly in "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-four") offended those on the left who refused to accept that Stalin's USSR violated those ideals big-time. And he also shows that while right-wing thinkers endorsed (some of) Orwell's principles, they could not claim him as one of their own. Orwell remains a towering figure on the libertarian left, despite some odd foibles such as his slightly questionable attitude towards Jews and gays.
Orwell's significance is that he understood the nature of totalitarian dictatorships and how such regimes trample on history, language and culture to make people conform to a stereotyoped image of how human beings should behave.
Hitchens is very good on this, but I think does not altogether succeed in bringing out the relevance of Orwell to modern political developments. The fall of Soviet-style communism, and the extraordinary juggling act of the Chinese communists in trying to allow more economic liberty in their vast diverse nation while keeping the lid on political freedom, would have fascinated Orwell. What exactly would he have made of these titanic changes? I think Hitchens could have provided us with an answer.
works somewhat disappointing? It is partly Hitchens' literary style - a bit dense and sometimes elliptic - and partly that I am not quite sure whether Hitchens really does provide an answer to the question "does Orwell matter?"
Both Hitchens and I believe that he does. Hitchens does a good job in showing how Orwell's uncompromising belief in liberty and equality (expressed very clearly in "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-four") offended those on the left who refused to accept that Stalin's USSR violated those ideals big-time. And he also shows that while right-wing thinkers endorsed (some of) Orwell's principles, they could not claim him as one of their own. Orwell remains a towering figure on the libertarian left, despite some odd foibles such as his slightly questionable attitude towards Jews and gays.
Orwell's significance is that he understood the nature of totalitarian dictatorships and how such regimes trample on history, language and culture to make people conform to a stereotyoped image of how human beings should behave.
Hitchens is very good on this, but I think does not altogether succeed in bringing out the relevance of Orwell to modern political developments. The fall of Soviet-style communism, and the extraordinary juggling act of the Chinese communists in trying to allow more economic liberty in their vast diverse nation while keeping the lid on political freedom, would have fascinated Orwell. What exactly would he have made of these titanic changes? I think Hitchens could have provided us with an answer.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Answering Orwell's critics
Hitchens spends relatively little time addressing his book's title - if you need that question answered then you probably just need to re-read 1984 - instead, he answers Orwell's... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Laurence
A louse on a louse
One leftie icon idolises another leftie icon. Hitchens, the warmongering writer for rich Americans, has written what can only be described as a hagiography of 'Saint George'... Read more
Published on 9 Jun 2003 by William Podmore
(What's) the Matter with Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens talks of Orwell in his invited lectures and at the New School in New York where he occasionally teaches, writes of Orwell in his books, and backs Paul... Read more
Published on 28 April 2003
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