Orwell's 1984

Written in 1948, 1984 was George Orwell's chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, his dystopian vision of a government that will do anything to control the narrative is timelier than ever.

Written in 1948, 1984 was George Orwell's chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, his dystopian vision of a government that will do anything to control the narrative is timelier than ever.

Provides in-depth commentary on characters, themes, and the historical and social context of 300 most-studied literary works, including novels, plays, poems, speeches, and short stories, both international and American.

see Volume 8 of this set for "1984."

An important contribution to the understanding of George Orwell's thought, particularly to Nineteen Eighty Four. The author challenges the view of the novel as a flawed work of crushing pessimism, arguing convincingly that it is a great humanist's mature vision of his deeply troubled times.

This remarkable volume collects, for the first time, essays representing more than four decades of scholarship by one of the world's leading authorities on George Orwell. In clear, energetic prose that exemplifies his indefatigable attention to Orwell's life work, Jeffrey Meyers analyzes the works and reception of one of the most widely read and admired twentieth-century authors. Orwell: Life and Art covers the novelist's painful childhood and presents accounts of his autobiographical writings from the beginning of his career through the Spanish Civil War. Meyers continues with analyses of Orwell's major works, including Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, as well as his style, distinctive satiric humor, and approach to the art of writing. Meyers ends with a scrupulous examination of six biographies of Orwell, including his own, that embodies a consummate grasp and mastery of both the art of biography and Orwell's life and legacy. Writing with an authority born of decades of focused scholarship, visits to Orwell's homes and workplaces, and interviews with his survivors, Meyers sculpts a dynamic view of Orwell's enduring influence on literature, art, culture, and politics.

Whether as a fighter in the Spanish Civil War, an advocate of patriotic Socialism or a left-wing opponent of the Soviet Union, George Orwell was the ultimate outsider in politics-- insecure, scornful of orthodoxies, cussedly independent. Best known today as the author of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell also wrote seven other full-length books and a vast number of essays, articles and reviews. A pioneering cultural critic, he addressed a range of important issues including art, literature, "Englishness,"" mass communication and the specter of totalitarianism. Famously describing his own background as ""lower-upper-middle class,"" Orwell had a complex relationship with Marxism and all his work reflects the influence of British communism. Through close analysis of Orwell's writings as well as his historical and literary context, Philip Bounds has produced an important study of one of the iconic writers of the 20th century. Orwell and Marxism offers a thorough introduction to Orwell the intellectual, reviving his reputation as a serious cultural thinker and documenting his most important influences, as well as a convincing portrait of British Marxism and society in the 1930s and 40s.

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.

Contents: Part one: Literary forerunners of 1984 -- Utopias and other fiction -- Writings on totalitarianism -- The influence of James Burnham -- Part two: The intellectuals -- The politics of power -- Believers and unbelievers -- Communists and socialists -- Pacifists -- The press -- Part three: The novels -- Predecessors to 1984 -- The atmosphere of 1984 -- Doublethink and newspeak -- Objective reality in 1984 -- Sources and manifestations of power -- Part four: A judgment of 1984 -- Prophecy or warning? -- The mysticism of cruelty -- The vision of Utopia