Richard Bradford

Orwell (eBook, ePUB)

A Man Of Our Time

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

A vivid portrait of the man behind the writings, placing Orwell and his work at the centre of the current political landscape.

One of the most enduringly popular and controversial writers of the twentieth century, George Orwell's work is as relevant today as it was in his own lifetime. Possibly, in the age of Brexit, Trump, and populism, even more so. 'Doublethink' features in Nineteen Eighty-Four and it is the forerunner to 'Fake News'. He foresaw the creation of the EU and more significantly he predicted that post-Imperial xenophobia would cause Britain to leave it. His struggle with his own antisemitism could serve as a lesson to today's Labour Party, and, while the Soviet Union is gone, China has taken its place as a totalitarian superpower.

Aside from his importance as a political theorist and novelist, Orwell's life is fascinating in its own right. Caught between uncertainty and his family's upper middle-class complacency, Orwell grew to despise the class system that spawned him despite finding himself unable to fully detach himself from it. His life thereafter mirrored the history of his country; like many from his background, he devoted himself to socialism as a salve to his conscience. In truth he reserved as much suspicion and distaste for the 'proles' as he did pity. He died at the point when Britain's status as an Imperial and world power had waned, but his work remains both prescient and significant.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury UK
• Seitenzahl: 304
• Erscheinungstermin: 23. Januar 2020
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781448217700
• Artikelnr.: 58420872

Autorenporträt

Richard Bradford is Research Professor in English at Ulster University and Visiting Professor at the University of Avignon, France. He has published over thirty widely acclaimed books, including biographies of Philip Larkin, Alan Sillitoe, Kingsley Amis, George Orwell and a controversial portraiture of Patricia Highsmith. Bradford has written for The Spectator and The Sunday Times and has appeared on the Channel 4 series In Their Own Words: British Novelists.

Inhaltsangabe

Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction 1. The Misfit and the Pure Hell
of St Cyprian's 2. Eton 3. Burma 4. Slumming it 5. Was Orwell an
Antisemite? 6. Hopeless 7. Books, Marriage, and the Journey North 8. Spain
and Serious Politics 9. Between Wars 10. War 11. Explosive Journalism 12.
Changes 13. Animal Farm 14. Jura 15. Nineteen Eighty-Four Epilogue
Bibliography Index