Coming Up For Orwell. (George Orwell in General)

Member Name: jatkinson100

Product:	George Orwell in General
Date:	11/12/00 (668 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Orwell's prose style, and the ease with which you understand so many diverse character's, is a joy to behold.

Disadvantages: Errrrr, nope! Well, maybe "A Clergyman's Daughter", but we all have our off days.

George Orwell is one of the most prolific authors of the Twentieth Century, if not ever, and it is often a suprise to readers that he has written a lot more than just "1984" and "Animal Farm". Not only does his prose fiction bibliography read a lot longer, but his poems, mainly written at Eton, and his investigative journalism are musts too.

George Orwell, (b. Eric Arthur Blair) was born in Motihairi, India, in 1903. His family was, of course, English, but had moved out to the Indian sub-Continent with his father who was in the Civil Service there, India still being a British colony then. In 1907 the family, minus the father who stayed on in India, returned to England. His inteligence, and his father's good salary, are shown through Orwell attending Eton, starting 1917. He bacame a frequent contributor to the various college magazines, and his call to war for the men of England, a poem called "England, My Englnd", was published.

After Eton, Orwell meandered his way through life, continuing to write whilst taking a stream of "dead-end" jobs. It is from this time, and a similar period later in his life, that he got his inspiration for "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" and "Coming Up for Air", in which job-dissasitisfaction and living on the bread-line are major themes.

In 1922 he returned to Imperialism, serving in Burma with the Indian Imperial Police. It was here that he witnessed first hand the unfairness and opression of Imperialism, and how the natives were exploited by the ruling classes of all races and faiths. From this period came "Burmese Days", probably my favourite novel of his.

It was when he returned to Europe in 1927, however, and lived the experiences needed to write his first published book, "Down & Out in Paris & London" (1933). After living in near poverty either side of his time in Burma, Orwell was well placed to write on such matters

. It was also a platform to other things, and it was on the strength of this book that the Left Book Club asked him to write about the poverty suffered in Yorkshire and Lancashire. From this came the controversial "Road to Wigan Pier".

In 1936, Orwell put his military and police training to use, going to Spain and fighting in the Spanish Civil War. He joined the socialist POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxista, or the United Marxist Worker’s Party), who were self-confessed Trotskyites, offering Trotsky, according to various reports, either full control over POUM or asaylum in Spain after his exclusion by Stalin. Orwell, however, made no secret of his desire to join the International Brigade, another socialist force, but one equipt and paid by the Russian Soviet government. This is not what one expects from a man who so vehemently opposed Bolshevism in his novels. Orwell never fulfilled this desire though, and was sent home after being shot in the neck. His health failed further and further, and after a stint in a sanitorium he spent six months in Morocco, which is where he penned "Coming Up For Air". A major theme of this novel is the coming of WWII and the thoughts and fears racing through the minds of England.

During the war, despite his ailments, Orwell served in the Home Guard, affectionately known as Dad's Army, and worked for the BBC's Eastern Service. It was after the War that Orwell began to become truly famous. He became the Literary Editor of The Tribune, and a regular contributor of a page of political and literary commentary. He also wrote for the Observer, and later the Manchester Evening News. Most importantly, though, he published "Animal Farm" and "1984". Both were extremely controversial novels at the time (and now). It was "Animal Farm" that was, in 1945, rejected by its original would-be publishers (with Orwell keeping the advance)due to its highly critica
l obs
ervations of Stalinist socialism at a time when the West and the East were busy treading on egg-shells and counting the cost of the war. It was, however, published, and was regarded as, along with "1984", some of the most dangerous literature to ever be penned. Both novels were immediately banned in Eastern Bloc countries, and countless numbers have suffered imprisonment, or worse, simply for having the audacity to own a copy (sound familiar, Winston?).

Down & Out in Paris & London ((1933): Factual book of his accounts living on the poverty line with the down-and-outs of these two cities.

Burmese Days (1934): Orwells first novel. A harrowing account of life in India during Imperialism. Written from all different sides, one can empathise with all nationalities and "castes" of society. Written from varying perspectives about life in Imperialist India. Themes run from racism to revelry, love to lust, hatred to friendship.

A Clergyman' Daughter (1935): His only poor work, and this comes from his own mouth and not simply my opinion. Orwell described this book as a mistake and an embarrasment. I didn't think much of it either. It concerns a young girl (the daughter) who is little more than a servant to her father (guess what? He's the Clergyman). She is ripped bfrom her usual routine by amnesia, and finds herself down and out in London, a tramp with no money, no job and no memory.

Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936): Gordon Comstock acts out many of Orwell's experiences in near-poverty with few aspirations and fewer coins in his pocket. This is an excellent novel about the inability of man (should that be men?) to realise their full potential, sort themselves out, and do something. It can't be true as a woman "saves" him.

The Road to Wigan Pier (1937): Account of Orwell's findings whilst investigating poverty in the North of England. He was comminsioned to do this by
Victor Go
llancz and the Left Book Club, but his account was not to their liking and most references to them were taken away in the first edition.

Homage to Catalonia (1938): Orwell's experiences in the Spanish Civil War, in which he fought with the Trotskyite POUM, and was subsequently injured.

Coming Up for Air (1939): A story about a married man supporting a family he rarely sees (and isn't that bothered about it), plus a couple of mistresses along the way, on a salesman's salary (in this way, very similar to Miller's "Death of a Salesman"). It takes place in the years leading up to WWII, and shows the fear of the country, and the character's internal fears as he revisits his old stomping grounds to discover the diference that time always makes.

Animal Farm: A Fairy Story (1945): Needs no introduction. A hard-hitting look at the realities of Stalinist Russia, written as an Animal Fable to show the simplicity of Satlin's tactics and terror. A must read!!!!

1984 (1949): Orwell's last, and most famous novel. If you haven't read it, you have never lived. This is Orwell at his best! He weaves plots and sub-plots; love, torture, agents, double-agents, double-double-agents (errrr, triple-agents?), action, adventure, and the every day All of this is pulled together to make a novel once read, never forgotten.

Orwell's other work can be found in the volumes of "Collected Letters, Journals & Essays", and in some collections of essays suchas "Shooting an Elephant" and "Such, Such were the Days".

I hope that I have talked you into reading some of Orwell's work (if rather long windedly), as he is one of the most prolific writers of our time, or any. My advice would be to start chronologically on the fictional stuff, but only because "Burmese Days" is my favourite. The final two are unlike any of the others, and eachother come to t
hat. "Anim
al Farm" is written as a children's story, but "1984" follows his prose style mopre fully, despite its futuristc (for then) theme. One good thing to do is look for stuff in "1984" that came true - Orwell talks of the lottery and of, I suppose, a type of CCTV.

Anyway, just read it, then come back and thank me, OK?

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