Orwell : The Life

Rating:
Summary: A mixed bag
Review: In the first few chapters of Taylor's Orwell the Life you get the feeling that he isn't particularly fond of his subject matter, Eric Blair aka George Orwell. In an odd early segment Taylor even attempts to discredit Orwell's recollections of his days at St Cyprians which he wrote about in his famous "Such, Such Were the Joys" essay. The author even goes so far as to make an issue of the fact that maybe, just maybe, Orwell may have ate at a relatives house while "down and out" in Paris instead of total submission to the hardships of the city . He tries to lay the groundwork for an argument that Orwell created his own personal mythology but this "Orwell says he did this but how could he have- I think he did..." approach leaves a residue of antagonism between the writer and the subject throughout the biography. One gets the feeling that perhaps the Orwell of this biography is not to be totally trusted. Certainly, this Orwell is not anyone most of us would like to be around and perhaps that is Taylor's point.

The biography paints the portrait of a somewhat troubled eccentric man distracted by his own thoughts, who compartmentalized his friendships, and was a pathetic womanizer. Throughout the book Taylor has inserted chapter "interludes" that spend a few pages on a particular aspect of Orwell. While some of these are quite valuable their effect is to interrupt the narrative flow of the biography. I'm not sure why this wasn't addressed by an editor but the ad hoc nature of these chapters could have easily been integrated.

Taylor attempts to analyze Orwell's writings, especially his early novels and a few important essays. In this he succeeds to some extent, but again inserts doubts about Orwell's real experiences. Strangely he barely addresses the controversial list of communist sympathizers Orwell gave to the British Information Research Department. This is a bit of a stunning omission I believe. Barely three paragraphs are dedicated to an incident that has shadowed Orwell's ghost over fifty years.

Orwell is too important a figure to have this biography be either the standard or the last word on his life. This isn't a bad read, Taylor has a good writing style, and that does help. Readers are cautioned that there are other more objective works on Orwell's life out there and, while it gives some good information it should not be the first or only biography to seek out. What Taylor needed perhaps more than anything was a good editor with a few words of caution to avoid the pitfalls into which he so obviously fell.


Rating:
Summary: A tormented soul with piercing insight into totalitarianism.
Review: Orwell was a tormented and terribly complex man. He gave us some of the most bleeding and damning insights into totalitarian systems and yet struggled to envision what a society, a pluralistic government should look like. His classics 1984 and Animal Farm should be required reading of us all. I think were Orwell to see how his work is handled today he would be frustrated at how his points have not sunk in; perhaps such a realization would have led him to portray his thoughts more clearly on what a society should be, not only what we should be on guard against. And then again, perhaps this was not his gift to humanity. Sometimes those we want as guardians are not those we want as warriors.

Rating:
Summary: Orwell the centuries conscience
Review: Orwell's work and his life should hang over us like the conscience of the 20th century. In the 20th century a series of ideological political thought systems came to the fore that tried to offer man salvation(since man had found no salvation in god for more then 2000 years and was tired of waiting). Socialism and its brother communism and fascism uised the new weapons and mass media of the day to crush humanity into slavery. Orwell first witnissed this in Spain when he saw Fascism confront COmmunism and seven Anarchism on the battlefield.

Orwells books Anamial Farm and 1984 show us a bleak world in which idealists control our daily lives and force us to do what we are told or risk death and imprisonedment(alla Stalinism). In some ways we must fear this as the future. With technology and weapons as powerful as they are the chances of us all becoming slaves to a dictatoprial government that wants us tot hink and act a certain way is ever present. Orwell came to understand the evils of communism(he had been a big slinging socialism when younger). Orwell, having died young, saw through a lens of humanity and pored into his few works the conscience of the 20th century.

This is a good read and this book renews our interest in orwell after so many years of his virtual eclipse.

Rating:
Summary: Author not focused, doesn't admire Orwell
Review: This is one of those catch-all biographies that attempts to throw in everything including the kitchen sink and fails in all regards. The author, D. J. Taylor attempts to connect Orwell's writings with his life but spends so much time on trying to find little kernels of truth in the authors mundane diary entries that he accomplishes almost nothing. Since Taylor has no ability to write critically about Orwell's works he should have focused on the details of Orwell's life which are easier to record. Also one gets the feeling that Taylor isn't a fan of Orwell's writing and has little simpathy for his weaknesses in character. So why write the book?