Orwell: A Man Of Our Time
A vivid portrait of the man behind the writings.

One of the most 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 is the forerunner to "Fake News." Orwell 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.

Orwell: A Man of Our Time offers a vivid portrait of the man behind the writings, and places him and his work at the center of the current political landscape.

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Orwell: A Man Of Our Time
A vivid portrait of the man behind the writings.

One of the most 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 is the forerunner to "Fake News." Orwell 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.

Orwell: A Man of Our Time offers a vivid portrait of the man behind the writings, and places him and his work at the center of the current political landscape.

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Orwell: A Man Of Our Time

Orwell: A Man Of Our Time

by Richard Bradford
Orwell: A Man Of Our Time

Orwell: A Man Of Our Time

by Richard Bradford

Paperback

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Overview

A vivid portrait of the man behind the writings.

One of the most 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 is the forerunner to "Fake News." Orwell 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.

Orwell: A Man of Our Time offers a vivid portrait of the man behind the writings, and places him and his work at the center of the current political landscape.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781448217694
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Publication date: 07/13/2021
Pages: 304
Product dimensions: 4.99(w) x 8.08(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Richard Bradford is Research Professor in English at Ulster University and Visiting Professor at the University of Avignon. He has published over twenty-five acclaimed books, including a biography of Philip Larkin, which was an Independent Book of the Year, the authorised biography of Alan Sillitoe, a life of Kingsley Amis and a biography of Kingsley's son, Martin. According to The Sunday Times his life of Hemingway is a 'bombshell biography.'

He has written for the Spectator and The Sunday Times and has been interviewed on his work for various BBC Radio Arts Programmes, as well as appearing on the Channel 4 Series 'Writers in their Own Words'. His The Importance of Elsewhere, on Larkin the photographer, inspired a BBC TV programme.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements ix

Introduction 1

1 The Misfit and the Pure Hell of St Cyprian's 5

2 Eton 19

3 Burma 34

4 Slumming it 52

5 Was Orwell an Antisemite? 65

6 Hopeless 83

7 Books, Marriage, and the Journey North 101

8 Spain and Serious Politics 127

9 Between Wars 154

10 War 165

11 Explosive Journalism 178

12 Changes 200

13 Animal Farm 210

14 Jura 220

15 Nineteen Eighty-Four 231

Epilogue 269

Bibliography 275

Index 279

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