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 Why Orwell Mattersby Christopher HitchensSep 10, 2003
DescriptionIn this widely acclaimed biographical essay, Christopher Hitchens assesses the life, the achievements, and the myth of the great political writer and participant George Orwell. In true emulative and contrarian style, Hitchens is both admiring and aggressive, sympathetic yet critical, taking true measure of his subject as hero and problem. Answering both the detractors and the false claimants, Hitchens tears down the façade of sainthood erected by the hagiographers and rebuts the critics point by point. He examines Orwell and his perspectives on fascism, empire, feminism, and Englishness, as well as his outlook on America, a country and culture towards which he exhibited much ambivalence. Whether thinking about empires or dictators, race or class, nationalism or popular culture, Orwell's moral outlook remains indispensable in a world that has undergone vast changes in the fifty years since his death. Combining the best of Hitchens's polemical punch and intellectual elegance in a tightly woven and subtle argument, this book addresses not only why Orwell matters today, but how he will continue to matter in a future, uncertain world. Christopher Hitchens, one of the most incisive minds of our own age, meets Orwell on the page in this provocative encounter of wit, contention and moral truth. Reviews"In possession of, [and] possessed by, the spirit of George Orwell…. One could say that Orwell is the secret weapon, the smart bomb with which…Mr. Hitchens [has] achieved preeminence over [his] polemical opponents." "Orwell emerges from Hitchens' book as the public intellectual par excellence, a much-needed model in an age in which intellectuals have ever-greater access to the popular media yet are increasingly irresponsible in their utterances."
"Not only a fine defence of Orwell's politics, but also the most stimulating introduction available to almost every other aspect of his work." "A robust and provocative read. Like Orwell's own best prose, it is a strongly argued, chatty and witty book, combining acute close readings… with personal anecdote, a generous aside here and a knee in the groin there." "Hitchens comes, in this short, gracefully written and admirably…literate book, not only to praise Orwell but also to set right certain persistent misunderstandings about him." "A vigorous and comprehensive attack on the traducers of the Left, the false claimants on the Right, hostile feminists, and postmodernists who deny the existence of objective truth and spurn the value of linguistic clarity." Selling TerritoryWorld Excluding UK & Commonwealth |
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