George Orwell: A Life

Bernard Crick opens this work by defining the approach to Biography which he has adopted in it. He says it is closer to the French approach than to the traditional British one. It focuses on the public face of the writer and his path in the world, rather than on the inner element. It makes much use of the documented works. Essentially it gives the sense that the Work of the person is paradoxically somewhat larger than their life. The essence of Orwell's writing as he himself defined it was in making political writing into an Art. And there is no question that in his best essays, such as 'Such, Such Were the Joys' and ' Shooting an Elephant'he achieves this. He also achieves it in the two great political novels, 'Animal Farm' and '1984' he is most known for. Crick shows how Orwell very early on chose to be a writer, a famous writer and dedicated himself fully to the task. Orwell 'went native' to experience and know the life of the poor , and this led to his first important work, "Down and Out in Paris and London". Orwell's commitment to social justice not only led him to regret the five years he served in the colonial administration in Burma, it also led him to the Civil War in Spain. Orwell repeatedly tried to enlist in the Second War but had to content himself with being in the Home Guard. Idealist Orwell was able to distinguish between the far from perfect Britain he would defend and the evil totalitarian Nazis. He too was able to be the model person of integrity on the Left who recognized that Stalinist Russia was also a totalitarian society. This work does tell the story of Orwell's personal relations and the somewhat secondary place they had in his life. His first loyalty was to his writing and work. Orwell today is considered one of the master , perhaps the master political writer of the century perhaps first of all because he did not allow Ideology even his own to keep himself from reporting the truth as he saw it. This first major biography gives a full sense of the shape of Orwell's career and work.

The book had every thing i was looking for. It showed his life in different episodes. It was very easy to research in it.

Having been encouraged from about the age of twelve to read the essays of George Orwell I read Bernard Crick's recent meditation on him with a sense of gratitude. I haven't read any other work on Orwell which so perfectly conveys his inexhaustibility.Crick's real achievement here is a mastery of Orwell's tone. Orwell's essays keep a reader up until dawn and this book did the same to this reader. I can't say I agree with everything in the book, and have to say that sometimes I didn't grasp Crick's arguments. The chief pleasure of this book is its style; learned from one of the greatest defenders of expressed thought.