Short Stories, Irish literature, Classics, Modern Fiction, Contemporary Literary Fiction, The Japanese Novel, Post Colonial Asian Fiction, The Legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and quality Historical Novels are Among my Interests








Monday, January 23, 2017

Orwell: The Life by D. J. Taylor (2002)


I was delighted to learn that 1984 was the best selling book on Amazon last week. Seems I'm not the only one seeing the relevance of Orwell to the world of Trump's America
  Note added January 26, 2017
 




Born 1903, died 1951 (England)

Animal Farm - 1945

1984 - 1949

As I read Orwell: The Life by D. J. Taylor I could not help but wonder how he would react to Donald Trump ascending to the most powerful position in the world.  An ego mad buffoon who thrives on the worship of his idiot followers, who lies without even knowing it can now destroy civilization on a whim.  A man who surrounds himself with billionaires and claims to be the champion of the masses.

I am still in remote Philippines a place even more remote than the Burma of Orwell's novel Burmese Days,based on his five years as an imperial policeman. I have read Animal Farm numerous times, 1984 long ago and a bit more.  As to Taylor's bio, it is a good straightforward telling of the facts of his life.  He does not probe really deeply into Orwell's psyche but for sure you will be grounded in his life by this biography.



Mel u

3 comments:

RTD said...

Note: all leaders have egos, and I am not an idiot, but I am nevertheless interested in the Orwell biography (about which I wish you had written more).

Mel u said...

R T. - my posts will,be brief for a while. On a kind of spritual retreat in extreme rural Philippines. The book is quite decent

Mudpuddle said...

Orwell is one of those perennially interesting persons who i've found stimulating and informative throughout my 70+ years... he really knew what made humanity tick and his prediction of the present day political situation is spot on even though it was a bit early... i'll look for this bio... tx... the PHILLIPINES! my...