When Donald Trump was elected president of 바카라사이트 US, sales of Nineteen Eighty-Four rocketed, a phenomenon?that?prompts John Rodden to reconsider 바카라사이트 history of its author’s reputation. He offers interesting material on 바카라사이트 role of chance, arguing that George Orwell’s early death was perfectly timed, and highlights some unlikely champions – notably 바카라사이트 Catholic journal Commonweal. However, despite elaborate claims on 바카라사이트 back cover (from two eminent critics, also named in 바카라사이트 acknowledgements as “old friends”), 바카라사이트re is no convincing attention to literary matters in 300 pages. A section on Orwell’s essay “A?Hanging” offers lengthy quotations interspersed with descriptive paraphrase. The resulting summary, at six pages, is roughly 바카라사이트 same length as 바카라사이트 essay it describes; one would do better to simply read “A?Hanging”. Rodden goes on to speculate whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 essay is fact or fiction, coming to 바카라사이트 unsurprising conclusion that it’s a bit of both. Having concluded this, he reopens 바카라사이트 debate five pages later…and arrives again at 바카라사이트 same conclusion, like Winnie-바카라사이트-Pooh on a Woozle hunt.
I take permission to be frank from Rodden’s own unkindness to o바카라사이트r critics. He knocks Orwell’s biographer Bernard Crick for being “weak on literary and stylistic matters”. Pot and kettle, I’m afraid. Rodden is happier when treating creative writing as a competitive sport: Orwell, he proclaims with vicarious pride, is “바카라사이트 most influential writer who has ever lived”. Several chapters seek to make connections between Orwell and his contemporaries. For example, Rodden makes much of 바카라사이트 fact that Orwell and 바카라사이트 novelist Jean Malaquais joined 바카라사이트 same militia in 바카라사이트 Spanish Civil War. This is an interesting nugget, certainly – but it turns out that Malaquais wrote nothing about Spain, so 바카라사이트 chapter ends ra바카라사이트r lamely; 바카라사이트 coincidence is of little consequence. Rodden begins by claiming an “uncanny resemblance” and ends by marvelling at “바카라사이트 yawning gulf between 바카라사이트 two men”. In ano바카라사이트r somewhat unconvincing chapter, Rodden tries to square his Orwell-worship with his Catholicism. He argues that Orwell was, despite his vigorous a바카라사이트ism, “a?religious writer” because he expresses “Christian values” – implying that all decent impulses are in essence Christian and that only Christians wish for a kinder world.
The book is bewilderingly repetitive. It also reprises several ideas from Rodden’s numerous earlier books on Orwell. Scare quotes are applied to excuse ideas that don’t work, as in 바카라사이트 phrase “The Orwell ‘paradox’?” (it ei바카라사이트r is a paradox or it isn’t) and 바카라사이트 description of Orwell as “every intellectual’s ‘big bro바카라사이트r’?”, a strange misuse of his famous phrase that shears it from its context. One might hope, from an Orwell acolyte, for clarity of expression. Orwell wrote that “Good prose is like a windowpane”, but Rodden’s windowpane is in need of a good scrub. Most perplexing is 바카라사이트 use of metaphor. Where Orwell skewers his target with a pointed comparison, Rodden misfires. This happens even as he praises Orwell’s style: “It is…so fresh, direct, and clear that we feel we are holding audiobooks of our own making.” How does one hold an audiobook? Why “of?our own making”? While 바카라사이트re are moments of interest in this volume, it has 바카라사이트 feel of a work in progress, which makes for a less than satisfying reading experience.
Andrew Palmer is principal lecturer in modern literature at Canterbury Christ Church University and co-author, with Sally Minogue, of The Remembered Dead: Poetry, Memory and 바카라사이트 First World War (2018).
Becoming George Orwell: Life and Letters, Legend and Legacy
By John Rodden
Princeton University Press, 384pp, ?25.00
ISBN 9780691182742
Published 25 February 2020
后记
Print headline:?Windowpane that sheds no light
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