George Orwell the Essayist

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This is the definitive, detailed narrative analysis of Orwell the essayist we have been waiting for. Peter Marks's book is a fine, original addition to Orwell criticism, a work of genuine scholarship and integrity, true to the spirit of Orwell's own writing. -- Professor Gillian Fenwick, Trinity College, University of Toronto, Canada In an age dominated by the novel, the periodical essay has become very much a poor relation on the literary scene. Yet some of our finest writers have traditionally used the form to consider key issues of cultural, social and political import. Foremost among these is George Orwell, and Peter Marks has done this currently under-rated writer an immense service in this major new study of the whole of Orwell's literary and political journalism through the three decades of his writing, situating it comprehensively within the biographical, historical and publishing contexts of its production. Whether examining his responses to the complexities of left-wing infighting in the 1930s, the debates about national identity and political renewal of the war years, or the strains and divided loyalties of the Cold War era, Marks is a massively well-informed and reliable guide not only to the permanent value of Orwell's non-fiction prose but also to the pressures and priorities of the age in which he wrote. This study goes a long way towards restoring Orwell's reputation as both a practitioner of English prose and an astute and long-sighted commentator on British culture and society. -- Stan Smith, Professor Emeritus in English, Nottingham Trent University, UK