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George Orwell was one of the greatest writers England produced in the last century. He left an enduring mark on our language and culture, with concepts such as 'Big Brother' and 'Room 101.' His reputation rests not only on his political shrewdness and his sharp satires (Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four) but also on his marvellously clear style and superb essays, which rank with the best ever written. Gordon Bowker's new biography, written to coincide with Orwell's centenary, includes fascinating new material which brings his life into unfamiliar focus. He writes revealingly about Orwell's family background; the lasting influence of Eton on his work and character; his superstitious streak and youthful flirtation with black magic; and his chaotic and reckless sex life, which included at least one homoerotic relationship. It highlights the strange circumstances of his first marriage and provides remarkable new evidence of his experiences in Spain and their nightmarish consequences. It also offers a fresh look at his peculiar deathbed marriage to a woman fifteen years his junior. All this has enabled Bowker to give Orwell's life a brilliantly fresh and distinctive interpretation.
- Sales Rank: #311565 in Books
- Published on: 2004-04-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.75" h x 1.25" w x 5.00" l, .95 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 512 pages
From Publishers Weekly
George Orwell entered the world as Eric Blair, a man whose eventual decision to hide behind a pseudonym created a double life between the private "Blair" and the public "Orwell." So theorizes Bowker in this detailed political and psychological portrait of the British writer whose most famous creation, 1984's "Big Brother," has become nearly synonymous with the inability to hide in modern society. Orwell took the pseudonym upon the 1933 publication of Down and Out in Paris and London, and cemented its use when producing broadcasts to India for the BBC Empire Service during World War II. This work would provide much of the inspiration for 1984's language of control and manipulation: the censorious BBC bureaucracy became "the Ministry of Truth," and the Nazi and Soviet propaganda transmissions the BBC monitored spawned "Newspeak" and "Doublethink." Bowker connects Orwell's experiences to nearly all of his writings, but he also focuses on lesser-known personal details, including frequent respiratory illness (later revealed as Tuberculosis) and the seduction of numerous women. But the side of Orwell that emerges most forcefully here is of the writer with "the kestrel-eye view of political systems" who felt the necessity to "point to the great threat of politics and science devoid of morality" and who related this view to the defining moments of the 20th Century: Communism, Hitler, World War II and the Cold War. While Bowker's book might enthrall only the most dedicated reader, the frequent appearances in today's news of the terms "Big Brother" and "Orwellian" makes his study a relevant read. Photos.
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Review
An exhilaratingly crowded book―INDEPENDENT
Magisterial―DAILY MAIL
Invaluable... superb and fascinating biography adds enormously to our understanding of the man―EVENING STANDARD
Bowker's biography is that of a scholar... he has the ability to select the right detail and let it speak for itself―SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
From the Inside Flap
"[In this book] Orwell comes alive in all his shortcomings as well as strengths--an unfaithful husband with an ambiguous attitude toward Jews and homosexuals, yet also as a loyal friend, a courageous militiaman, a generous supporter of struggling writers, a master of plain prose, a champion of freedom of speech, and an outspoken scourge of both capitalist profiteers and Stalinist ideologues. If you assumed, as I did, that nothing fresh and original could be said about a figure so exhaustively studied as George Orwell, you too have much to learn from this superb biography."--John Rodden, author of George Orwell: The Politics of Literary Reputation and Scenes from an Afterlife: The Legacy of George Orwell
"Gordon Bowker has brought the same sure psychological understanding that distinguished his biographies of Malcolm Lowry and Lawrence Durrell to Inside George Orwell. At every point his careful judgment and indefatigable research deepens and enriches our understanding of one of the most complex and most misunderstood of modern writers. It is a splendid and splendidly revealing book, emphasizing the enduring and heroic character of Orwell's achievement 'warts and all.'"--James K. Hopkins, author of Into the Heart of the Fire: The British in the Spanish Civil War
"This superb and fascinating biography adds enormously to our understanding of a man who knew the times he lived in far better than he knew himself."--Lloyd Evans, Evening Standard
"It is an exhilaratingly crowded book. Bowker doesn't really try to add Orwell up; instead, he piles everything in. . . ."--Fred Inglis, Independent Review
Most helpful customer reviews
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful.
REVIEW OF GORDON BOWKER'S INSIDE GEORGE ORWELL BY JOHN CHUCKMAN
By John W. Chuckman
This book is the best of the newer Orwell biographies, but it still falls short in some respects. Bowker does a far better job than D. J. Taylor at creating a sense of continuity and purpose in Orwell's life. Bowker is a good writer, occasionally showing bits of inspired analysis, but still there are passages of utility-grade stuff.
The two biographies, Bowker and Taylor, published in the same year, offer readers an opportunity to compare two quite different treatments of the same life, treatments that both use previously unknown materials. Taylor's treatment is more episodic and seems to lose no opportunity to highlight something dark, unflattering, or unpleasant about Orwell.
Bowker gets at Orwell's quintessential Englishness. I was happy he used exactly that word, Englishness, which I think is an important and appealing aspect of Orwell. It is a word I've always associated with Orwell much as I do with figures such as Dickens or Graham Greene. This is a quality virtually ignored by Taylor, unless you accept his references to old-boy school snobbery as a rough substitute, references I believe are clear distortions.
Bowker is sympathetic to his subject without ever being servile or sentimental, a position which is right for a biographer. While Taylor makes some effort to convince us of his old admiration for his subject, his words ring false. Taylor displays strong antipathy towards his subject, releasing it slowly through the book, and to my mind this is never the correct position for a biographer. Moreover, the clash between Taylor's claims of admiration and his clear antipathy introduces a howling note of falseness that warns of the author's intent.
Bowker does an excellent job of summarizing the saga of Orwell's widow (his second wife) Sonia and his literary legacy - a tale in which the new Cold War becomes an important element - an interesting topic with which Taylor doesn't do much. Bowker also does a nice job of explaining why a biographer would write about Orwell despite the author's well-known wish that he wanted no biography.
The portion of new material in either book dealing with Orwell's sex life does not shed a pleasant light on part of his character. I couldn't help thinking of passages in Benita Eisler's Byron dealing with the poet's grotesque servant-boy swapping and Mediterranean tours to buy boys in various countries - activities that would put him in prison today - passages that frankly left me feeling as though I needed fresh air. No, Orwell wasn't as twisted as Byron, but he was double-dealing in his sexual affairs and apparently sometimes found the charms of young girls selling themselves in exotic lands an irresistible purchase.
I very much agree with Arthur Koestler's observation, quoted in Bowker, "I don't think George ever knew what makes other people tick, because what made him tick was very different from what most other people tick." Orwell was in many ways what contemporary speech might describe as "out of it." He was, if you will, an authentic English eccentric. This may help explain why Orwell was such a powerful critic and observer while remaining a second-tier novelist.
In a way, something like this may be said of many incisive critics and great artists. The divine Mozart with his scatological letters and often buffoonish behavior. Beethoven's constant moving to new apartments, thunderous emotional storms, and self-destructive attachment to a worthless nephew. The ticks and quirks of the magnificent Samuel Johnson. Dicken's unbelievably obsessive, compulsive behavior.
At the more extreme end of the scale, we have Rousseau's bizarre temperament, always ready to attack friends and admirers. The strange Herman Melville who may just have murdered his wife. Marcel Proust's sadistic penchant for sticking pins into live mice.
Sometimes I think it is better just to enjoy the work of genius rather than digging too deeply into the lives of its creators. For this reason I am almost fearful of reading Norman Sherry's third volume on Graham Greene (reported to focus heavily on the unsavory aspects of Greene's life), one of my favorite twentieth-century writers and critics. But then again, we want to understand, and we find it almost irresistible to read about the lives of artists we have come to love. And whatever unpleasant we may learn, it remains the greatness of their work that drew us to them.
Orwell wrote some of the twentieth century's best essays and occasional pieces, and, in 1984, not long before his death, he displayed a kind of penetrating political insight rarely seen before or since. Since great writing is so often the work of mature people, we undoubtedly missed a great deal when he died at 46.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Enthralling and readable
By B. OMALLEY
Bowker is obviously a fan of Orwell's economy of expression and lucid style, as his prose is straight-forward and very readable. This biography is interesting and informative, and reads like a novel not a thesis. Orwell is a very interesting character and perhaps should be credited with having lead an interesting life as much as his biographer is lauded for describing it.
The only criticism I would have of this excellent treatment, would be Bowker's over-reaching attempt to flesh out his theory of repressed homo-erotic inclinations. This suggestion would seem to be based on some very flimsy hearsay evidence.
I highly recommend this to anyone interested in one of the 20th century's greatest social commentators.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
Seems to be a fine biography
By Extollager
The only other biography of Orwell that I have read is the two-volume Stansky-Abrahams one, which I read when it appeared over 25 years ago. Of course, one gets to know Orwell pretty well if one reads Orwell's own essays, etc. This seems to be a very good biography, though. I particularly want to commend Bowker for writing at this length, rather than writing something twice or thrice the size. Furthermore, there's a sense that the story has been well told, the people and events adequately identified, etc. One feels human interest not only in Orwell but in others, such as his two wives.
Bowker thanks his copy editor by name, and perhaps that person is not to be blamed for a few errors of grammar and spelling (e.g. the same person is both Frances and Francis) that appear.
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