Becoming George Orwell 9780691190129, 0691182744, 9780691182742

The remarkable transformation of Orwell from journeyman writer to towering icon Is George Orwell the most influential w

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Becoming George Orwell
 9780691190129, 0691182744, 9780691182742

Table of contents :
Contents
Acknowledgments ix

PROLOGUE
Donald and Winston at the Ministry of Alternative Facts 1

INTRODUCTION
Orwell, My “Orwell” 9

Part 1 Life and Letters

CHAPTER 1
The Quixotic, Adamantly Unsainted Life He Lived 27

CHAPTER 2
Frenemies at Fisticuffs? The Debate Rounds of Two Cordially Contentious Old Etonians 59

CHAPTER 3
The Literary Breakthrough, or When Blair Became Orwell 72

CHAPTER 4
Orwell’s Twin Masterpieces, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four 90

CHAPTER 5
A “Utopian” Edition of a Dystopian Classic 109

CHAPTER 6
England’s Prose Laureate 124

Part 2 Legend and Legacy

CHAPTER 7
French Connection, Part 1: Jean Malaquais, a “French Orwell”? 141

CHAPTER 8
French Connection, Part 2: Camus and Orwell, Rebelles avec une cause 175

CHAPTER 9
How and Why Orwell Became “A FAMOUS AUTHOR”: Surfing the Tides of Time 194

CHAPTER 10
“Catholic Exceptionalism”: Why Catholic America Canonized “St. George” 221

CHAPTER 11
“Orwellian” Warfare: From Cold to Cyber 247

CHAPTER 12
Why I Am Not a Socialist 259

CONCLUSION
Whither Orwell—and “Orwell”? 274

Notes 301

Illustration Credits 341

Index 343

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