The Unsung Artistry of George Orwell

In a timely and radically new reappraisal of George Orwells fiction, Loraine Saunders reads Orwells novels as tales of successful emancipation rather than as chronicles of failure. Contending that Orwells novels have been undervalued as works of art, she offers extensive textual analysis to reveal an author who is in far more control of his prose than has been appreciated. Persuasively demonstrating that Orwells novels of the 1930s such as A Clergymans Daughter and Keep the Aspidistra Flying are no less important as literature than Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, Saunders argues they have been victims of a critical tradition whose practitioners have misunderstood Orwells narrative style, failed to appreciate Orwells political stance, and were predisposed to find little merit in Orwells novels. Saunders devotes significant attention to George Gissings influence on Orwell, particularly with regard to his representations of women. She also examines Orwells socialism in the context of the political climate of the 1930s, finding that Orwell, in his successful negotiation of the fine balance between art and propaganda, had much more in common with Charlie Chaplin than with writers like Stephen Spender or W. H. Auden. As a result of Saunderss detailed and accessible analysis, which illuminates how Orwell harmonized allegory with documentary, polyphonic voice with monophonic, and elegy with comedy, Orwells contributions to the genre of political fiction are finally recognized.