Reviews

Orwell: The Life by D.J. Taylor

caroparr's review against another edition

4.0

I think Taylor avoids this word, but "enigmatic" describes Eric Blair/George Orwell very well. His life was sad in many ways, fraught with illness and a slow start finding his way in life. At a few points Taylor must say that no one quite knows where he was or what he did for several months or more. The strength of this biography is the way Taylor immerses the reader in this enigmatic, mysterious life, so that you are with Orwell in Burma, at school, fighting in the Spanish Civil War, writing and writing and writing, and denying the illness that finally killed him, too young. I have no great interest in Thackeray but would read Taylor's biography of him on the strength of this and his wonderful novels.

booking_along's review

3.0

I was interested in this book since I knew nothing about Orwell's life before reading this.
And honestly? After reading it I don't know a whole lot more since j have no idea what really is true fact and what is something Taylor made up or interpretated.

I do think that this book is a good start to Lear about Orwell and his life, it overs a nice overview, a good baseline of information and overview of orwells live from childhood to death.

I would recommend this book for "hardcore fans" or people that really know a lot about his life already, but I think that others that are similar to me and really have no knowledge about Orwell at all will learn a few interesting things from this book.

I do have to say that the writing the best for me personally, it felt a bit choppy and to me and I am not sure if that is because the author seemed to prefer to include a lot of shorter sentences, or if the overall writing tone and style of this author just is not for me.

All in all this was okay, not the biography I ever read but also not the worst and as I said I think a good starting point for people new to orwells actual live.


*thanks to NetGalley, the publishers and the author for giving me a free ecopy of this book in exchange for a free and honest review.*

julian12's review

5.0

D.J. Taylor’s biography of George Orwell is a richly detailed account of a life that began in the stifling world of prep-school and Eton and then became an increasingly personal voyage across disparate experiences as writing became his life. His circle of acquaintance is remarkable for its variety. His output in novels and journalism is deeply impressive. The child he is shown with on the front cover of the paperback is his adopted son. They travelled with Orwell’s sister to the windswept peace of Jura in the Inner Hebrides. Here his last illness played itself out as he worked with feverish intensity on the pages that would become 1984. I found it an ever fascinating life, fraught with contradictions and inner struggle. A man who figured as the principal character in his own drama where truth could be moulded according to his own mysterious inner promptings. I loved this story as I loved Orwell’s own remarkably personal essays Shooting an Elephant and A Hanging. I studied the well known essay on Dickens – full of insights – not all of which accorded with my own vision. Literary criticism by its very nature seems to banish the wonder I feel when studying the writings of the finest authors. For me that that balance between reason and the heart swings always towards the latter when responding to the written word as it works in sentences and phrases to conjure lives from the page. I tend to not to carp as many critics do, even when faced with the joy of sentences breathing life into thoughts, voices and vocabulary, making of words a kind of visual and aural sculpture. Although Orwell takes Greene to task for The Heart of the Matter on matters of content – the writing gives me an autonomous delight – that makes me overlook weaknesses of characterisation or intention or outlook.