ABSTRACT
Boston: Little Brown, 1966 George Orwell is an author whom most people want to be on their side. Jane Austen is
another such author, peculiarly English, peculiarly embedded in the English class system, peculiarly difficult to tie down in literary criticism or biographical studies. But Austen wrote only novels. Orwell, like Austen tragically cut down in the middle of a creative career, was an interesting journalist, whose major works can be seen as vehicles of political propaganda rather than novels. Orwell did not want his biography to be written, although his fiction is strongly autobiographical. His work has been seized upon by politicians of all complexions and intellectuals of various persuasions, most of whom he would have despised. The mass of contradictions surrounding Orwell-an international author, yet so strongly English, the old Etonian, yet so strongly interested in the working class-are not really dealt with in a totally satisfactory fashion by any of the following biographical or critical works.
