This is the first book to focus primarily on George Orwell's ideas about free speech and related matters – freedom of the press, the writer's freedom of expression, honesty and truthfulness – and, in particular, the ways in which they are linked to his political vision of socialism. Orwell is today claimed by the Left and Right, by neo-conservatives and neo-socialists. How is that possible? Part of the answer, as Glenn Burgess reveals, is that Orwell was an odd sort of socialist. The development of Orwell's socialism was, from the start, conditioned by his individualist and liberal commitments. The hopes he attached to socialism were for a fairer, more equal world that would permit human freedom and individuality to flourish, completing, not destroying, the work of liberalism. Freedom of thought was a central part of this, and its defence and use were essential parts of the struggle to ensure that socialism developed in a liberal, humane form that did not follow the totalitarian path of Soviet communism. Written in celebration of Orwell's dictum, 'We hold that the most perverse human being is more interesting than the most orthodox gramophone record,' George Orwell's Perverse Humanity is a portrait of Orwell that captures these themes and provides a new understanding of him as a political thinker and activist. Based on archival research and new materials that affirm his work as an activist for freedom, it also uncovers a socialist ideology that has been obscured in just the way that the author feared it would be – associated in many people's minds with totalitarian unfreedom.

"A portrait of George Orwell that gives centre-stage to his deep commitment to freedom of speech and thought, and to speaking truth to power"--

Perhaps best known for his fable Animal Farm and his dystopian novel 1984, George Orwell was an influential journalist, critic, political activist, and cultural commentator. Within this volume, scholars comment on his political views, his perspective on totalitarianism, and his vision of other political dangers. Additionally, the experts in this text comment on Orwell's own forms of realism in his works and his unusual perspectives in his essays-sometimes pointing out where readers have misinterpreted his writing. Book jacket.

"Publication of The Complete Works of George Orwell is a unique bibliographic event as well as a major step in Orwell scholarship. Meticulous textual research by Dr. Peter Davison has revealed that all the current editions of Orwell have been mutilated to a greater or lesser extent. This authoritative edition incorporates ... all Orwell's known essays, poems, plays, letters, journalism, broadcasts, and diaries, and also letters by his wife Eileen and members of his family. In addition there are very many of the letters in newspapers and magazines of readers' reactions to Orwell's articles and reviews. Where the hand so others have intervened, Orwell's original intentions have been restored" -- Provided by publisher.

George Orwell is a major figure in twentieth-century literature. During his lifetime he published ten books and two collections of essays. Orwell seldom "reported" and he never took a line other than the one himself felt at the moment of writing. His essays are certainly some of the greatest in that most difficult genre. His widow and her co-editor have collected everything Orwell would have considered an essay, all the journalism that was not purely ephemeral, and those letters which contribute to our understanding of his life and writing. The material is arranged chronologically, and gives a continuous picture of Orwell's life as well as his work. -- From publisher's description.