George Orwell is regarded as the greatest political writer in English of the twentieth century. Chapters in this 2007 Companion address his positions on war and pacifism, patriotism, his anti-Communism and his status in the literary academy, among other topics. A detailed chronology of Orwell's life and work is also included. Notes on contributors vii Preface x JOHN RODDEN Chronology xii 1 A political writer 1 JOHN ROSSI AND JOHN RODDEN 2 Orwell and the biographers 12 GORDON BOWKER 3 Englands His Englands 28 JONATHAN ROSE 4 The truths of experience: Orwell's nonfiction of the 1930's 43 MARGERY SABIN 5 The fictional realist: novels of the 1930's 59 MICHAEL LEVENSON 6 Orwell's essays as a literary experience 76 WILLIAM E. CAIN 7 My country, right or left': Orwell's patriotism 87 JOHN ROSSI 8 Orwell and the British Left 100 IAN WILLIAMS 9 Orwell, anti-Semitism and the Holocaust 112 JOHN NEWSINGER 10 Orwell, Socialism and the Cold War 126 ROBERT CONQUEST 11 Animal Farm: history as fable 133 MORRIS DICKSTEIN 12 Nineteen Eighty-Four: context and controversy 146 BERNARD CRICK 13 Orwell, the academy and the intellectuals 160 NEIL McLAUGHLIN 14 Orwell for today's reader: an open letter 179 JOHN RODDEN 15 George Orwell: a bibliographic essay 190 ERIKA GOTTLIEB 16 Why Orwell still matters 201 CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS Further reading 208 Index 211