Politics vs. Literature

<p>George Orwell set out 'to make political writing into an art' and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature - his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While <em>1984</em> and <em>Animal Farm</em> are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language this new series of Orwell's essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership.</p><p><br></p><p><em>Politics vs. Literature</em> the fourth in the <em>Orwell's Essays</em> series is at heart a review of Jonathan Swift's <em>Gulliver's Travels</em>. Having been given a copy of the book on his eighth birthday Orwell knows it inside out and thinks highly of it; it is 'pessimistic' though he says - 'it descends into political partisanship of a narrow kind' designed to 'humiliate man by reminding him that he is weak and ridiculous.' Using the book as an example of enjoying a book whose author one cannot stand Orwell goes on to say that he considers <em>Gulliver's Travels</em> a work of art leaving the reader to reconsider the books on their own shelves.</p><p><br></p><p>'A writer who can - and must - be rediscovered with every age' - <em>Irish Times</em></p>