Animal Farm - George Orwell - Christopher Hitchens

Описание: From Christopher Hitchens audio book Arguably
Christopher Hitchens wrote an entire book on Orwell called Why Orwell Matters (it’s great, no surprise). His mentions of Orwell in print probably run into the hundreds of thousands. And not just the books, the novels and war reportage books, but all of the essays as well. I imagine if you are not familiar with Orwell, or if you only know Animal Farm and 1984, some of Hitchens’ commentary would be too complex, too shorthand-ish, to ever understand. Orwell died pretty young, and he wrote like he knew he wouldn’t be here long. His essays are high watermarks of the form, both personal (shooting the elephant, boarding school days) and political, sometimes at the same time. He has written some political essays that are so masterful they have yet to be matched. He is one of those figures that come along rarely, a figure who can see above and beyond his own time. What is incredible about him is that he was also fully immersed in his own time. He didn’t sit in a tower, observing from afar. He fought in the Spanish Civil War. He was, how you say, highly involved. But that’s the case with other similar figures – Arthur Koestler, Rebecca West.