George Orwell: A Sage for All Seasons

The Great Courses

by Michael Shelden

In George Orwell: A Sage for All Seasons, join Orwell’s authorized biographer, Professor Michael Shelden of Indiana State University, for a 24-lecture journey through the life and times that shaped this profound writer and his eerily prescient masterpieces. From Orwell’s youth in Edwardian England to his formative experiences abroad in colonial Burma and revolutionary Spain to his internal war with socialism and authoritarian regimes, you’ll learn how the man born Eric Blair forged himself into a writer of international importance and renown. Rooted in Professor Shelden’s interviews with Orwell’s friends and lovers—and his own astute literary analysis of all of Orwell’s major works—this course is a one-of-a-kind portrait of the modern world’s greatest champion of individuality. If you’re new to Orwell’s body of work, Professor Shelden will have you rushing to your nearest bookstore or library. If you are already familiar with any of Orwell’s work, he’ll add new layers of understanding and appreciation to this undeniable titan of English literature.

Genres: Biography, Audiobook, Nonfiction, History, Literature

11 pages, Audiobook

Published February 28, 2020

Reviews

[Mehrnaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

ازونجایی که مسیر کارم طولانیه وگفتم چه فرصتی بهتر برای بیشتر کتاب خوندن! :)) ولی خوب هنوز عادت نکردم به این نوع کتاب گوش دادن و خیلی تمرکزم کمه و حس میکنم خیلی کم بتونم از چیزی که فهمیدم بگم. با این حال به نظرم کتاب یا درس جالبی بود. در یک جمع‌بندی کلی ارول بسیار وفادار هست به عقایدش چیزی که بهش خیلی آسیب میزنه.. و تقریبا از چیزهایی مینوسه که به شکلی تجربه‌شون کرده. دو نقطه‌ی “طنز" تلخ زندگیش اینجا هستن که از بیمارستا‌ها متنفره و دوست داره در تختش یا حتی کفش‌های جنگیش بمیره و مرگ در بیمارستان رو بدترین مرگ میدونه. و به عنوان آخرین کلماتی هم که نوشته میگه:
At fifty, everyone has the face he deserves.
و خوب در ۴۶ سالگی و در بیمارستان می‌میره!

[Cav · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this offering from The Great Courses. Course presenter Michael Shelden is a Professor of English at Indiana State University. He is noted for his authorized biography of George Orwell, his history of Cyril Connolly’s Horizon magazine, his controversial biography of Graham Greene, and his study of the last years of Mark Twain, Man in White.

Michael Shelden :


Professsor Sheldon reveals early on that Orwell's real name was Eric Arthur Blair. George Orwell became the pseudonym that Blair penned his books under. The use of the identity of George Orwell allowed Blair to write freely, without bringing criticism to his family name and himself, notes Sheldon.

The first lecture gets off to a bit of a bumpy start; as Professor Shelden calls Franscico Franco a fascist. Franco was not a fascist. Shelden should know better.
He also calls the Spanish Republicans "freedom fighters", which is an incredibly loaded term. I don't think either of these is a gaffe, and I suspect that they are narrative devices inserted by Shelden. Professor Shelden also refers to the Republicans as "anti-fascists", and "Stalinists", but not "Socialists" or "Communists".
Ultimately the argument about whether or not Franco was a Fascist is not really that relevant to the broader story here, and it is interesting to note that even Orwell himself would write that: "It will be seen that, as used, the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley's broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else..."

The formatting of this course is fairly typical of its contemporaries at The Great Courses; this one is 24 lectures, each about 30mins long.
Professor Shelden covers the life of Orwell in a chronological manner. The lectures follow Orwell in his early life, through his journey to Bruma to become a police officer. He made good money there, but was ultimately unfulfilled.

Orwell eventually returned to England, getting a job at a bookstore, and then opening a small store. He lived in a picturesque tiny village named Wallington, that had a small farm named "Manor Farm". Orwell would immortalize the name of this farm in his book Animal Farm.
The lectures also describe Orwell traveling to Spain, where he would take up arms against Franco's Nationalist forces, before suffering a near-death injury after being shot in the neck by a sniper.

When the Second World War broke out in 1939, Orwell worked at the BBC, promoting propaganda for the war effort. He was offered a full-time job in the Indian Section of the BBC’s Empire Service on August 18, 1941.

Orwell at the BBC:


Lecture 19 details efforts by Orwell to publish his now monumental work Animal Farm. When the war was raging, Britain and Russia were tenuously allied in fighting Hitler's Nazi Reich. Publishers at the time were worried about rubbing Stalin the wrong way and "playing into the hands of the Nazis". The book was eventually published in England on 17 August 1945. If it had appeared in the summer of 1944, there might have been a much greater outcry over its publication, notes Sheldon.

Sheldon writes this of Orwell's political stance:

"In sentiment I am definitely “left,” but I believe that a writer can only remain honest if he keeps free of party labels."
- This would remain his position for the rest of his career.

Lectures 22 and 23 cover the writing of Orwell's best-known work: 1984. Orwell rented a small cottage on the small Scottish island of Jura, far away from the hustle of fast-paced life in London. Apparently, that cottage can still be rented today.
By this time, Orwell's long-standing lung problems were getting worse; he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and had a lot of trouble finishing typing the book.
Tragically, Orwell would die young from complications from tuberculosis, aged 46 on 21 January, 1950, in a London hospital...

The cottage in Jura:


Sheldon tells the listener here that Orwell's personal life was tragic. His first wife Eileen O'Shaughnessy died young. During his time at Jura, he longed for the companionship of a loving woman, who would stay at the cottage with him. As tuberculosis took its toll on him, he wanted to spend the remaining days of his life married to a loving woman. He married Sonia Brownell just three months before his death. Sheldon mentions that the wedding took place in the hospital, with Orwell bedridden.

Sheldon doesn't paint Brownell in a very flattering light here, saying that she only married him once he became wealthy and suggesting that it was not a marriage of love. Sheldon mentions that she wouldn't raise Orwell's adopted son, Richard, who was left in the care of Orwell's sister after his death. She would eventually die in 1980, Sheldon notes: "deeply unhappy, and with much of her money wasted..."



Despite getting off to a bumpy start here, Sheldon did a nice job of presenting the life of Orwell to the viewer/reader.
I enjoyed this course and would recommend it to anyone interested.
4 stars.

[Taher Bellah]

روعة الروعة

[Chris Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

25 short lectures and notes covering Orwell's life. The study guide stands alone but is best read with the videos in which Michael Sheldon talks through the material in a lucid and interesting way. This book is really helpful in getting an overview of Orwell's life and the influences on his work. It points out key experiences, people and other influences and puts in neat chronological order not only the main books but also the key essays. It's taken me some time to work through it all but an invaluable basis for wider reading of Orwell's work and related literature.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5*

[Shalene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great overview of Orwell’s short life! I found it notable that the instructor has met many of these connections of Orwell personally.

[Marc Audet · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thorough and well researched presentation of Eric Blair, his early life, his development as a writer, and the impact of his two major novels, "Animal Farm" and "1984". Professor Shelden interviewed several people who knew Eric Blair first hand, and was given access to personal letters by Blair that offer some insight into the inner workings of the writer's mind. After the election of 2016, the story of George Orwell's life and the writing of "1984", I found this course relevant and insightful and well worth the twelve hours that it took to listen to the twenty four lectures.

[Roxanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Orwell's will requested that no biography of him be written. His widow, Sonia Brownell, did eventually appoint an "official biographer" but the efforts were abandoned long before anything was published. When she appointed another biographer the second time, she tried to suppress the biography's publication when supposedly they disagreed on what was to be written of Orwell.

It's perhaps fitting that a biography of Orwell was just as hard to get published as some of Orwell's greatest works. (eg. Animal Farm was rejected by four different publishers, including his own for political reasons, and then paper rationing prohibited its publication for another year, until after WWII ended.) Michael Shelden, the author of this series of lectures, was Orwell's "authorised biographer", authorised by his estate after his widow passed away in the 1980s.

Orwell never considered himself to be that creative. Even in his earlier "non-fiction" works such as *Down and Out in Paris,* Orwell felt he had no choice but to "tweak the truth" or exclude some of his adventures as an undercover tramp to make his book palatable enough to be published. The non-fiction market then simply didn't hold the same regard for the "hard truths" as it does today. We have this to thank for Orwell's gradual shift to fictional works in his late career (though he never stopped his journalistic writing) and with this shift, Orwell relied mostly from his real life experiences for inspiration.

With first hand research & interviews with those who personally knew Orwell (Blair), Shelden covered Orwell's entire life in this 24 bite-size lectures, focusing on the real life events that inspired Orwell's work, from his boarding school days (Essay *Such Such were the Joys),* his time as Corporal Blair in the Spanish Civil War (*Homage to Catalonia)* to working in the "Empire Division" of the BBC where his show, effectively propaganda broadcasts to Indians, was subjected to a live censor who could cut out the signal real-time, most certainly inspired 1984. (Very sadly, none of these broadcasts survived.)

Shelden covered many fascinating tidbits which are scarcely written about:

- When in Spain (for the Civil War), plainclothes policemen had ransacked the lodgings that he and his wife Eileen shared and confiscated "evidence" - his books, letters and diaries that Orwell used to record his time in Spain, which no doubt provided first hand experience on being under surveillance
- "Tramping skills" he acquired as an undercover tramp in *Down and Out in Paris*, were put to good use in Spain, when it seemed he was being hunted down in Spain; he eventually escaped and returned to England
- Back in England, it appeared that his mail was being monitored and "unsuitable" books that he had tried to purchase (and "import" from Europe) were confiscated, experiences that he added to his dystopian world in 1984 where Big Brother is always watching. Orwell was in fact trying to import *The Tropic of Capricorn*, a book which was considered obscene then and therefore banned.
- "Russian interference" to suppress the publication of Animal Farm which nowadays we would view in light of recent election rigging.
- Why Orwell chose 1984 as the title: his wife Eileen was 39 when she died and he wanted to imagine what the world would be like when his son turned 39 in 1984

If you love Orwell's works, then these lectures would be a very entertaining way to spend a few evenings!

[Howard Cincotta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to these audio lectures following eye surgery. In this series, Professor Sheldon, author of an authorized biography of George Orwell, masterfully links Orwell’s short but event-filled life with the great themes of his works: the commitment to social justice coupled with his uncompromising defense of individual freedom.

Orwell was especially eloquent about the misuse of language to manipulate minds and societies. In his celebrated essay “Politics and the English Language,” he wrote: “Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from conservatives to anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

Orwell’s masterwork, 1984 is, of course, famous for its portrayal of language as political manipulation: “Doublethink.” “Big Brother.” “War is peace.” “Freedom is slavery.” “Ignorance is strength.”

Orwell, always a man of the left, nevertheless famously trained his political fire on Soviet communism, although his larger target was always authoritarianism of every political stripe. As Sheldon demonstrates, Orwell’s opposition was not merely theoretical. During the Spanish Civil War, Orwell joined an independent Marxist/socialist party that became targeted by Soviet-backed forces. Not only was he shot in the throat by a fascist sniper, but Orwell and his wife barely escaped arrest, or worse, at the hands of Soviet agents — only to be smeared in the leftist press upon his return home.

Sheldon tracks other experiences that reinforced Orwell’s visceral hatred of the abuse of power, whether at the hands of the vengeful woman who ran his boarding school (immortalized in the savage essay, “Such, Such Were the Joys”), or experiences as an imperial police officer in Burma. The Burma years produced two more great essays that focused in different ways in how power poisons and corrupts: “A Hanging” and “Shooting an Elephant.”

Take one example of how Sheldon connects Orwell’s life and work. Sheldon shrewdly demonstrates how Orwell’s war years, living under the Blitz in London, shaped the imagery and atmosphere of 1984. The novel may have been set in a nominal “future,” but its physical setting of drab housing, oppressive fear, and material shortages was that of Great Britain in World War II.

Orwell, certainly flawed and eccentric in many ways, was also a good and brave man. Despite years of privation and ill health, he never wavered in his commitment to the principles by which he lived. And he never stopped writing, right up to the end. It is stunning to realize that he died at age 46.

Today, Sheldon argues, George Orwell remains the most influential English writer of the 20th century. In a 21st-century era of new oppressions and manipulations of language, his relevance only grows.

[Dennis Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

George Orwell: A Sage for All Seasons by Michael Sheldon is a passionate biography of George Orwell masquerading as a series of lectures on the man. Sheldon's love for his subject is infectious, particularly as he peppers his telling with interviews with and letters from people who knew George Orwell when he was still alive. There are times where he approaches his subject with more art and feeling than with the distance one should have as a teacher, as Sheldon will lead his listener down rabbit holes and speculations about what might have been in the realm of inexplicit inference to fill in the gaps of our knowledge of Orwell's inspiration. There are also some occasional blink and you'll miss it sly references to modern politics, which felt a bit out of place. That I have read Such, Such Were the Joys, the Road to Wigan Pier, Animal Farm, and 1984 over the past five years or so makes the course better. There's something melancholic about this socialist maverick disowned by and disabused of the left-wing political movements that he had bled, and nearly died for, but I will refrain from saying too much in that vein. Instead, I will simply say that this is a great introduction to Orwell. When you finish, you will have a better understanding of the portrait of him as a man, a writer, and a human being.

92/100

[Abid Uzair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arguably the finest British author of the 20th century who continues to enthrall readers around the globe

I had great fun learning about Eric Blair the person, his literary influences, crucial life events which shaped much of his thinking as an individual and as a writer, motivations behind his writings and what makes Orwell a towering figure in the literary world. Today, his famous works are undeniably as relevant as they'll ever be.

I chose to study him as a way to understand his works in greater depth and uncover the unseen, the mischievous insights to which not many can lay hands upon. Whether I was successful or not, only time alone can disclose. But this is a step forward and so I'm mighty thankful to Prof. Michael Shelden for putting it together in a single frame.

[Vagabond · Rating 4 out of 5]

The professor has an exhaustive knowledge of Blair's/Orwell's life, having written a biography of the author and interviewed just about everyone who ever knew Orwell and was still alive in the 1980s. The lectures were engaging and interesting, though it probably could have been just a bit shorter. I didn't know that Orwell had such a fascinating life, and I enjoyed learning about how his experiences directly influenced virtually all of his writing. Highly recommend both the course and Orwell's works!

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came away from this lecture series feeling that I know far more about Orwell, and liking much though not all of what I know. It is not difficult to feel that Orwell's writings are a release for much of what he believed are the problems of modern society, although Shelden did not seem to dwell on that aspect of the story, rather it was a revealing look at Orwell's life from his British colonial days forward. It does make me contemplate reading a Orwell biography.

[Timothy Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating and exceptionally well made set of lectures about Orwell's life. The lecturer, who wrote Orwell's official biography, does a great job narrating the events in the life of Eric Blair and how these inspired his writings. I have definitely come away from this series with a much deeper understanding and respect for George Orwell and his literacy legacy.

[Isabella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book. Well researched, narrator (author) great. I learned so much about the author I have always loved. This book has inspired me to read everything George Orwell has ever written. If you want to learn about this amazing author, read this.

[Slappy McGee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great series of lectures on George Orwell. From his early life to his entry into the literary world, through his minor and great works.

Fantastic listening. Wonderfully thought out.
Great insight into Orwell.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like it more than I did. I think George Orwell is interesting, I learned a lot about him, and I think the lectures are well-done. But this was most useful for listening to while falling asleep.

[Saurabh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant biography of a brilliant author.

[Jola Cora · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful, wonderful human being.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful biography. I would love similar creations on many other people.
Highly recommended.

[Dut Hersh · Rating 4 out of 5]

My guy Eric lived a fascinating life, by turns adventurous and hard. Really interesting lecture series all around.

[Abdul Alhazred · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great biography by Shelden who manages to balance delivering the basic facts, exploring controversies of note and doing it while delivering the material in an engaging way.

[RR · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting hagiography.

[Suzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

What you would expect from a biographical series

[AMY CUTLER · Rating 4 out of 5]

Putting the puzzle pieces together. I learned so much about the lived experiences that lent Blair (aka Orwell) the prescient insight to write his magnum opus, 1984.

[Roberta Westwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great series of lectures on George Orwell

I haven’t read a lot of George Orwell, so I thought these lectures would be a good introduction to the author. What an interesting life… and now I am ready to read all his works. I think having the historical context will enrich my reading.