Summary
George Orwell wrote many essays and political pamphlets, yet most know him for his fable Animal Farm and his dystopian novel 1984. This essential volume offers strategies and techniques for writing effective essays not only on these canonical works but on Orwell's political views, his perspective on totalitarianism, and the forms of realism in his works as well. Coverage includes the essay "Shooting an Elephant" and book-length nonfiction Homage to Catalonia and Down and Out in Paris and London. Complete with a guide for composing good essays, Bloom's How to Write about George Orwell also features suggestions for paper topics, coverage of Orwell's major works, and an introduction by master scholar Harold Bloom.
About the Author(s)
Harold Bloom is Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University. Educated at Cornell and Yale universities, he is the author of 30 books, including Shelley's Mythmaking (1959), The Visionary Company (1961), Blake's Apocalypse (1963), Yeats (1970), A Map of Misreading (1975), Kabbalah and Criticism (1975), Agon: Toward a Theory of Revisionism (1982), The American Religion (1992), The Western Canon (1994), Omens of Millennium: The Gnosis of Angels, Dreams, and Resurrection (1996), and Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1998), a 1998 National Book Award finalist. The Anxiety of Influence (1973) sets forth Professor Bloom's provocative theory of the literary relationships between the great writers and their predecessors. His most recent books include How to Read and Why (2000), Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds (2002), Hamlet: Poem Unlimited (2003), Where Shall Wisdom Be Found? (2004), and Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Divine (2005). In addition, he is the author of hundreds of articles, reviews, and editorial introductions. In 1999, Professor Bloom received the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Criticism. He has also received the International Prize of Catalonia, the Alfonso Reyes Prize of Mexico, and the Hans Christian Andersen Bicentennial Prize of Denmark.