Orwell the Socialist

Abstract

This chapter considers the confluence of opinion from both conservatives and left socialists in denying Orwell’s own declared socialism. In particular, it looks at the puzzling article on Orwell by Louis Menand in the New Yorker which claimed that Orwell “spent much of his time criticizing professional Socialists, particularly the leaders of the British Labour Party because, apart from the commitment to equality, there was not much about Socialism that was important to him. His economics were rudimentary, and he had little patience for the temporizing that ordinary politics requires.” This mysteriously inaccurate assessment flies in direct contradiction with Orwell’s own statements.