HfiRIN COUNTY FREE LIBRARY CENTURY 1TH 3I 1I1I1I1I0I0I2I4I3I 0I1I4I6 INTERPRETATIONS OF * 1984 SAMUEL HYNES Edited by A COLLECTION OF CRITICAL ESSAYS BY Isaac Deutscher IrvingHowe AldousHuxley • • WyndhamLewis • StephenSpender • Lionel Trilling and 7others V cn Each volume of sf TWENTIETH CENTURY oOJ o INTERPRETATIONS presents the best of modern commentary on a great work of literature, and an original introduction n to that work by an outstanding authority. Analyzing themes, style, genre, structural elements, artistic influences, and historical background, the essays define the place of the work in its tradition and make clear its significance for readers of today. -<&^>~ "Perhaps every age needs its own night- mares, and 1984 is ours. It is a nightmare peculiar to our own time, for only in this century has totalitarianism become an actu- ality, and thus a subject for the human imagination: only when there were boots in human faces, could one imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever. . . . "Starting from Orwell's proposition that personal identity is fixed and private, one can go on to other propositions: that the past is unchangeable, that truth is objective, that words have fixed meanings. And that love is possible. Taken together these propo- sitions define a relationship to reality that we take for granted: 1984 is horrible be- cause in it every one of these propositions is denied. For these ideas have been funda- mental to western, liberal culture since the (continued on back flap) #B1 75 KB ~ 20 a9] DATE DUE DEU 2 19P OCT 2 6- APR 2 f- JUN1 8 198? dUN i MAR MAY 12 1988 > J1AR2 MAY * 1989 j MAY 2 4 1989/t i/^ JUN 2 1990 an a JUN 2 a 1991 m miff 2 8 v APR 2 - urn jan J StP OkuOZ- I 823 - 1B3ARY Orwel collection iglewood truCmObNoTokE")NTS$4.95 ""'" * *" (A Spe—C' Orwell on the F:utIunrtero,dubcytiIo*n,TrbiyllSi.ngH.y—n1e98s4.:—1t9h8e4,mybsytVi.ciSs.mProlftcchreuteltty, i1bTs9otyhS£re4a1,Inr.gSollba'DeyddeutLHcto.rsyA1,c9R'h8beeZ4ya,rwde.Jbr—..yd1—Sl9CGti8.lrn4iaSK:mc-aah—thxeieLyseb.tat.o—ntr—IdeyOnrrtcwrtahooesadlnGulgneceitao,girnhogdtnbemvtathOorerWew1.,te9el8c4lLbh,,eynwibbqiyIyuseSA.s.H—SooFHfprwueoedxnim.ldd—eeaTcryTth.h—ie—ec English Utopia, by A. I* Morton.—Bibliography (p. 116-117) Uvk&SW&S&JtStir*- Nlne,een elghtIfurserieT le-: s"- Georefe MiRP TWENTIETH CENTURY INTERPRETATIONS OF I984 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 http://www.archive.org/details/twentiethcenturyOOhyne M TWENTIETH CENTURY INTERPRETATIONS OF 1984 A Collection of Critical Essays Edited by Samuel Hynes /£& Prentice-Hall, Inc. ff5%\ Englewood Cliffs. N. /. 18901 © 1971 by Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. A SPECTRUM BOOK. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. C-o-13-622605-1; P-0-13- 622597-7. Library of Congress Catalog CardNumber78-160533. Printedin the United States of America. 987654321 10 Prentice-Hall Lnternational, Inc. (London) Prentice-Hall of Australia, Pty. Ltd. (Sydney) Prentice-Hall of Canada, Ltd. (Toronto) Prentice-Hall of India Private Ltd. (New Delhi) Prentice-Hux of Japan, Inc. (Tokyo) ' Contents Introduction by Samuel Hynes — Part One Reviews 1984 20 by V. S. Pritchett Orwell on the Future 24• by Lionel Trilling — Part Two Essays — 1984 The Mysticism of Cruelty 29 \ by Isaac Deutscher 1984: History as Nightmare 41 by Irving Howe The Strangled Cry 54 by John Strachey Introduction to 1984 62 by Stephen Spender The Road to 1984 *«• by George Kateb Orwell and the Techniques of Didactic Fantasy 88 by Alex Zwerdling — Part Three Viewpoints Aldous Huxley: Letter to George Orwell 102# vi Contents Herbert Read: 1984 103 Wyndham Lewis: Climax and Change 105 A. L. Morton: From The English Utopia 109 Chronology of Important Dates 112 Notes on the Editor and Contributors 114 Selected Bibliography 116