Orwell's Roses
by
43/99
Critics' Rating Index
76/99
Readers' Rating Index
n/a
Scholars' Citation Index
99/99
Volume of Reviews
74/99
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About This Book
A lush exploration of roses, pleasure, and politics, and a fresh take on George Orwell as an avid gardener whose political writing was grounded in his passion for the natural world "In the year 1936 a writer planted roses." So begins Rebecca Solnit's new book, a reflection on George Orwell's passionate gardening and the way that his involvement with plants, particularly flowers, and the natural world illuminates his other commitments as a writer and antifascist, and the intertwined politics of nature and power. Sparked by her unexpected encounter with the surviving roses he planted in 1936, Solnit's account of this understudied aspect of Orwell's life explores his writing and his actions—from going deep into the coal mines of England, fighting in the Spanish Civil War, critiquing Stalin when much of the international left still supported him (and then critiquing that left), to his analysis of the relationship between lies and authoritarianism. Through Solnit's celebrated ability to draw unexpected connections, readers encounter the photographer Tina Modotti's roses and her Stalinism, Stalin's obsession with forcing lemons to grow in impossibly cold conditions, Orwell's slave-owning ancestors in Jamaica, Jamaica Kincaid's critique of colonialism and imperialism in the flower garden, and the brutal rose industry in Colombia that supplies the American market. The book draws to a close with a rereading of Nineteen Eighty-Four that completes her portrait of a more hopeful Orwell, as well as a reflection on pleasure, beauty, and joy as acts of resistance.
Reviews
"Eager Orwellians, scrambling to get their hands on Rebecca Solnit's book, can relax."
"But she may as well have been describing her own, or at least this book's, aesthetic values and pleasures as well."
"Orwell will always be relied on for his astute understanding of the threat of totalitarianism and its malignant lies; Solnit also ensures that we'll value Orwell's profound understanding of how love, pleasure, and awe for nature can be powerful forms of resistance."
"Regardless, readers of the early 21st century should be grateful for her clear-eyed, articulate presence in our midst."
"not all the branching diversions of this book are so successful ..."
"Though Orwell's every word had been scrutinized by the time Solnit began this project, her stellar book shows us that an original thinker can make any subject fresh."
"Solnit's personality...is always there on the page: confrontational, anxious, angry, self-absorbed, and—most importantly—female."
"Essayist that she is, Rebecca Solnit pursues her subjects down multiple pathways of thought, feeling, memory and experience, aided by historical research and the intuitive literary hunch, as needed."
"[A] brilliant survey ..."
"A fine Orwell biography with equally fine diversions into his favorite leisure activity."
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