“You could never make an -ism out of [Samuel] Johnson’s apothegms. They are
riddled with contradictions and non sequiturs, as Macaulay pointed out in a
brilliant (and mostly sympathetic) essay. …. Same Orwell, whom I also
adore–not for his political philosophy, which was mostly wrong-headed, but
for his broad outlook and scrupulous honesty.”—Derb, The Corner, 5/11/03
“Oddest of all is Orwell’s political program, which seemed coherent at the
time, but which nobody has ever successfully pinned down. Part of the power
and appeal of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four is that, notoriously,
they may be read as supporting the views of anyone from a hardline
Trotskyite to a raging Tory.”—Philip Hensher, the Spectator, 5/10/03.