Books, Arts & Manners

The Politics of Literary Reputation, by John Rodden (Oxford, 478 pp., $27.50)

I have always enjoyed reading George Orwell, except for his fiction, especially Nineteen Eighty-Four. That book is a great idea, weakly executed, and the popular misunderstanding of it—the assumption that it was a prediction—gave it its popularity. It has sold in the tens of millions, with sales peaking in early 1984 and, Big Brother having failed to materialize, trickling off afterward. (Though one contributor to Horoscope Magazine noted respectfully that Orwell’s prophetic track record surpassed those of many professional astrologers.)

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Joseph Sobran

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The Politics of Literary Reputation, by John Rodden (Oxford, 478 pp., $27.50)

I have always enjoyed reading George Orwell, except for his fiction, especially Nineteen Eighty-Four. That book is a great idea, weakly executed, and the popular misunderstanding of it—the assumption that it was a prediction—gave it its popularity. It has sold in the tens of millions, with sales peaking in early 1984 and, Big Brother having failed to materialize, trickling off afterward. (Though one contributor to Horoscope Magazine noted respectfully that Orwell’s prophetic track record surpassed those of many professional astrologers.)