Posted by Tim Cratchit on March 06, 2002 at 20:06:27:
In Reply to: Was Orwell a novelist? posted by Timmy Lea on March 06, 2002 at 07:03:38:
No, he was a great political commentator-journalist with honesty and clear vision. Also the unpretentious lucidity of his writings is exemplary.
But he was a lousy novelist. Quite rightly, he refused re-publishing "Clergyman's Daughter" and "Aspidostera", and they were not re-published in his lifetime.
Even 1984 is not a great novel in *literary* sesnse. He gets sometimes overly too didactic and sentimental there. 1984 is good, because the picture it draws is very scary and real-looking one. (Orwell was quite convinced himselves, that this is the way the new world can develop). The success of 1984 came from good political writing, not a literary one.
The only well-written "fiction" he produced was Animal Farm - that one is perfect stylisticaly too.
Orwell is closer to Solzenicin than to Dostojevskij.