Orwell: The War Commentaries
Pages: 253
|Published: 1 Jan 1941
Description
These 49 talks, written for the BBC by Orwell from December 20, 1941 through March 13, 1943, were designed to counter the lies and misrepresentations being broadcast via Axis radio stations. West has restored most of the passages that were deleted by the Ministry of Information censor and provides clarifying footnotes, some of which are clear foreshadowings of the novelist's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell not only reported on weekly developments in the main theaters of war, but on campaigns such as the invasion of Madagascar and early raids on the coast of Europe. The commentaries are followed by an appendix containing transcripts of Axis broadcasts by William Joyce, known as Lord Haw-Haw, and Subhas Chandra Bose of the Indian National Army. Admirers of Orwell will be interested to see how a writer of his stature perceived the war as it progressed week by week. The texts of Orwell's talks and the Axis broadcasts in the appendix provide a rare look at the art of propaganda during World War II.
