Orwell: The New Life

In 2003, Taylor’s biography of George Orwell (Orwell: The Life) was published to critical acclaim. Twenty years later, he has mined newly available material on Orwell to thoroughly update that earlier work. In 2012 and 2013, Orwell’s diaries and letters were published, and Taylor uses those primary documents liberally. He also taps into new material by and about some of Orwell’s contemporaries. There’s a detailed account of Orwell’s wedding to Sonia Brownell at the University College Hospital in London on October 13, 1949; Orwell was bedridden with tuberculosis and died 100 days later. Their wedding was only briefly mentioned near the end of Taylor’s previous book. In this latest biography, there is a section called “Orwell and His World,” which discusses Orwell’s personal characteristics, ill health, and friendships, also drawing from new material. Missing, however, from this new version is the short appendix “Orwell and His Publisher,” but Taylor writes meticulous notes on his sources, which include all of the significant works written about Orwell since 2003. This book ranks as the new definitive work on Orwell.