Orwell's roses / Rebecca Solnit.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Solnit, Rebecca, author.

Contributor:

ProQuest ebook central.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Orwell, George, 1903-1950.

Orwell, George.

Orwell, George, 1903-1950--Homes and haunts.

Authors, English--20th century--Biography.

Authors, English.

Orwell, George, 1903-1950--Knowledge and learning.

Roses.

Gardening.

Nature.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations

Place of Publication:

[New York, NY] : Viking, [2021]

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Longlisted for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography "An exhilarating romp through Orwell's life and times and also through the life and times of roses." --Margaret Atwood "A captivating account of Orwell as gardener, lover, parent, and endlessly curious thinker." --Claire Messud, Harper's "Nobody who reads it will ever think of Nineteen Eighty-Four in quite the same way."-- Vogue A lush exploration of roses, pleasure, and politics, and a fresh take on George Orwell as an avid gardener whose political writing was grounded in his passion for the natural world "In the year 1936 a writer planted roses." So begins Rebecca Solnit's new book, a reflection on George Orwell's passionate gardening and the way that his involvement with plants, particularly flowers, and the natural world illuminates his other commitments as a writer and antifascist, and the intertwined politics of nature and power. Sparked by her unexpected encounter with the surviving roses he planted in 1936, Solnit's account of this understudied aspect of Orwell's life explores his writing and his actions--from going deep into the coal mines of England, fighting in the Spanish Civil War, critiquing Stalin when much of the international left still supported him (and then critiquing that left), to his analysis of the relationship between lies and authoritarianism. Through Solnit's celebrated ability to draw unexpected connections, readers encounter the photographer Tina Modotti's roses and her Stalinism, Stalin's obsession with forcing lemons to grow in impossibly cold conditions, Orwell's slave-owning ancestors in Jamaica, Jamaica Kincaid's critique of colonialism and imperialism in the flower garden, and the brutal rose industry in Colombia that supplies the American market. The book draws to a close with a rereading of Nineteen Eighty-Four that completes her portrait of a more hopeful Orwell, as well as a reflection on pleasure, beauty, and joy as acts of resistance.

Contents:

1 The Prophet and the Hedgehog

1 Day of the Dead p. 3

3 Lilacs and Nazis p. 21

II Going Underground

1 Smoke, Shale, Ice, Mud, Ashes p. 51

2 Carboniferous p. 57

3 In Darkness p. 63

III Bread and Roses

1 Roses and Revolution p. 77

2 We Fight for Roses Too p. 85

3 In Praise Of p. 91

4 Buttered Toast p. 101

5 The Last Rose of Yesterday p. 109

IV Stalin's Lemons

1 The Flint Path p. 121

2 Empire of Lies p. 131

3 Forcing Lemons p. 143

V Retreats and Attacks

1 Enclosures p. 149

2 Gentility p. 157

3 Sugar, Poppies, Teak p. 165

4 Old Blush p. 171

5 Flowers of Evil p. 179

VI The Price of Roses

1 Beauty Problems p. 187

2 In the Rose Factory p. 195

3 The Crystal Spirit p. 205

4 The Ugliness of Roses p. 213

5 Snow and Ink p. 221

VII The River Orwell

1 An Inventory of Pleasures p. 235

2 "As the Rose-Hip to the Rose" p. 251

3 The River Orwell p. 265.

Notes:

Place of publication taken from publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI Available via World Wide Web.

Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on October 26, 2021).

Other Format:

Print version: Solnit, Rebecca. Orwell's roses

ISBN:

9780593083383

0593083385

Publisher Number:

40030797712

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.