Choice Review

Reilly's detailed, persuasive analysis of Orwell's famous work is distinguished by clear thinking, vivid writing, and careful analysis. Calling Orwell a "propagandist who repudiates lies," Reilly rightly dismisses both the neoconservative claim on Orwell and the charge that Orwell betrayed the "zealots of the left." Orwell's book transcends specific historical conditions and orthodoxies, even his own (humanism, Marxism, atheism); it is a "means to salvation" from naive optimism about the nature of evil and oppression. In particular, Reilly astutely draws parallels between Nineteen Eighty-four and what he calls the "basic myth" of Western culture, "Jack the Giant-Killer." Reilly is especially helpful in showing Orwell's Oceania as a theocracy based on key Christian concepts and terminology and in noting Milton's threefold universe subsumed into an earthly hell. Important as Milton's influence is, however, Swift's (Gulliver's Travels) is shown convincingly to be far more important than normally acknowledged. More than mere satire or enervating pessimism, Orwell's book is ultimately about moral choice, about responsibility in preserving human freedom. Useful 14-page index, marred primarily by the exclusion of other material relating Orwell and Swift and any recent work except Reilly's own. Highly recommended for all levels. P. Schlueter Warren County Community College