The
Same Man
One climbed to the top of the social ladder, the other chose to live among tramps. One was a celebrity at twenty-three, the other virtually unknown until his dying days. One was right-wing and religious, the other a socialist and an atheist.
Yet in the new book THE SAME MAN: George Orwell and Eveyln Waugh in Love and War, David Lebedoff argues that at the heart of their lives and writing, Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell were The Same Man. Orwell is best known for Animal Farm and 1984, Waugh for Brideshead Revisited and comic novels like Scoop and Vile Bodies. However different they may seem, these two towering figures of twentieth-century literature are linked for the first time in this unconventional biography.
Both Waugh and Orwell were born in 1903, into the same comfortable stratum of England’s class-obsessed society. Waugh and Orwell would meet only once, but Lebedoff shows that in their life and work both writers rebelled against the modern world. Orwell and Waugh were almost alone among their peers in seeing what the future would bring, and they dedicated their lives to warning us against what was coming: a world of material wealth but few values, an existence without tradition or community. They explained why, despite prosperity, so many people feel that our society is headed in the wrong direction. Lebedoff believes that we need both Orwell and Waugh now more than ever.
About the Author
David Lebedoff is the award-winning author of five books, including Cleaning Up, about the Exxon Valdez case, and The Uncivil War: How a New Elite Is Destroying Our Democracy. Lebedoff is a graduate of the University of Minnesota (where he later served as chair of the board of regents) and the Harvard Law School. He lives in Minneapolis.
Reviews
"Just the kind of book that both Waugh and Orwell, full of passion and conviction themselves, might have enjoyed...."
—Michael Dirda, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 7, 2008
“Lebedoff's unpretentious writing style...crackles with with and playfulness as well as ardent advocacy for these embattled twin prophets...thrillingly written......more