The Same Man
Reviews & Praise
"Lebedoff's unpretentious writing style...crackles with with
and playfulness as well as ardent advocacy for these embattled
twin prophets.... He laces his two brief
biographies with sharp-edged details that brightly illuminate
his subjects' innermost characters .... Brief and to the point,
this thrillingly written study of two of the 20th century's
great social icons will impel readers to return to their timeless
works. Recommended for all libraries."
—Library Journal
Born in the same year (1903), of the same social class, and both public-school educated (Orwell at Eton,
no less), twentieth-century England's greatest political essayist and greatest satirical novelist otherwise
seem polar opposites. Orwell the socialist sometimes lived as a tramp, compromising his already fragile
health, to understand the lives of the poor; he despised nothing more than bullying. Waugh the social
climber hoarded aristocratic friends, marrying into the same lofty family, the Herberts, twice; he was a
notorious bully. Saying they are "the same man" seems ludicrous. But, tracing their lives in parallel,
Lebedoff convinces us, first, of their equal devotion to country and family and, then, that they came to see
the twentieth century very similarly, as a time imperiled by ideologues, decadence, cultural lies, and the
assault on tradition at all levels and in all institutions of society (the atheist Orwell rued the decline of
Christian faith just as genuinely as the Catholic convert Waugh). Whereas Orwell thought that life could
be improved, however, Waugh decided that real improvement lay only in the life to come. They met once,
when Orwell was dying. The reputations and influence of both writers only increase, making Lebedoffs
wonderfully sympathetic interpretation of them a book those interested in either or both must read and
will, most probably, love.
—Ray Olson, Booklist
"For those wearied by doorstop biographies, this lean
and urbane dual portrait is a breath of fresh air. As lawyer
and writer Lebedoff makes clear, on the surface no two British
writers could be more different. Evelyn Waugh was a loud convert
to Catholicism, an even louder social climber and very much
a man of Empire. George Orwell (Eric Blair) could best be described
as a long-suffering atheistic humanist, a utopian socialist
and dreamer. Waugh succeeded early; Orwell was an obscure polemicist
until his masterpieces Animal Farm and 1984, which were written
at the end of his life. But both men were born the same year
(1903) and came from the same class. They admired each other's
writing and moral courage, says Lebedoff, and finally met six
months before the bed-ridden Orwell's death in 1950. Both men,
the author says, rejected not only the immorality of dictators
in their own time but the moral relativism they foresaw in
the future.
Lebedoff nimbly compares and contrasts the lives and art of
these literary titans. "
—Publisher's Weekly,
June 16
“Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell exemplified the brilliance of British writing in the 20th century, but we usually think of them as very different men. David Lebedoff shows how they were, in fact, quite alike in their discomfort with the modern age. This is especially reassuring to those of us who admire both of these writers.”
––Walter Issacson, author of Einstein: His Life and Universe
"An insightful, witty, immensely readable account of two giants
of English literature whose work, in very different ways, prefigured
the moral and political dilemmas bedeviling our society today.”
—Lynne
Olson, author of Troublesome Young Men
"The writings of George Orwell (Animal Farm) and Evelyn Waugh (Brideshead Revisited) engaged and electrified international audiences in the first half of the 20th century. In that, these British literary lions—each with decidedly different lifestyles—are similar. Writer David Lebedoff (Cleaning Up uncovers deeper similarities in The Same Man: George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh in Love and War, a refreshing dual biography that compares and contrasts the lives and works of these authors, both of whom held the same (dim) views of totalitarianism, morality and the future of our modern world.
"At a glance, the lives of George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh seem no more alike than chalk is to cheese. Though both were born in 1903 England into the same social class, their paths diverged as they were educated, grew to manhood against a background of world war, and pursued their literary callings (meeting only once). During his boarding school days, the sensitive Orwell was cruelly bullied (torture he later chronicled in the essay "Such, Such Were the Joys"). Waugh had a brash lineage (his grandfather's nickname was "The Brute"), and was a schoolboy bully who would later habitually torment both friend and foe alike. Orwell, a socialist and atheist, chose a hard life of near poverty. Waugh, a conservative and an ardent Catholic convert, was an unabashed social climber who courted the moneyed, aristocratic echelons of British society. Waugh lived into his 60s, gaining early success as a writer; Orwell's writings remained fairly obscure until shortly before his death at age 46.
"The conceit of examining opposites to excavate similarities
has driven many classic tales, and it is employed with deft
honesty here, despite Lebedoff's effusive fondness for these
authors. The Same Man is a first-rate read, an
adroit portrait of two prescient thinkers who feared, with
the steady upward and so-called progress of the Modern Age,
our collective fall into 'a bottomless abyss.' Enlivened by
Lebedoff's trenchant observations of the authors' inner and
outer worlds...."
—Alison Hood in Bookpage
"By presenting Waugh's and Orwell's lives in parallel, [Lebedoff] casts them in a new and somethimes surprising light."
—Eric Ormsby, The New York Sun, July 30, 2008
"A nice contrast...the pair who now rank among England's greatest 20th-century masters were, as Lebedoff puts it boldly in his title, "the same man".
--Dennis Drobelle, Washington Post, Aug. 3, 2008
"In 'The Same Man', David Lebedoff has pulled off a literary
hat trick. It isn't possible to find two 20th century literary
peers who, at first glance, seem more different than the author
of '1984' and 'Brideshead Revisited' ...The
connections, though have been there all long, slipping past
previous literary scholars who couldn't see beyond appearance."
—Allen Barra, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Aug.
3, 2008.