English Summary/英文概要： George Orwell was one of the most significant literary figures on the left in the twentieth century. While titles such as 1984, Animal Farm and Homage to Catalonia are still rightly regarded as modern classics, his own politics are less well understood.’Hope Lies in the Proles offers a sympathetic yet critical account of Orwell’s political thinking and its continued significance today. John Newsinger explores various aspects of Orwell’s politics, detailing Orwell’s attempts to change working-class consciousness, considering whether his attitude towards the working class was romantic, realistic or patronising - or all three at different times. He also asks whether Orwell’s anti-fascism was eclipsed by his criticism of the Soviet Union, and explores his ambivalent relationship with the Labour Party. Newsinger also breaks important new ground regarding Orwell’s shifting views on the USA, and his relationship with the progressive Left and feminism. ’Focusing on the enduring interest in Orwell and his influence on current political causes, the book is ultimately a unique, nuanced attempt to demonstrate that Orwell remained a committed socialist up until his death.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 乔治•奥威尔是二十世纪左派最重要的文学人物之一。虽然《1984》《动物庄园》和《对加泰罗尼亚的敬意》仍然被认为是现代经典著作，但他自己的政治却没有得到很好的理解。“本书对奥威尔的政治思想以及它持续的意义进行了同情而深刻的批判。作者探索了奥威尔政治的各个方面，详述了奥威尔改变工人阶级意识的尝试，探讨了他对工人阶级的态度到底是浪漫的、现实的还是出于一种恩惠——或者在不同的阶段是不同的态度。他还质疑奥威尔的反法西斯是否被他对苏联的批评所掩盖，并探讨了他与工党的矛盾关系。作者也对奥威尔关于美国问题的观点以及他与进步左派和女权主义的关系进行了突破性的探讨。”着眼于对奥威尔的持久兴趣以及他对当前政治进程的影响，本书是一次独特而细致入微的尝试，以证明奥威尔一直到去世之际都是一个坚定的社会主义者。（LYR）

Awards/获奖情况： “乔治•奥威尔——贪婪的读者、小说家、广播员、西班牙内战中的共和党斗士、散文家、专栏作家、电影和书评家、诗人、战争记者和称职的父亲——1950年去世，至今仍是当今世界上最有影响力的思想家之一。本书中，John Newsinger在他对奥威尔政治演变的极具洞察力、清晰、引人入胜和独创性的探讨中，明确地揭示了其中的原因。”——Richard Lance Keeble

“本书证实了John Newsinger作为主要的奥威尔研究学者之一的地位。书中清晰、广泛和有力的论证表明，奥威尔对他所处时代的各种事件的反应源于其激进社会主义的独特视角。这是继John Newsinger的突破性作品《奥威尔的政治》之后的又一部成功力作。”——Philip Bounds，著有《奥威尔和马克思：关于乔治•奥威尔的政治和文化思考》

’George Orwell – voracious reader, novelist, broadcaster, Republican fighter in the Spanish civil war, essayist, columnist, film and book reviewer, poet, war correspondent and dedicated father – died in 1950 yet remains one of the most influential thinkers in the world today. Here, John Newsinger, in his insightful, lucid, engaging and original examination of the evolution of Orwell’s politics, shows precisely why’ Richard Lance Keeble

’This book confirms John Newsinger’s status as one of our leading Orwell scholars. Clear, wide-ranging and bracingly polemical, it casts new light on the way that Orwell’s response to the events of his time was shaped by his idiosyncratic brand of radical socialism. It’s a worthy successor to Newsinger’s pathbreaking book on Orwell’s Politics’ Philip Bounds, author of Orwell and Marxism: The Political and Cultural Thinking of George Orwell

John Newsinger is Professor of Modern History at Bath Spa University. He is the author of over a dozen books, including Hope Lies in the Proles (Pluto, 2018), the graphic novel 1917: Russia’s Red Year (Bookmarks, 2016), British Counterinsurgency (Palgrave, 2015), and The Blood Never Dried: A People’s History of the British Empire (Bookmarks, 2006).