The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius
"The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius" is an essay by
Secker & Warburg.[1] Orwell's wife Eileen Blair described the theme of the essay as "how to be a socialist while Tory."[2]
It expressed his opinion that the outdated British class system was hampering the war effort and that to defeat
socialist revolution. Therefore, Orwell argued, being a socialist and a patriot were no longer antithetical, but complementary. As a result, "The Lion and the Unicorn" became an emblem of the revolution which would create a new kind of socialism, a democratic "English Socialism" in contrast to the oppressing Soviet totalitarian communism
and also a new form of Britishness, a socialist one liberated from empire and the decadent old ruling classes. Orwell specified that the revolutionary regime might keep on the royal family as a national symbol but would sweep away the rest of the British aristocracy.
The first part of the essay, "
Soviet communism are evident in all of his future novels such as Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm but are expressed here without allegory
.
The second part is entitled "Shopkeepers at War", and the third is "The English Revolution".
In 1993, British Prime Minister John Major famously alluded to the essay in a speech on Europe by stating, "Fifty years from now Britain will still be the country of long shadows on county grounds, warm beer, invincible green suburbs, dog lovers and pools fillers and – as George Orwell said – 'old maids bicycling to Holy Communion through the morning mist'."[3]
See also
- Bibliography of George Orwell
References
- ^ a b Orwell, Sonia and Angus, Ian (eds.). The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell Volume 2: My Country Right or Left (1940-1943) (Penguin)
- ISBN 978-1-4721-3296-3.
- ^ "Mr Major's Speech to Conservative Group for Europe". John Major official site. 22 April 1993. Retrieved 21 April 2020.