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Specialists in Dying Civilizations
This page contains a directory for books by and about Aldous Huxley and George Orwell. Two people for whom Galambos had high respect for their prescience. The books by and about them and the ideas in them can lead a person to a discovery of what is true in life and in history. Essential in providing a true understanding of "positive history." An original and important concept of Galambos. Essential in understanding the cause of and the cure for our societal problems.
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1-3 : Volumes 1, 2, 3 (Everyman's Library (Cloth)) [BOX SET] (Hardcover) by Edward Gibbon "In the second century of the Christian era, the Empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilised portion of..."
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British parliamentarian and soldier Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) conceived
of his plan for Decline and Fall while "musing amid the ruins of the
Capitol" on a visit to Rome. For the next 10 years he worked away at his
great history, which traces the decadence of the late empire from the
time of the Antonines and the rise of Western Christianity. "The
confusion of the times, and the scarcity of authentic memorials, pose
equal difficulties to the historian, who attempts to preserve a clear
and unbroken thread of narration," he writes. Despite these obstacles,
Decline and Fall remains a model of historical exposition, and required
reading for students of European history.--This text refers to the
Paperback edition.
From AudioFile
With sweeping grandeur, Gibbon's masterpiece is enhanced by Naxos'
production, which includes dramatic, classical music and two British
narrators whose voices ooze with intellectual authority. The
music--often somber--soars into majestic crescendos as the fate of the
great Empire is sealed. Between straight readings of the text, one of
the narrators announces a summary of the next chapter or two, an
abridging technique particularly effective here. Little, if any, of the
effect of Gibbon's accessible and profound prose is lost, even when
detail must perforce vanish. A gripping history, this is superbly
presented by Naxos. D.W. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner.
(c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette
edition.
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The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Modern Library MM)
by Edward Gibbon, Daniel J. Boorstin, Hans-Friedrich Mueller (Translator)
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Ò[Gibbon] stood on the summit of the Renaissance achievement and looked
back over the waste of history to ancient Rome, as from one mountain top
to another.ÓÑChristopher Dawson
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1984
by George Orwell
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"Outside, even through the shut window pane, the world looked cold. Down
in the street little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper
into spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue,
there seemed to be no color in anything except the posters that were
plastered everywhere."
The year is 1984; the scene is London, largest population center of Airstrip One.
Airstrip One is part of the vast political entity Oceania, which is eternally at war with one of two other vast entities, Eurasia and Eastasia. At any moment, depending upon current alignments, all existing records show either that Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia and allied with Eastasia, or that it has always been at war with Eastasia and allied with Eurasia. Winston Smith knows this, because his work at the Ministry of Truth involves the constant "correction" of such records. "'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'"
In a grim city and a terrifying country, where Big Brother is always Watching You and the Thought Police can practically read your mind, Winston is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. He knows the Party's official image of the world is a fluid fiction. He knows the Party controls the people by feeding them lies and narrowing their imaginations through a process of bewilderment and brutalization that alienates each individual from his fellows and deprives him of every liberating human pursuit from reasoned inquiry to sexual passion. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be.
Newspeak, doublethink, thoughtcrime--in 1984, George Orwell created a
whole vocabulary of words concerning totalitarian control that have
since passed into our common vocabulary. More importantly, he has
portrayed a chillingly credible dystopia. In our deeply anxious world,
the seeds of unthinking conformity are everywhere in evidence; and Big
Brother is always looking for his chance.
--Daniel Hintzsche--This text
refers to the
Hardcover edition.
From AudioFile
Orwell's classic continues to deliver its horrible vision of
totalitarian society. Once considered futuristic, it now conjures fear
because of how closely it fits the reality of contemporary times. West's
precise pronunciation and strong, intense voice provide the narration
and all individual parts. The three major characters are individualized
through vocal emphasis, tone and interpretation of each character's
personality. West simultaneously weaves the spell of Big Brother while
subtly emphasizing the complex emotional and intellectual annihilation
of each of the characters. Starting with a detached approach, West
intensifies emotions and ends with a finish that leaves the plot firmly
embedded in the listener's mind. P.A.J. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award
winner. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
This text refers to the
Audio Cassette edition.
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Homage to Catalonia (Harvest Book)
by George Orwell
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"I wonder what is the appropriate first action when you come from a
country at war and set foot on peaceful soil. Mine was to rush to the
tobacco-kiosk and buy as many cigars and cigarettes as I could stuff
into my pockets." Most war correspondents observe wars and then tell
stories about the battles, the soldiers and the civilians. George
Orwell--novelist, journalist, sometime socialist--actually traded his
press pass for a uniform and fought against Franco's Fascists in the
Spanish Civil War during 1936 and 1937. He put his politics and his
formidable conscience to the toughest tests during those days in the
trenches in the Catalan section of Spain. Then, after nearly getting
killed, he went back to England and wrote a gripping account of his
experiences, as well as a complex analysis of the political machinations
that led to the defeat of the socialist Republicans and the victory of
the Fascists.
From AudioFile
Homage to Catalonia is a triumph. The book lends itself to audio, not
just because of Orwell's clear, reflective reporting on the Spanish
Civil War, but also because of his superb descriptive powers. The
observational passages leave the listener with lasting impressions of
Spain and the Spanish character, and indeed the character of the war
itself. Frederick Davidson makes a fine reader. He sounds convincingly
as Orwell might have sounded, even to the occasional use of
French-accented Spanish pronunciation. The audio presentation adds a new
dimension to a text which is required reading for any student of the
Spanish Civil War. A.D.H. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner
(c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
--This text refers to the
Audio Cassette edition.
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Animal Farm
by George Orwell
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Since its publication in 1946, George Orwell's fable of a workers'
revolution gone wrong has rivaled Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea as
the Shortest Serious Novel It's OK to Write a Book Report About. (The
latter is three pages longer and less fun to read.) Fueled by Orwell's
intense disillusionment with Soviet Communism, Animal Farm is a nearly
perfect piece of writing, both an engaging story and an allegory that
actually works. When the downtrodden beasts of Manor Farm oust their
drunken human master and take over management of the land, all are awash
in collectivist zeal. Everyone willingly works overtime, productivity
soars, and for one brief, glorious season, every belly is full. The
animals' Seven Commandment credo is painted in big white letters on the
barn. All animals are equal. No animal shall drink alcohol, wear
clothes, sleep in a bed, or kill a fellow four-footed creature. Those
that go upon four legs or wings are friends and the two-legged are, by
definition, the enemy. Too soon, however, the pigs, who have styled
themselves leaders by virtue of their intelligence, succumb to the
temptations of privilege and power. "We pigs are brainworkers. The whole
management and organisation of the farm depend on us. Day and night, we
are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink that
milk and eat those apples." While this swinish brotherhood sells out the
revolution, cynically editing the Seven Commandments to excuse their
violence and greed, the common animals are once again left hungry and
exhausted, no better off than in the days when humans ran the farm.
Satire Animal Farm may be, but it's a stony reader who remains unmoved
when the stalwart workhorse, Boxer, having given his all to his
comrades, is sold to the glue factory to buy booze for the pigs.
Orwell's view of Communism is bleak indeed, but given the history of the
Russian people since 1917, his pessimism has an air of prophecy.
--Joyce Thompson--
This text refers to the
Paperback edition.
From Library Journal
This 50th-anniversary commemorative edition of Orwell's masterpiece is
lavishly illustrated by Ralph Steadman. In addition, it contains
Orwell's proposed introduction to the English-language version as well
as his preface to the Ukrainian text. Though all editions of Animal Farm
are equal, this one is more equal than others.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.--
This text refers to the
Hardcover edition.
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Down and Out in Paris and London
by George Orwell
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What was a nice Eton boy like Eric Blair doing in scummy slums instead
of being upwardly mobile at Oxford or Cambridge? Living Down and Out in
Paris and London, repudiating respectable imperialist society, and
reinventing himself as George Orwell. His 1933 debut book (ostensibly a
novel, but overwhelmingly autobiographical) was rejected by that elitist
publisher T.S. Eliot, perhaps because its close-up portrait of lowlife
was too pungent for comfort.
In Paris, Orwell lived in verminous rooms and washed dishes at the overpriced "Hotel X," in a remarkably filthy, 110-degree kitchen. He met "eccentric people--people who have fallen into solitary, half-mad grooves of life and given up trying to be normal or decent." Though Orwell's tone is that of an outraged reformer, it's surprising how entertaining many of his adventures are: gnawing poverty only enlivens the imagination, and the wild characters he met often swindled each other and themselves. The wackiest tale involves a miser who ate cats, wore newspapers for underwear, invested 6,000 francs in cocaine, and hid it in a face-powder tin when the cops raided. They had to free him, because the apparently controlled substance turned out to be face powder instead of cocaine.
In London, Orwell studied begging with a crippled expert named Bozo, a
great storyteller and philosopher. Orwell devotes a chapter to the fine
points of London guttersnipe slang. Years later, he would put his
lexical bent to work by inventing Newspeak, and draw on his down-and-out
experience to evoke the plight of the Proles in 1984. Though marred by
hints of unexamined anti-Semitism, Orwell's debut remains, as The Nation
put it, "the most lucid portrait of poverty in the English language."
--Tim Appelo
The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
Autobiographical work by George Orwell, published in 1933. Orwell's
first published book, it contains essays in which actual events are
recounted in a fictionalized form. The book recounts that to atone for
the guilt he feels about the conditions under which the disenfranchised
and downtrodden peoples of the world exist, Orwell decides to live and
work as one of them. Dressed as a beggar, he takes whatever employment
might be available to a poverty-stricken outcast of Europe. In Paris he
lives in a slum and works as a dishwasher. The essay "How the Poor Die"
describes conditions at a charity hospital there. In London's East End,
he dresses and lives like his neighbors, who are paupers and the poorest
of working-class laborers. Dressed as a tramp, he travels throughout
England with hoboes and migrant laborers.
This text refers to an out
of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Burmese Days
by George Orwell
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Imagine crossing E.M. Forster with Jane Austen. Stir in a bit of
socialist doctrine, a sprig of satire, strong Indian curry, and a couple
quarts of good English gin and you get something close to the flavor of
George Orwell's intensely readable and deftly plotted Burmese Days. In
1930, Kyauktada, Upper Burma, is one of the least auspicious postings in
the ailing British Empire--and then the order comes that the European
Club, previously for whites only, must elect one token native member.
This edict brings out the worst in this woefully enclosed society, not
to mention among the natives who would become the One. Orwell mines his
own Anglo-Indian background to evoke both the suffocating heat and the
stifling pettiness that are the central facts of colonial life: "Mr.
MacGregor told his anecdote about Prome, which could be produced in
almost any context. And then the conversation veered back to the old,
never-palling subject--the insolence of the natives, the supineness of
the Government, the dear dead days when the British Raj was the Raj and
please give the bearer fifteen lashes. The topic was never let alone for
long, partly because of Ellis's obsession. Besides, you could forgive
the Europeans a great deal of their bitterness. Living and working among
Orientals would try the temper of a saint."
Protagonist James Flory is a timber merchant, whose facial birthmark serves as an outward expression of the ironic and left-leaning habits of mind that make him inwardly different from his coevals. Flory appreciates the local culture, has native allegiances, and detests the racist machinations of his fellow Club members. Alas, he doesn't always possess the moral courage, or the energy, to stand against them. His almost embarrassingly Anglophile friend, Dr. Veraswami, the highest-ranking native official, seems a shoo-in for Club membership, until Machiavellian magistrate U Po Kyin launches a campaign to discredit him that results, ultimately, in the loss not just of reputations but of lives. Whether to endorse Veraswami or to betray him becomes a kind of litmus test of Flory's character.
Against this backdrop of politics and ethics, Orwell throws the shadow
of romance. The arrival of the bobbed blonde, marriageable, and
resolutely anti-intellectual Elizabeth Lackersteen not only casts Flory
as hapless suitor but gives Orwell the chance to show that he's as
astute a reporter of nuanced social interactions as he is of political
intrigues. In fact, his combination of an astringently populist
sensibility, dead-on observations of human behavior, formidable
conjuring skills, and no-frills prose make for historical fiction that
stands triumphantly outside of time.
Joyce Thompson
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U Po Kyin, Sub-divisional Magistrate of Kyauktada, in Upper Burma, was
sitting in his veranda. It was only half past eight, but the month was
April, and there was a closeness in the air, a threat of the long,
stifling midday hours. Occasional faint breaths of wind, seeming cool by
contrast, stirred the newly drenched orchids that hung from the eaves.
Beyond the orchids one could see the dusty, curved trunk of a palm tree,
and then the blazing ultramarine sky. Up in the zenith, so high that it
dazzled one to look at them, a few vultures circled without the quiver
of a wing. Unblinking, rather like a great porcelain idol, U Po Kyin
gazed out into the fierce sunlight. He was a man of fifty, so fat that
for years he had not risen from his chair without help, and yet shapely
and even beautiful in his grossness; for the Burmese do not sag and
bulge like white men, but grow fat symmetrically, like fruits swelling.
His face was vast, yellow and quite unwrin-kled, and his eyes were
tawny. His feet-squat, high-arched feet with the toes all the same
length-were bare, and so was his cropped head, and he wore one of those
vivid Arakanese longyis with green and magenta checks which the Burmese
wear on informal occasions. He was chewing betel from a lacquered box on
the table, and thinking about his past life.
This text refers to the
Digital edition
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Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley
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"Community, Identity, Stability" is the motto of Aldous Huxley's utopian
World State. Here everyone consumes daily grams of soma, to fight
depression, babies are born in laboratories, and the most popular form
of entertainment is a "Feelie," a movie that stimulates the senses of
sight, hearing, and touch. Though there is no violence and everyone is
provided for, Bernard Marx feels something is missing and senses his
relationship with a young women has the potential to be much more than
the confines of their existence allow. Huxley foreshadowed many of the
practices and gadgets we take for granted today--let's hope the
sterility and absence of individuality he predicted aren't yet to
come.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of
this title.
From Library Journal
Grade 8 Up-Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a classic science fiction
work that continues to be a significant warning to our society today.
Tony Britton, the reader, does an excellent job of portraying clinical
detachment as the true nature of the human incubators is revealed. The
tone lightens during the vacation to the wilderness and the contrast is
even more striking. Each character is given a separate personality by
Britton's voices. As the story moves from clinical detachment to the
human interest of Bernard, the nonconformist, and John, the "Savage,"
listeners are drawn more deeply into the plot. Finally, the reasoned
tones of the Controller explain away all of John's arguments against the
civilization, leading to John's death as he cannot reconcile his beliefs
to theirs.The abridgement is very well done, and the overall message of
the novel is clearly presented. The advanced vocabulary and complex
themes lend themselves to class discussion and further research. There
is sure to be demand for this classic in schools and public libraries.
Pat Griffith, Schlow Memorial Library, State College, PA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited (Perennial Classics)
by Aldous Huxley
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Book Description
The astonishing novel Brave New World, originally published in 1932,
presents Aldous Huxley's vision of the future -- of a world utterly
transformed. Through the most efficient scientific and psychological
engineering, people are genetically designed to be passive and therefore
consistently useful to the ruling class. This powerful work of
speculative fiction sheds a blazing critical light on the present and is
considered to be Huxley's most enduring masterpiece.
Following Brave New World is the nonfiction work Brave New World Revisited, first published in 1958. It is a fascinating work in which Huxley uses his tremendous knowledge of human relations to compare the modern-day world with the prophetic fantasy envisioned in Brave New World, including threats to humanity, such as overpopulation, propaganda, and chemical persuasion.
About the Author
The longer fiction of Aldous Huxley has been in the mainstream of the
"Novel of Ideas" since the publication in England in 1921 (America 1922)
of Crome Yellow, his first novel. Huxley is one of the most skillful and
most successful social satirists of the twentieth century. His novels go
far in defining the character of modern man, while his later work
reflects an interest in mysticism and the effect of the
consciousness-expanding drugs.
Born in England in 1894, Mr. Huxley took to writing when his eyesight temporarily failed. From 1934 until his death in 1963, Aldous Huxley lived in California.
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