Page 12 - Animal Farm and 1984

bargain that invariably ends up with the surrender of both.
I have dwelt somewhat on the circumstances in which these works were
written and published, because they illustrate another point. It took courage, physical and moral, to write these books and to fight for their right to be read. Orwell’s life was a struggle in which the distance between what he said and what he meant was as near to nil as made no difference. He was a participant as well as a witness. He suffered a good deal in making the discovery, but he has assisted us in realising that, while the drive to power and corruption and cruelty is certainly latent in human beings, the instinct for liberty is innate as well. This battle takes place within ourselves as well as in the world we inhabit, and these books are weapons of self-respect as well as of self- defense.
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
Washington, D.C. January 20, 2003
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