Aldous Huxley v George Orwell: Which British writer is the most influential?
Two writers enter, one writer leaves! Well, not literally – especially in this case, given our aversion to exhumation and necromancy. We’re less interested in post-mortem fisticuffs and more concerned with some high falutin’ comparing and contrasting. So, stick around while we pit two of the twentieth century’s most renowned dystopian novelists, George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, against one another by checking out their books’ popularity, the cultural and social consequences of their works at the time, and how their books have since gone on to change the world… Brace yourself!
Who were they?
Orwell – born Eric Arthur Blair – is often most immediately remembered for his novels Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) and Animal Farm (1945), one a dystopian vision of a panoptic militarized totalitarian future Britain, and one a satirical retelling of the Russian Revolution and the rise of Stalinism. He was also a prolific and impassioned nonfiction writer, too, though, and books like The Road To Wigan Pier (1937), detailing the economic depression in the North of England, working conditions in the region’s coal mines, and his own arguments in favour of socialism, and Homage To Catalonia (1938), about his own experiences in the Spanish Civil War, are pretty significant, too.
Huxley, in turn, is best known for his own vision of dystopian London, Brave New World (1932), depicting a future dominated by eugenics and a brutal and immutable social hierarchy, and The Doors of Perception (1954), an account of his experiences on mescaline, a hallucinogenic drug derived from the peyote cactus. Both writers produced more books, than these, of course, and both were industrious, though Huxley left Orwell in his wake – while George published six novels, three book-length works of non-fiction, and hundreds of essays as well as some poetry, Huxley published eleven novels, seven books of short stories, eight poetry collections, twenty three essay collections, seven screenplays, as well as travel books, children’s books, numerous essays and more. It’s not necessarily about quality, though….
Just how popular were they?
While Animal Farm was a roaring popular success, the critics at the time weren’t universally convinced, saying that it was ‘creaky’ and ‘clumsy’, and implying, in one case, that it was outdated. The Sunday Times called Nineteen Eighty-Four gloomy, but the rest of the critics were bowled over, and the public liked it too. Orwell’s non-fiction likewise received a mix of vitriol and praise from the press: VS Pritchett said of Homage To Catalonia that ‘no one excels him in bringing to the eyes, ears and nostrils the nasty ingredients of fevered situations’, while Walter Greenwood said of The Road to Wigan Pier, ‘I cannot remember having been so infuriated for a long time than by some of the things he says here’. Meanwhile Animal Farm flew off the bookshelves during the politically suspicious McCarthy-era in the USA.
As for Huxley, his vast output makes for a more complex picture, but the response was generally very positive, and in the USA, where he lived later in life, he was considered one of the foremost public intellectuals of his time. Brave New World was a big hit, and also gets kudos for being frequently banned for offenses as diverse as bad language, secularism and pornography. In 1959 the book earned him the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award of Merit.
Time will tell?
Huxley’s definitely still got a rep in the twenty-first century, though he’s remembered more for two or three of his books for adults and his reputation as an experimenter with psychedelic drugs rather than for the rest of his enormous output, while Orwell’s smaller back-catalogue makes for a more familiar list. ‘Brave New World’ has become a recognizable phrase, if not always associated with the specifics of the society Huxley imagined, but pretty much every trope of Nineteen Eighty-Four has becomes iconic: the thought police, doublethink, Room 101. Big Brother… Animal Farm has become a secondary-school staple, meaning that you’d be hard pressed in the UK to find somebody who hasn’t read him, while Huxley’s more popular with counter-cultural undergrads. Both writers are to be seen on most lists of influential books – the Modern Library rank Huxley’s Point Counterpoint (1928) and Brave New World as well as Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, and the BBC’s more populist Big Read includes works by both writers, too.
What do we think?
Our conclusion? Huxley’s more well-known works are fascinating for their experiential honesty and their political thought-experiments, but taken out of the early twentieth-century context, his interest in pharmaceuticals does seem a little dated. Orwell’s super-political texts are very rooted in their own times, but the socio-political detail makes them just as gritty and (importantly) depressing as they were then, but, aside from Animal Farm (which is very short), they can seem rather didactic. Despite Huxley’s larger bibliography, we think Orwell’s overall cultural impact has been greater, and so we’re going to award him today’s trophy – but what about you? Who do you think wins the clash of these literary titans?
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Orwell provided some of the language we needed to describe modern politics: “thought police, doublethink, Room 101. Big Brother”. All these concepts are manifest in modern governments. Because of Orwell we can more easily easily recognise and describe these phenomenon. Without that conversation surely society would be less well equipped to deal with some of the less savoury elements of our politics. I’m confident that a society with these tools is a better society than one lacking them, and for that we owe Orwell our gratitude. Huxley’s also made a contribution, but I don’t think the effects were as far reaching.
Huxley’s has turned out to be the more relevant vision. The dystopia he describes in Brave New World is much closer to where we are today, in the West, then 1984.
Are you on Soma?
While I agree with you that Orwell’s works are more well known I think Huxley’s vision of a dystopian future is a reality much closer to our own than boot-in-your-face vision that Orwell presents.
Huxley wins by a long shot in any real analysis. Having read all of Huxleys novels and several of his essay collections and most of Orwells work I think Huxley had considerably more breadth and insight. Look at the perennial philosophy or Huxley’s last novel Island.
The comparison between Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brace New World is for high school juniors. What most of them will tell you is Huxley’s vision is more spot on to what’s going on around us. That said times maybe changing to a more Orwellian world. I hope that isn’t true.
I favor huxley’s “Brave New World” since it can be related to modern day genetic modification etc.
I’d have to agree. Huxley’s novels are less well known than his dystopian and sociological works. The level of intellect seems broader and more nuanced than Orwell’s. I like both, though.
FTA:
Brave New World’ has become a recognizable phrase, if not always associated with the specifics of the society Huxley imagined.
Do you even Shakespeare? From The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1: Miranda: “O, wonder! / How many goodly creatures are here! / How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world / that has such people in ‘t!”
Did you seriously write that much about Brave New World without knowing the origin of the title?
That part is in the book as well.
Don’t be that guy. This is just a fun discussion, not your opportunity to one-up somebody.
What no love for the novel and author that inspired them both to write there Dystopian novels in the first place: “We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin he’s obviously not as well read or remembered as either Huxley or Orwell but with out his novel “We” we might not have had either “Brave New World” or “1984” and both their writing careers wouldn’t really be worth comparing without Zamyatin’s influence. Just like to give credit where credit is due especially to promote a great book like “We” if you haven’t read it and like both “1984” and “Brave New World” then find a copy on amazon and read the novel that inspired both Huxley and Orwell to envision a future where everything isn’t peaches and cream.
“The only means of ridding man of crime is ridding him of freedom.”
? Yevgeny Zamyatin, We
I have a copy of “We” and agree wholeheartedly. It was a trailblazer for dystopian works.
I’d go for Orwell, on balance. His “Homage to Catalonia” is probably not much read anymore (it’s about his experiences with the tangled left and right wing politics of the Spanish Civil War), but it’s a great illustration of why Communism in general, and Stalinism in particular, is a disaster. It was extremely influential on my own political thinking.
Huxley was one of Orwell’s teachers. They kept in contact and sent each other a copy of their books. They would probably look at our world and see parts of both their dystopias poking through.. so.
well to me both authors summed it up and look around you 1984 was actually what was happening and look at now huxley is also right. Two different authors but both right about what is happening. Just look around you and you’ll see both were right then and they are still right now.