George Orwell 1903–1950

Abstract

George Orwell was the pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair who was born in Bengal but grew up in England and was educated at Eton. His experiences as a colonial police-officer in Burma (1922–7) are recounted in his book of essays Shooting an Elephant (1950) and in his first novel Burmese Days (1934). Burma left him with a lifelong distaste for power. He turned to menial jobs. Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) and The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) are accounts of his life among the poor. He fought for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War and published Homage to Catalonia in 1939. He was an outstanding essayist and journalist, writing in the 1940s, in Tribune and elsewhere, from a liberal socialist point of view. His political satires, Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), made him famous. Their influence, even in Eastern Europe where they are banned but widely read, has been considerable.