George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist and essayist, journalist and critic, whose work is characterised by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism.
Bengal
Bengal is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Geographically, it is made up by the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta system, the largest such formation in the world; along with mountain…
How many siblings did George Orwell have?
The English novelist and essayist, George Orwell, is best known for his satirical (using wit or sarcasm to point out and devalue sin or silliness) novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-four. George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair in Motihari, Bengal, India, to Richard and Ida Mabel Blair. He had an older sister and a younger sister.
Did George Orwell have children?
No wonder he acquired the posthumous title of St. George. Most Orwell readers know that he and Eileen adopted a son, Richard. And that’s about all they know of Richard Blair (George Orwell was the pseudonym of Eric Blair), who has kept his silence throughout his life—until now.
Did George Orwell get married?
Orwell married Eileen O’Shaughnessy in June 1936, and Eileen supported and assisted Orwell in his career. The couple remained together until her death in 1945. . Near the end of his life, Orwell proposed to editor Sonia Brownell. He married her in October 1949, only a short time before his death.
Was George Orwell married?
In October 1949 George Orwell married his second wife Sonia. George Orwell died on 21 January 1950. He was only 46.
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Did George Orwell have a family?
Richard BlairSonia OrwellEileen BlairRichard BlairRichard Walmsley BlairIda Mabel LimouzinGeorge Orwell/Family
Who were George orwells parents?
Richard Walmsley BlairIda Mabel LimouzinGeorge Orwell/Parents
Did George Orwell have siblings?
Avril BlairMarjorie BlairGeorge Orwell/Siblings
Who is George Orwell short biography?
George Orwell was a novelist, essayist and critic best known for his novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. He was a man of strong opinions who addressed some of the major political movements of his times, including imperialism, fascism and communism.
What is Animal Farm based on?
In 1944 Orwell finished Animal Farm, a political fable based on the story of the Russian Revolution and its betrayal by Joseph Stalin. In the book a group of barnyard animals overthrow and chase off their exploitative human masters and set up an egalitarian society of their own.
How many family members did George Orwell have?
He had an older sister and a younger sister. His father was a minor customs official in the Indian Civil Service. When Orwell was four years old, his family returned to England, where they settled at Henley, a village near London, England.
Why did George Orwell write Animal Farm?
Orwell's artistic purpose for animal farm was to create a story that played out the events that once occurred in the russian revolution. He intended the message to get across that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely for anyone. His political purpose was to show how wrong totalitarianism could go.
What is George Orwell's famous quote?
“In the face of pain there are no heroes.” “If you loved someone, you loved him, and when you had nothing else to give, you still gave him love.” “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” “Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one.”
Is George Orwell rich?
The Orwell family was not wealthy, and, in reading Orwell's personal essays about his childhood, readers can easily see that his formative years were less than satisfying. However, the young Orwell had a gift for writing, which he recognized at the age of just five or six.
What is summary of Animal Farm?
It tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. Ultimately, the rebellion is betrayed, and the farm ends up in a state as bad as it was before, under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon.
How many books did George Orwell write?
Nineteen Eighty‑Four1949Animal Farm1945Homage to Catalonia1938Politics and the English Language1946Down and Out in Paris and London1933The Road to Wigan Pier1936George Orwell/Books
What did George Orwell believe?
As a self-described democratic socialist, Orwell believed in active government, yet his alertness to the excesses of official power informed Animal Farm and 1984, his two masterpieces about totalitarianism.
Who was George Orwell's mother?
Ida Mabel LimouzinGeorge Orwell / MotherAlthough she also was born in England, Ida Limouzin, Orwell's mother, was of French descent. The Limouzin family had settled in the Far East where they were engaged in the timber business in Burma. While on a trip to India, Ida Limouzin met and married Richard Blair who was eighteen years her senior.
Was George Orwell an only child?
Richard BlairGeorge Orwell / ChildrenRichard Horatio Blair is a British trustee and patron who is the only son of English author George Orwell. Wikipedia
Where was George Orwell born and raised?
Motihari, IndiaGeorge Orwell / Place of birthMotihari is the headquarters of East Champaran district in the Indian state of Bihar. It is located District entry point 40 kilometres Northeast City Mehsi. 152.2 kilometres north of the state capital Patna. Wikipedia
What was George Orwell's real name and where was he born and raised?
Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair on 25 June 1903 in eastern India, the son of a British colonial civil servant. He was educated in England and, after he left Eton, joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, then a British colony. He resigned in 1927 and decided to become a writer.
What did George Orwell write?
George Orwell wrote the political fable Animal Farm (1944), the anti-utopian novel Nineteen Eighty-four (1949), the unorthodox political treatise T...
Where was George Orwell educated?
George Orwell won scholarships to two of England’s leading schools, Wellington and Eton colleges. He briefly attended the former before transferrin...
What was George Orwell’s family like?
George Orwell was brought up in an atmosphere of impoverished snobbery, first in India and then in England. His father was a minor British official...
Why was George Orwell famous?
George Orwell wrote two hugely influential novels: Animal Farm (1944), a satire that allegorically depicted Joseph Stalin’s betrayal of the Russian...
Where was George Orwell raised?
George Orwell was brought up in an atmosphere of impoverished snobbery, first in India and then in England. His father was a minor British official in the Indian civil service and his mother was the daughter of an unsuccessful teak merchant. Their attitudes were those of the “landless gentry.”.
Where was Orwell born?
He was born in Bengal, into the class of sahibs. His father was a minor British official in the Indian civil service; his mother, of French extraction, was the daughter of an unsuccessful teak merchant in Burma ( Myanmar ). Their attitudes were those of the “landless gentry,” as Orwell later called lower-middle-class people whose pretensions to social status had little relation to their income. Orwell was thus brought up in an atmosphere of impoverished snobbery. After returning with his parents to England, he was sent in 1911 to a preparatory boarding school on the Sussex coast, where he was distinguished among the other boys by his poverty and his intellectual brilliance. He grew up a morose, withdrawn, eccentric boy, and he was later to tell of the miseries of those years in his posthumously published autobiographical essay, Such, Such Were the Joys (1953).
What did Orwell do in Burma?
Instead of matriculating at a university, Orwell decided to follow family tradition and, in 1922, went to Burma as assistant district superintendent in the Indian Imperial Police . He served in a number of country stations and at first appeared to be a model imperial servant. Yet from boyhood he had wanted to become a writer, and when he realized how much against their will the Burmese were ruled by the British, he felt increasingly ashamed of his role as a colonial police officer. Later he was to recount his experiences and his reactions to imperial rule in his novel Burmese Days and in two brilliant autobiographical sketches, “ Shooting an Elephant” and “ A Hanging,” classics of expository prose.
What book did George Orwell write?
George Orwell wrote the political fable Animal Farm (1944), the anti-utopian novel Nineteen Eighty-four (1949), the unorthodox political treatise The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), and the autobiographical Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), which contains essays that recount actual events in a fictionalized form.
What was Orwell's real name?
In time his nom de plume became so closely attached to him that few people but relatives knew his real name was Blair. The change in name corresponded to a profound shift in Orwell’s lifestyle, in which he changed from a pillar of the British imperial establishment into a literary and political rebel.
When did George Orwell resign from the imperial police?
Against imperialism. In 1927 Orwell, on leave to England, decided not to return to Burma, and on January 1, 1928, he took the decisive step of resigning from the imperial police. Already in the autumn of 1927 he had started on a course of action that was to shape his character as a writer.
When was George Orwell's first book published?
The book’s publication in 1933 earned him some initial literary recognition. Orwell’s first novel, Burmese Days (1934), established the pattern of his subsequent fiction in its portrayal of a sensitive, conscientious, and emotionally isolated individual who is at odds with an oppressive or dishonest social environment.
Who is George Orwell?
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, biting social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism.
Where did Orwell live in 1936?
No 2 Kits Lane, Wallington, Hertfordshire, Orwell's residence c. 1936–1940. Orwell needed somewhere he could concentrate on writing his book, and once again help was provided by Aunt Nellie, who was living at Wallington, Hertfordshire in a very small 16th-century cottage called the "Stores".
What is George Orwell known for?
During most of his career, Orwell was best known for his journalism, in essays, reviews, columns in newspapers and magazines and in his books of reportage: Down and Out in Paris and London (describing a period of poverty in these cities), The Road to Wigan Pier (describing the living conditions of the poor in northern England, and class division generally) and Homage to Catalonia. According to Irving Howe, Orwell was "the best English essayist since Hazlitt, perhaps since Dr Johnson ."
What company did George Orwell own?
Such a company, "George Orwell Productions Ltd " (GOP Ltd) was set up on 12 September 1947, although the service agreement was not then put into effect.
What was Orwell's most famous work?
He was a leading figure in the so-called Shanghai Club (named after a restaurant in Soho) of left-leaning and émigré journalists, among them E. H. Carr, Sebastian Haffner, Isaac Deutscher, Barbara Ward and Jon Kimche.
Why did Orwell leave the ILP?
He left the ILP because of its opposition to the war and adopted a political position of "revolutionary patriotism". In December 1940 he wrote in Tribune (the Labour left's weekly): "We are in a strange period of history in which a revolutionary has to be a patriot and a patriot has to be a revolutionary." During the war, Orwell was highly critical of the popular idea that an Anglo-Soviet alliance would be the basis of a post-war world of peace and prosperity. In 1942, commenting on London Times editor E. H. Carr 's pro-Soviet views, Orwell stated that "all the appeasers, e.g. Professor E.H. Carr, have switched their allegiance from Hitler to Stalin".
How long was George Orwell under surveillance?
Orwell's research for The Road to Wigan Pier led to him being placed under surveillance by the Special Branch from 1936, for 12 years, until one year before the publication of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell married Eileen O'Shaughnessy on 9 June 1936.
Where was Orwell born?
Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair in Motihari, India, on June 25, 1903. The son of a British civil servant, Orwell spent his first days in India, where his father was stationed. His mother brought him and his older sister, Marjorie, to England about a year after his birth and settled in Henley-on-Thames. His father stayed behind in India and rarely visited. (His younger sister, Avril, was born in 1908. Orwell didn't really know his father until he retired from the service in 1912. And even after that, the pair never formed a strong bond. He found his father to be dull and conservative.
Who Was George Orwell?
George Orwell was a novelist, essayist and critic best known for his novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. He was a man of strong opinions who addressed some of the major political movements of his times, including imperialism, fascism and communism.
What happened to Orwell in 1936?
Orwell was badly injured during his time with a militia, getting shot in the throat and arm. For several weeks, he was unable to speak. Orwell and his wife, Eileen, were indicted on treason charges in Spain. Fortunately, the charges were brought after the couple had left the country.
What did Orwell notice about the school?
On a partial scholarship, Orwell noticed that the school treated the richer students better than the poorer ones. He wasn't popular with his peers, and in books, he found comfort from his difficult situation. He read works by Rudyard Kipling and H.G. Wells, among others.
What is Orwell's most important work?
Published in April 1946 in the British literary magazine Horizon, this essay is considered one of Orwell’s most important works on style. Orwell believed that "ugly and inaccurate" English enabled oppressive ideology and that vague or meaningless language was meant to hide the truth. He argued that language should not naturally evolve over time but should be “an instrument which we shape for our own purposes.” To write well is to be able to think clearly and engage in political discourse, he wrote, as he rallied against cliches, dying metaphors and pretentious or meaningless language.
What was George Orwell's first major work?
The book provided a brutal look at the lives of the working poor and of those living a transient existence. Not wishing to embarrass his family, the author published the book under the pseudonym George Orwell.
What was Orwell's first word as a child?
According to one biography, Orwell's first word as a child was "beastly."
Who was George Orwell married to?
Personal Life & Legacy. Orwell married Eileen O'Shaughnessy in 1936. They had an open marriage and Orwell had a number of affairs with other women during his marriage to Eileen. The couple adopted a son named Richard Horatio Blair in 1944.
How many sisters did George Orwell have?
His father was a British civil servant. Orwell had two sisters: Marjorie and Avril. Marjorie was five years elder to him and Avril was five years younger. When Orwell was one year old, his mother moved to England along with Marjorie and Orwell, and settled at Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire.
What is George Orwell known for?
George Orwell was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. He is best known for his novels ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four.’ Both ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ are literary masterpieces. Born in India to a British civil servant, George Orwell’s birth name was Eric Arthur Blair; George Orwell was his pen name. A year after his birth, his mother took him to England. Orwell studied at ‘Eton College,’ an independent boarding school for boys. Since his family did not have the financial means to support his university education, he joined the ‘Indian Imperial Police.’ He served in Burma for five years and then resigned and returned to England in order to pursue his passion for writing. He adopted the pen name George Orwell when he took to writing; he did so because he did not want to embarrass his family. Initially, he struggled to make ends meet with his writing career. His writing career came into prominence with his 1945 novel ‘Animal Farm.’ It was an anti-Soviet satire with two pigs as its main protagonists. The pigs ostensibly represented Josef Stalin and Leon Trotsky. His next masterpiece 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' explored how a totalitarian regime persecutes individualism. Orwell is still revered today and features in the list of the greatest writers of all time.
Why did George Orwell choose the pen name George Orwell?
He adopted the pen name George Orwell when he took to writing; he did so because he did not want to embarrass his family. Initially, he struggled to make ends meet with his writing career.
How old was George Orwell when he wrote his first poem?
Orwell was bitten by the writing bug early in his life. He composed his first poem around the age of four. He also had a poem published in the local newspaper at the age of 11. He received his early education from a convent school in Henley-on-Thames.
Why was George Orwell rejected from the military?
He became an essayist, journalist, and literary critic. When the ‘World War II’ started, he was rejected for military service due to heath issues.
What college did George Orwell go to?
He won a scholarship and went to ‘Eton College’ for further studies. Orwell’s family did not have the means to support his university education. Therefore, he joined the ‘Indian Imperial Police’ after graduating from ‘Eton.’
Where was George Orwell born?
Mr.Eric Arthur Blair or George Orwell was born on 25 June 1903 in Motihari (presently in Bihar). In later years, Eric changed his name to George Orwell. He continued this name as his pen name in all his writings. Eric had two sisters. They hailed from not too wealthy family.
Who was George Orwell married to?
George Orwell married Eileen D’Shaughnessy on 9th June 1936. Given his interest in military unrest, he left for Spain to take part in the Spanish Civil War. He lost his wife in the year 1945. He married again, Sonia Browell in 1949 while he was in the hospital. She looked after Orwell’s affairs and Orwell very well. Orwell adopted a child in 1941, and they named the baby as Richard Horatio Blair. His wife resigned to look after the family.
Why did George Orwell go to jail?
George Orwell even tried to go to prison for his drunken behavior to gain experiences in jail. His attempt was not successful.
What did George Orwell do?
George Orwell was active in writing books, journals, reviews, films and so on. He also wrote his war time diary. Orwell created cultural programs during his service at BBC, and after resigning from BBC, he contributed articles to other News journals like “Observer,” “Turbine” and also wrote reviews of books.
What school did George Orwell go to?
Orwell, at the age of five, attended a Convent School run by French nuns. Later Orwell moved to St. Cyprian School, where he got some financial assistance through the efforts of his maternal uncle and the headmaster of the school. He studied in this school for five years. Orwell was not happy during this period of stay.
What was George Orwell's most famous book?
He went to Europe for a short period and was in London for the General Election. He published his book: Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, in 1945. This book made him famous. Orwell continued his journalism career with “Turbine” for four years and published his best book “ Nineteen Eighty-Four ” in 1949.
When did George Orwell move to Burma?
The family decided to move to Burma in October 1922. George Orwell enlisted as a police officer and served in various parts of Burma. He acquired rich experiences of the conditions prevailing in Burma. His experiences were the basis for a novel and essays later. In 1927, Orwell returned to England and decided not to return to Burma but to take up writing as a career.
What is George Orwell's real name?
His real name is Eric Blair. As a child, Orwell yearned to become a famous author, but he intended to publish as E.A. Blair, not his birth name, Eric Blair (he didn't feel the name Eric was suitable for a writer). However, when his first book came out — Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) — a complete pseudonym was necessary ...
Who was Orwell's friend?
He was friends with Aldous Huxley. Before Orwell wrote 1984 (1949) and Aldous Huxley penned Brave New World (1932), the two met at Eton, where Huxley taught French. While some students took advantage of and mocked Huxley's poor eyesight, Orwell reportedly stood up for him and enjoyed having Huxley as a teacher.
What happened to Orwell during the Spanish Civil War?
During the Spanish Civil War, Stalinists turned on POUM, the left-wing group Orwell fought with. This led to POUM members being arrested, tortured and even killed. Orwell escaped Spain before he was taken into custody — but when he traveled to Paris in 1945 to work as a correspondent, he felt he could still be in danger from Communists who were targeting their enemies.
What did Orwell say about Brave New World?
Writing in Time and Tide in 1940, Orwell called Brave New World "a good caricature of the hedonistic Utopia" but said "it had no relation to the actual future," which he envisaged as "something more like the Spanish Inquisition.". In 1949, Huxley sent Orwell a letter with his take on 1984.
Why did Orwell want to be a big brother?
Orwell wanted Britain to survive the threat of totalitarianism, and almost certainly felt he was helping that cause. However, it's still surprising that the man who came up with the concept of Big Brother felt comfortable providing the government with a list of suspect names.
What was Orwell's cure for tuberculosis?
When Orwell's tuberculosis worsened in the 1940s, a cure existed: the antibiotic streptomycin, which had been on in the market in America since 1946. However, streptomycin wasn't readily available in post-war Great Britain.
When did Orwell get trouble?
But despite the book's quality, in 1944 Orwell encountered trouble while trying to get it published. Some didn't seem to understand it: T.S. Eliot, a director of publisher Faber and Faber, noted, "Your pigs are far more intelligent than the other animals, and therefore the best qualified to run the farm.".
Overview
Life
Eric Arthur Blair was born on 25 June 1903 in Motihari, Bengal, British India into what he described as a "lower-upper-middle class" family. His great-grandfather, Charles Blair, was a wealthy country gentleman and absentee owner of Jamaican plantations from Dorset who married Lady Mary Fane, daughter of the 8th Earl of Westmorland. His grandfather, Thomas Richard Arthur Blair, was an Anglican cl…
Literary career and legacy
During most of his career, Orwell was best known for his journalism, in essays, reviews, columns in newspapers and magazines and in his books of reportage: Down and Out in Paris and London (describing a period of poverty in these cities), The Road to Wigan Pier (describing the living conditions of the poor in northern England, and class division generally) and Homage to Catalonia. Accor…
Personal life
Jacintha Buddicom's account, Eric & Us, provides an insight into Blair's childhood. She quoted his sister Avril that "he was essentially an aloof, undemonstrative person" and said herself of his friendship with the Buddicoms: "I do not think he needed any other friends beyond the schoolfriend he occasionally and appreciatively referred to as 'CC'". She could not recall him ha…
Views
Orwell was an atheist who identified himself with the humanist outlook on life. Despite this, and despite his criticisms of both religious doctrine and religious organisations, he nevertheless regularly participated in the social and civic life of the church, including by attending Church of England Holy Communion. Acknowledging this contradiction, he once said: "It seems rather mean to go t…
Biographies of Orwell
Orwell's will requested that no biography of him be written, and his widow, Sonia Brownell, repelled every attempt by those who tried to persuade her to let them write about him. Various recollections and interpretations were published in the 1950s and 1960s, but Sonia saw the 1968 Collected Works as the record of his life. She did appoint Malcolm Muggeridge as official biographer, but later biographers have seen this as deliberate spoiling as Muggeridge eventually …
Bibliography
• 1934 – Burmese Days
• 1935 – A Clergyman's Daughter
• 1936 – Keep the Aspidistra Flying
• 1939 – Coming Up for Air
Notes
1. ^ Stansky and Abrahams suggested that Ida Blair moved to England in 1907, based on information given by her daughter Avril, talking about a time before she was born. This is contrasted by Ida Blair's 1905, as well as a photograph of Eric, aged three, in an English suburban garden. The earlier date coincides with a difficult posting for Blair senior, and the need to start their daughter Marjorie (then six years old) in an English education.
Early Life
Education
- Like many other boys in England, Orwell was sent to boarding school. In 1911, he went to St. Cyprian's in the coastal town of Eastbourne, where he got his first taste of England's class system. On a partial scholarship, Orwell noticed that the school treated the richer students better than the poorer ones. He wasn't popular with his peers, and in books, he found comfort from his difficult …
Early Writing Career
- After leaving the India Imperial Force, Orwell struggled to get his writing career off the ground and took all sorts of jobs to make ends meet, including being a dishwasher.
War Injury and Tuberculosis
- In December 1936, Orwell traveled to Spain, where he joined one of the groups fighting against General Francisco Francoin the Spanish Civil War. Orwell was badly injured during his time with a militia, getting shot in the throat and arm. For several weeks, he was unable to speak. Orwell and his wife, Eileen, were indicted on treason charges in Spain. Fortunately, the charges were brough…
Literary Critic and BBC Producer
- To support himself, Orwell took on various writing assignments. He wrote numerous essays and reviews over the years, developing a reputation for producing well-crafted literary criticism. In 1941, Orwell landed a job with the BBC as a producer. He developed news commentary and shows for audiences in the eastern part of the British Empire. Orwell drew such literary greats a…
Famous Books
- Sometimes called the conscience of a generation, Orwell is best known for two novels: Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Both books, published toward the end of Orwell’s life, have been turned into films and enjoyed tremendous popularity over the years.
Essays
- ‘Politics and the English Language’
Published in April 1946 in the British literary magazine Horizon, this essay is considered one of Orwell’s most important works on style. Orwell believed that "ugly and inaccurate" English enabled oppressive ideology and that vague or meaningless language was meant to hide the truth. He ar… - ‘Shooting an Elephant’
This essay, published in the literary magazine New Writingin 1936, discusses Orwell’s time as a police officer in Burma (now known as Myanmar), which was still a British colony at the time. Orwell hated his job and thought imperialism was “an evil thing;” as a representative of imperiali…
Wives and Children
- Orwell married Eileen O'Shaughnessy in June 1936, and Eileen supported and assisted Orwell in his career. The couple remained together until her death in 1945. According to several reports, they had an open marriage, and Orwell had a number of dalliances. In 1944 the couple adopted a son, whom they named Richard Horatio Blair, after one of Orwell's ancestors. Their son was larg…
Death
- Orwell died of tuberculosis in a London hospital on January 21, 1950. Although he was just 46 years old at the time of his death, his ideas and opinions have lived on through his work.
Statue
- Despite Orwell’s disdain for the BBC during his life, a statue of the writer was commissioned by artist Martin Jennings and installed outside the BBC in London. An inscription reads, "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." The eight-foot bronze statue, paid for by the George Orwell Memorial Fund, was unveiled in November 201…