biography george orwell

Eric Blair was born in 1903 in Motihari, Bengal, in the then British colony of India, where his father, Richard, worked for the Opium Department of the Civil Service. His mother, Ida, brought him to England at the age of one. He did not see his father again until 1907, when Richard visited England for three months before leaving again until 1912. Eric had an older sister named Marjorie and a younger sister named Avril. With his characteristic humour, he would later describe his family's background as "lower-upper-middle class."


At the age of five, Blair was sent to a small Anglican parish school in Henley, which his sister had attended before him. He never wrote of his recollections of it, but he must have impressed the teachers very favourably for two years later he was recommended to the headmaster of one of the most successful preparatory schools in England at the time: St Cyprian's School, in Eastbourne, Sussex. Young Eric attended St Cyprian's on a scholarship that allowed his parents to pay only half of the usual fees. Many years later, he would recall his time at St Cyprian's with biting resentment in the essay "Such, Such Were the Joys," but he did well enough to earn scholarships to both Wellington and Eton colleges.

After a term at Wellington, Eric moved to Eton, where he was a King's Scholar from 1917 to 1921. Later in life he wrote that he had been "relatively happy" at Eton, which allowed its students considerable independence, but also that he ceased doing serious work after arriving there. Reports of his academic performance at Eton vary: some claim he was a poor student, others deny this. It is clear that he was disliked by some of his teachers, who resented what they perceived as disrespect for their authority. In any event, during his time at the school Eric made lifetime friendships with a number of future British intellectuals.


After finishing his studies at Eton, having no prospect of gaining a university scholarship and his family's means being insufficient to pay his tuition, Eric joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. He resigned and returned to England in 1928 having grown to hate imperialism (as shown by his first novel Burmese Days, published in 1934, and by such essays as 'A Hanging', and 'Shooting an Elephant'). He adopted his pen name in 1933, while writing for the New Adelphi. He chose a pen name that stressed his deep, lifelong affection for the English tradition and countryside: George is the patron saint of England (and George V was monarch at the time), while the River Orwell in Suffolk was one of his most beloved English sites.

Orwell lived for several years in poverty, sometimes homeless, sometimes doing itinerant work, as he recalled in the book Down and Out in Paris and London. He eventually found work as a schoolteacher until ill health forced him to give this up to work part-time as an assistant in a secondhand bookshop in Hampstead, an experience later recounted in the short novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying.


Soon after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Orwell volunteered to fight for the Republicans against Franco's Nationalist uprising. As a sympathiser of the Independent Labour Party (of which he became a member in 1938), he joined the militia of its sister party in Spain, the non-Stalinist far-left POUM (Workers' Party of Marxist Unification), in which he fought as an infantryman. In Homage to Catalonia he described his admiration for the apparent absence of a class structure in the revolutionary areas of Spain he visited. He also depicted what he saw as the betrayal of that workers' revolution in Spain by the Spanish Communist Party, abetted by the Soviet Union and its secret police, after its militia attacked the anarchists and the POUM in Barcelona in May 1937. Orwell was shot in the neck (near Huesca) on May 20, 1937, an experience he described in his short essay "Wounded by a Fascist Sniper", as well as in Homage to Catalonia. He and his wife Eileen left Spain after narrowly missing being arrested as "Trotskyites" when the communists moved to suppress the POUM in June 1937.


Orwell began supporting himself by writing book reviews for the New English Weekly until 1940. During World War II he was a member of the Home Guard and in 1941 began work for the BBC Eastern Service, mostly working on programmes to gain Indian and East Asian support for Britain's war efforts. He was well aware that he was shaping propaganda, and wrote that he felt like "an orange that's been trodden on by a very dirty boot." Despite the good pay, he resigned in 1943 to become literary editor of Tribune, the left-wing weekly then edited by Aneurin Bevan and Jon Kimche. Orwell contributed a regular column entitled 'As I Please.'

In 1944 Orwell finished his anti-Stalinist allegory Animal Farm, which was published the following year with great critical and popular success. The royalties from Animal Farm provided Orwell with a comfortable income for the first time in his adult life. From 1945 Orwell was the Observer's war correspondent and later contributed regularly to the Manchester Evening News. He was a close friend of the Observer's editor/owner, David Astor and his ideas had a strong influence on Astor's editorial policies. In 1949 his best-known work, the dystopian Nineteen Eighty-Four, was published. He wrote the novel during his stay on the island of Jura, off the coast of Scotland.

Between 1936 and 1945 Orwell was married to Eileen O'Shaughnessy, with whom he adopted a son, Richard Horatio Blair (b. May of 1944). She died in 1945 during an operation. In the autumn of 1949, shortly before his death, he married Sonia Brownell.

In 1949 Orwell was approached by a friend, Celia Kirwan, who had just started working for a Foreign Office unit, the Information Research Department, which had been set up by the Labour government to publish pro-democratic and anti-communist propaganda. He gave her a list of 37 writers and artists he considered to be unsuitable as IRD authors because of their pro-communist leanings. The list, not published until 2003, consists mainly of journalists (among them the editor of the New Statesman, Kingsley Martin) but also includes the actors Michael Redgrave and Charlie Chaplin. Orwell's motives for handing over the list are unclear, but the most likely explanantion is the simplest: that he was helping out a friend in a cause - anti-Stalinism - that both supported. There is no indication that Orwell ever abandoned the democratic socialism that he consistently promoted in his later writings - or that he believed the writers he named should be suppressed. Orwell's list was also accurate: the people on it had all at one time or another made pro-Soviet or pro-communist public pronouncements.

Orwell died at the age of 46 from tuberculosis which he had probably contracted during the period described in Down and Out in Paris and London. He was in and out of hospitals for the last three years of his life. Having requested burial in accordance with the Anglican rite, he was interred in All Saints' Churchyard, Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire with the simple epitaph: Here lies Eric Arthur Blair, born June 25th 1903, died January 21st 1950.


During most of his career Orwell was best known for his journalism, both in the British press and in books of reportage such as Homage to Catalonia (describing his experiences during the Spanish Civil War), Down and Out in Paris and London (describing a period of poverty in these cities), and The Road to Wigan Pier (which described the living conditions of poor miners in northern England). According to Newsweek, Orwell "was the finest journalist of his day and the foremost architect of the English essay since Hazlitt."

Contemporary readers are more often introduced to Orwell as a novelist, particularly through his enormously successful titles Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. The former is considered an allegory of the corruption of the socialist ideals of the Russian Revolution by Stalinism, and the latter is Orwell's prophetic vision of the results of totalitarianism. Orwell denied that Animal Farm was a reference to Stalinism. Orwell had returned from Catalonia a staunch anti-Stalinist and anti-Communist, but he remained to the end a man of the left and, in his own words, a 'democratic socialist'.

Orwell is also known for his insights about the political implications of the use of language. In the essay "Politics and the English Language", he decries the effects of cliche, bureaucratic euphemism, and academic jargon on literary styles, and ultimately on thought itself. Orwell's concern over the power of language to shape reality is also reflected in his invention of Newspeak, the official language of the imaginary country of Oceania in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Newspeak is a variant of English in which vocabulary is strictly limited by government fiat. The goal is to make it increasingly difficult to express ideas that contradict the official line - with the final aim of making it impossible even to conceive such ideas. (cf. Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis). A number of words and phrases that Orwell coined in Nineteen Eighty-Four have entered the standard vocabularly, such as "memory hole," "Big Brother," "Room 101," "doublethink," "thought police," and "newspeak."

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7 Facts About George Orwell

George Orwell 's work changed the way people look at themselves and their governments and is still hailed to this day. Here are seven fascinating facts about Orwell's (often Orwellian) life:

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 (he felt his family wouldn't appreciate the public knowing their Eton-educated son had worked as a dishwasher and lived as a tramp).

Orwell provided his publisher with a list of potential pseudonyms. In addition to George Orwell, which was his preference, the other choices were: P.S. Burton, Kenneth Miles and H. Lewis Allways.

He was spied on during the Spanish Civil War

Orwell not only wrote about state surveillance, but he also experienced it. Biographer Gordon Bowker found the Soviet Union had an undercover agent spying on Orwell and other leftists while they were fighting in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. Secret police in Spain also seized diaries Orwell had made while in the country and probably passed them to the NKVD (predecessor to the KGB).

In addition, his own government kept track of Orwell (a fact he was likely unaware of). This began in 1929 when he volunteered to write for a left-wing publication in France. The police also paid attention when Orwell visited coal miners in 1936 while gathering information for The Road to Wigan Pier (1937). In 1942, a police sergeant reported to MI5 that Orwell had "advanced communist views" and dressed "in a bohemian fashion, both at his office and in his leisure hours." Fortunately, the MI5 case officer actually knew Orwell's work and that "he does not hold with the Communist Party nor they with him.

He had difficulties publishing 'Animal Farm'

Financial and popular success eluded Orwell until Animal Farm , his allegorical look at the Russian Revolution and its aftermath. 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." Victor Gollancz, who'd published much of Orwell's earlier work, was loath to criticize the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin .

Publisher Jonathan Cape almost took on the book, but the Ministry of Information advised against antagonizing the Soviet Union, an ally in World War II (however, the official who gave this warning was later discovered to be a Soviet spy). With rejections accumulating, Orwell even considered self-publishing before Animal Farm was accepted by Fredric Warburg's small press. The success that followed the book's 1945 release probably had some publishers regretting their earlier refusals.

Ernest Hemingway gave him a gun

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.

A gun could offer protection, but as a civilian Orwell couldn't easily acquire one. His solution was to turn to Ernest Hemingway . Orwell visited Hemingway at the Ritz and explained his fears. Hemingway, who admired Orwell's writing, handed over a Colt .32. It's unknown if Orwell ever had to use the weapon.

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.

Orwell and Huxley also read each other's most famous work. 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. Though he admired it, he felt "the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience."

He sent the government a list of people he thought were communist sympathizers

On May 2, 1949, Orwell sent a list of names to a friend at the Foreign Office whose job was to fight Soviet propaganda. The 35 names were people he suspected of being communist sympathizers. Orwell noted in his letter, ''It isn't a bad idea to have the people who are probably unreliable listed." He also wrote, "Even as it stands I imagine that this list is very libelous, or slanderous, or whatever the term is, so will you please see that it is returned to me without fail."

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.

He died from 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.

Given his connections and success, Orwell was able to obtain the drug in 1948 but experienced a severe allergic reaction to it: hair falling out, disintegrating nails and painful throat ulcerations, among other symptoms. His doctors, new to the drug, didn't know a lower dosage likely could have saved him without the horrible side effects; instead, Orwell ceased treatment (the remainder was given to two other TB patients, who recovered). He tried streptomycin once more in 1949 but still couldn't tolerate it. Orwell succumbed to TB on January 21, 1950.

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Who Was George Orwell?

Who was George Orwell? We explore George Orwell’s life and work so you have all the facts about this important and influential author.

Sarah S. Davis

Sarah S. Davis holds a BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master's of Library Science from Clarion University, and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Sarah has also written for Electric Literature, Kirkus Reviews, Audible, Psych Central, and more. Sarah is the founder of Broke By Books blog and runs a tarot reading business, Divination Vibration . Twitter: @missbookgoddess Instagram: @Sarahbookgoddess

View All posts by Sarah S. Davis

You’ve likely heard of the dystopian novel 1984 and maybe even Animal Farm . Sure, you might have known the author was British writer George Orwell, but maybe you’ve asked: Who was George Orwell, actually? In this article, we’ll explore George Orwell’s life and work so you have all the facts about this important and influential author.

When Was George Orwell Born?

Orwell was born with the name Eric Arthur Blar on June 25, 1903 in Motihari, Bengal, in British India . Orwell considered his beginning humble, even though his paternal great grandfather was wealthy and owned Jamaican plantations . His grandfather was an Anglican clergyman, and his father worked in the Opium Department of the Indian Civil Service . Orwell had a sister, Marjorie, who was five years older than him, and another sister, Avril, who was five years his junior. Orwell’s mother was French and moved Orwell and Marjorie to England .

Where Was George Orwell Educated?

Orwell’s family was too poor to send him to public school, but he obtained a scholarship to St. Cyprian’s School, Eastbourne, in East Sussex. Orwell detested the school, which later inspired his essay “Such, Such Were the Joys,” which was published posthumously and described his time at St. Cyprian’s. Orwell began at Eton , the prestigious boarding school, in May 1917. While at Eton, Orwell published in several publications . The family was too poor to send him to college, and Orwell’s grades were not impressive, so Orwell joined the Imperial Police in Burma . 

What Did George Orwell Write?

Orwell wrote novels, essays, and worked as a journalist and critic. Orwell’s work embraces his ideals of social criticism, democratic socialism, and standing up to totalitarianism. Orwell also wrote literary criticism and poems. He is best known for his novels Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949). Orwell also wrote nonfiction, including Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), and Homage to Catalonia (1938). Down and Out in Paris and London details Orwell’s time living in poverty in Paris and London. The Road to Wigan Pier amplifies the suffering of the English poor and divisions in class. Homage to Catalonia explores Orwell’s personal experiences fighting in the Spanish Civil War for the POUM , the Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification, a Spanish communist political party. 

Was George Orwell a Socialist?

George Orwell was openly a socialist. He joined the British Independent Labour Party in 1938 as a card-carrying member . His time fighting in the Spanish Civil War for the communist uprising fighters shaped his view of socialism. Orwell was influenced by Trotsky but never identified as a Trotskyist. Socialism was a common theme in his works of literature. In his essay “Why I Write” (1946), Orwell described this inspiration: “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.”

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What is Animal Farm about?

George Orwell wrote the novella Animal Farm and published it in 1945. In this book, a group of farm animals execute a rebellion against their farmer, a human, and try to establish a utopian society. Unfortunately, the rebellion fails as the farm becomes a dictatorship that follows Napoleon, a pig. Orwell set to fictionalize the events that led to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the ensuing Stalinist rule of the Soviet Union in Moscow. Orwell intended to critique Joseph Stalin and his brutal government, a position he formed during the Spanish Civil War when he fought for the POUM. In his essay “Why I Write,” Orwell expressed that Animal Farm was the first fiction book in which he consciously tried “to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole.”

What is 1984 about?

George Orwell wrote the dystopian sci-fi novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (alternately 1984 ) and published it in 1949. This book was Orwell’s ninth book and final work completed while he was alive. Orwell was inspired to create the dystopian regime in his novel by the authoritarian Stalinist Soviet Union and fascist Nazi Germany. 

The story is set in the year 1984, when the world is in a perpetual state of war. Big Brother, a dictator, runs the totalitarian nation Airstrip One, formally known as Great Britain. Big Brother gains supporters based on a cult of personality that the Thought Police, an arm of the Party, design and enforce.

Our hero is Winston Smith, a dutiful mid-level government employee at the Ministry of Truth. Smith detests the Party and privately hopes for a rebellion, keeping an illegal diary and engaging in a relationship with Julia, his colleague. Together, they learn about the Brotherhood, a secret resistance group. When Smith attempts to contact the Brotherhood, he encounters a member of the Party operating undercover. Smith is arrested and is tortured both mentally and physically by the Ministry of Love, released after he announces that he has come to love and embrace Big Brother.

How Did George Orwell Die?

Orwell suffered poor health in the end of his life and struggled with tuberculosis . On January 21, 1950, Orwell passed away at 46 years old . Orwell was buried in All Saints’ parish graveyard in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire. Orwell’s gravestone’s epitaph makes no mention of his pen name and instead reads: “Here lies Eric Arthur Blair / born June 25th 1903 / died January 21st 1950.”

Fun Facts About George Orwell

• Orwell got arrested on purpose for drinking in London just so he could experience the prison system. Orwell was in jail for 48 hours. This experience informed his book Down and Out in Paris and London .
• Orwell spoke seven languages: English, French (taught to him by dystopian novelist Aldous Huxley), Burmese, Greek, German, Spanish, and Latin.
• Orwell shares his birthday with musician George Michael, American children’s writer Eric Carle, basketball player Willis Reed, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayer, and chef Anthony Bourdain.
• Orwell played pranks while a young student. He was expelled from one school for sending a dead rat with a birthday message to the town’s surveyor. Later, he made fun of his school’s housemaster with a song he wrote to spoof the educator. He would also reply to advertisements and string salesmen along for a laugh.
• Orwell invented several words , including groupthink, doublethink, crimethink, unperson, “Big Brother,” and “thought police.” Even his name has become a new word: “Orwellian.”
• Orwell had a steady job as a radio commentator for a BBC news radio show. Orwell worked as a propagandist spinning positive news for English audiences. 
• Orwell had tattoos of small circles that he believed were little grapefruits on his knuckles while he was a police officer in India.
• Orwell was so tall at 6 feet 2 inches that he was in danger of being shot in the head as a soldier in Spain. He was shot in the throat in 1937 and recovered.
• Orwell had many farm animals in his home , including a goat named Muriel. In Orwell’s Animal Farm , there is a goat character, Muriel, who is one of the more intelligent and likable animals in the novel.
• Orwell coined the term “Cold War” in an 1945 essay “You and the Atom Bomb.”

What Is George Orwell’s Legacy?

Undoubtedly, George Orwell has had a lasting impact on literature. Nineteen Eighty-Four remains relevant and widely read today. In fact, in January 2017 , Nineteen Eight-Four sold out on Amazon as more people faced a reality that was eerily similar to Orwell’s visionary picture of a dystopian future. Terms Orwell introduced like “thought police” and “Big Brother” have become household words. Orwell’s novels are frequently taught in high school, and remain beloved texts even today. In this way, Orwell’s legacy lives on. 

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• World Biography

George Orwell Biography

Born: June 25, 1903 Motihari, India Died: January 21, 1950 London, England English writer, novelist, and essayist

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.

Early years

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. 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. His father soon returned to India.

As a child, Orwell was shy and lacked self-confidence. He suffered from bronchitis all his life. He spent long hours reading and was especially interested in science fiction, ghost stories, William Shakespeare's (1564–1616) plays, and fiction by Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), Charles Dickens (1812–1870), and Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). When Orwell was eight years old, he was sent to a private preparatory school in Sussex, England. He later claimed that his experiences there determined his views on the English class system. From there he went by scholarship to two private secondary schools: Wellington for one term and Eton for four and a half years.

Orwell then joined the Indian Imperial Police, receiving his training in Burma, where he served from 1922 to 1927. While home on leave in England, Orwell made the important decision not to return to Burma, but to pursue writing. His resignation from the Indian Imperial Police became effective on January 1, 1928. Later evidence suggests that he had come to understand the imperialism for which he was serving, and had rejected it. Imperialism is a political and economic practice whereby a nation increases its power by gaining control or ownership of other territories.

Establishment as a writer

Shortly after making this decision Orwell stayed in Notting Hill, a poor section in London's East End, and in a working-class district of Paris, France. He wrote two novels, both lost, during his stay in Paris, and he published a few articles in French and English. After working as a kitchen porter and dishwasher, and suffering from pneumonia (a lung disease), he returned to his parents' house in Suffolk, England, toward the end of 1929.

Back in England, Orwell earned his living by teaching and by writing occasional articles, while he completed several versions of his first book, Down and Out in London and Paris. This novel recorded his experiences in the East End and in Paris. Because he was earning his living as a teacher when his novel was scheduled for publication, he preferred to publish it under a pseudonym (a made-up name used by an author to disguise his or her true identity). From a list of four possible names submitted to his publisher, he chose "George Orwell."

First novels

Orwell's Down and Out was issued in 1933. During the next three years he supported himself by teaching, reviewing, and clerking in a bookshop. In 1934 he published Burmese Days. The plot of this novel concerns personal intrigue (plotting) among an isolated group of Europeans in Burma (a country now known as Myanmar). Two more novels followed: A Clergyman's Daughter (1935) and Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936).

In the spring of 1936 Orwell moved to Wallington, Hertfordshire, and several months later married Eileen O'Shaughnessy, a teacher and journalist. The Left Book Club authorized Orwell to write an inquiry into the lives of the poor and unemployed. The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) included an essay on class and socialism (a social system in which the production of goods and distribution of wealth is controlled centrally). It marked Orwell's birth as a political writer, an identity that lasted for the rest of his life.

Political commitments and essays

After Orwell returned to England, he began writing Homage to Catalonia (1938), which describes his disappointment with the Loyalists during the Spanish Civil War. He then wished to return to India to write a book, but he became ill with tuberculosis (a serious disease of the lungs). He was treated in a hospital until late in the summer of 1938. He spent the following winter in Morocco, where he wrote Coming Up for Air (1939). After he returned to England, Orwell authored several of his best-known essays. These include the essays on Dickens and on boys' weeklies and "Inside the Whale."

After World War II (1939–1945; a war fought between the Axis: Italy, Germany, and Japan, and the Allies: England, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States) began, Orwell wanted to enlist. The army, however, rejected him as physically unfit. Later he served for a period in the home guard and as a fire watcher. The Orwells moved to London in May 1940. In early 1941 George Orwell began writing "London Letters" for Partisan Review, and in August he joined the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as a producer in the Indian section. He remained in this position until 1943.

First masterpiece

In 1943 Orwell's mother died; he left the BBC to become literary editor of the Tribune; and he began reviewing books on a more regular basis. By February 1944 Orwell had completed Animal Farm, but several publishers rejected it on political grounds. It finally appeared in August 1945. This fable intends to enforce a useful truth, the failure of communism, through animals that speak and act like humans.

Toward the end of World War II, Orwell traveled to France, Germany, and Austria as a reporter. His wife died in March 1945. The next year he settled on Jura off the coast of Scotland, with his youngest sister as his housekeeper.

Crowning achievement

Although Orwell's health was now steadily falling apart, he started work on Nineteen Eighty-four. Published in 1949, this book is an elaborate satire (a literary work that uncovers the corrupt morals of humans) on modern politics, foretelling a world in which humans are made less than human in a world where citizens are at the mercy of the state's absolute control. Orwell entered a London hospital in September 1949 and the next month married Sonia Brownell. He died in London on January 21, 1950.

Orwell's work is strongly autobiographical (based on the events of his own life) and combines elements of his own middle-class experience with his desire to cause social reform. He was critical of intellectuals whose political viewpoints struck him as superficial. His strong stand against communism (a system in which the government controls all businesses) resulted from his experience of its methods gained as a fighter in the Spanish Civil War.

For More Information

Boerst, William J. Generous Anger: The Story of George Orwell. Greensboro, NC: Morgan Reynolds, 2001.

Hitchens, Christopher. Why Orwell Matters. New York: Basic Books, 2002.

Meyers, Jeffrey. Orwell: Wintry Conscience of a Generation. New York: Norton, 2000.

Shelden, Michael. Orwell: The Authorized Biography. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.

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George Orwell

Some important facts of his life, george orwell’s major works, george orwell’s impact on future literature, famous quotes, related posts:, post navigation.

George Orwell Biography

Birthday: June 25 , 1903 ( Cancer )

Born In: Motihari, Bihar, India

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.

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Also Known As: Eric Arthur Blair

Died At Age: 46

Spouse/Ex-: Eileen Blair (m. 1936–1945), Sonia Orwell (m. 1949–1950)

father: Richard Walmsley Blair

mother: Ida Mabel Limouzin

siblings: Avril Blair, Marjorie Blair

children: Richard Blair, Richard Horatio Orwell

Born Country: India

Novelists Essayists

Height: 6'2" (188 cm ), 6'2" Males

Died on: January 21 , 1950

place of death: London, England

Cause of Death: Tuberculosis

education: Eton College

awards: 2011; 1984 - Prometheus Hall of Fame Award - Animal Farm; 1984 1996 - Retro Hugo Award for Best Novella - Animal Farm

You wanted to know

What inspired george orwell to write animal farm.

George Orwell was inspired to write "Animal Farm" by his observations of the Russian Revolution and the rise of Stalinism.

What is the significance of the term Big Brother?

In "1984," the term "Big Brother" symbolizes the oppressive, authoritarian government that surveils and controls every aspect of citizens' lives.

How did George Orwell's experiences in the Spanish Civil War influence his writing?

What are some key themes in george orwell's novel nineteen eighty-four.

Key themes in "Nineteen Eighty-Four" include government surveillance, propaganda, psychological manipulation, and the dangers of totalitarianism.

What is the concept of doublethink?

In "1984," "doublethink" refers to the act of simultaneously accepting two contradictory beliefs as true, a concept used by the ruling party to control the population.

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Orwell volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, where he was wounded. This experience influenced his political beliefs and his writing.

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By Tim Lambert

His Early Life

George Orwell was one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. He was born Eric Arthur Blair on 25 June 1903 in India. His father was a colonial civil servant and the family was middle class but not particularly well off. However, when Orwell was only a year old his mother moved back to England while his father stayed in India until 1912. Meanwhile, in 1911 George went to St Cyprian’s School in Eastbourne. In 1917 he won a scholarship to Eton but in 1921 he joined the British police in Burma. However, Orwell grew dissatisfied and he resigned in 1927.

George Orwell decided to become a writer. He also began living among the poor. In 1928 he journeyed to Paris. For a short time in 1932-1933, Orwell worked as a teacher in a small private school. In 1934 Orwell got a part-time job in a second-hand bookshop.

Meanwhile, in 1933 his first book was published Down and Out in Paris and London. In 1934 his first novel Burmese Days was published. In 1935 George Orwell had another novel published. It was called A Clergyman’s Daughter. It was followed in 1936 by Keep the Aspidistra Flying. Also in 1936, Orwell married Eileen. (She died in 1945).

In 1936 George Orwell was commissioned to write a book about poverty in northern England. The Road to Wigan Pier was published in 1937.

Meanwhile, Orwell, a Socialist left for Spain in December 1936 to fight in the Spanish Civil War. (The civil war was between the left-wing Republicans and the Fascist Nationalists. Some foreign volunteers took part). While there he was wounded in the throat. Meanwhile, Communists began to arrest dissenters, and Orwell was forced to flee from Spain. After arriving in Britain he wrote A Homage to Catalonia, published in 1938.

The Great Writer

However, by 1938 Orwell was suffering from tuberculosis. He spent the winter of 1938-1939 in Morocco. In 1939 another novel, Coming Up For Air was published. At the beginning of the Second World War George Orwell was rejected for military service but from 1941 to 1943 he worked for the BBC. In 1943 he became literary editor for the Tribune a left-wing magazine.

Then in 1945 his great satire Animal Farm was published. In 1949 his masterpiece 1984 was published. But his health was failing. 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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George Orwell summary

George Orwell , orig. Eric Arthur Blair , (born 1903 , Motihari, Bengal, India —died Jan. 21, 1950 , London, Eng.), British novelist, essayist, and critic. Instead of accepting a scholarship to a university, Orwell went to Burma to serve in the Indian Imperial Police (1922–27), an experience that changed him into a literary and political rebel. On returning to Europe, he lived in self-imposed poverty, gaining material for Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), and became a socialist. He went to Spain to report on the Spanish Civil War and stayed to join the Republican militia. His war experiences, which gave him a lifelong dread of communism (he would later provide British intelligence services with lists of his fellow British communists), are recounted in Homage to Catalonia (1938). His novels typically portray a sensitive, conscientious, emotionally isolated individual at odds with an oppressive or dishonest social environment. His most famous works are the anti-Soviet satirical fable Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-four (1949), a dystopic vision of totalitarianism whose influence was widely felt in the postwar decades. His literary essays are also admired.