Orwell, George (1903–1950)

English writer. His books include the satirical fable Animal Farm (1945), an attack on the Soviet Union and its leader, Stalin, which includes such slogans as ‘All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others’; and the prophetic Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), targeting Cold War politics, which portrays the catastrophic excesses of state control over the individual. He also wrote numerous essays. Orwell was distrustful of all political parties and ideologies, and a deep sense of social conscience and antipathy towards political dictatorship characterizes his work.

Orwell was born in Motihari, Bengal, India, and educated in England at Eton. He served in Burma (now Myanmar) with the Indian Imperial Police 1922–27, an experience reflected in the novel Burmese Days (1934). In horrified retreat from imperialism, he moved towards socialism and even anarchism. A period of poverty, during which he was successively tutor, teacher, dishwasher, tramp, and bookshop assistant, is described in Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), and also provided him with material for The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) and Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936). In 1936 he fought on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War and was wounded; these experience are related in Homage to Catalonia (1938). Orwell reacted strongly against his exposure to the brutally practical politics of the communists in Spain. He was forced to flee the country, and the experience made him an active opponent both of communism and fascism. Coming up for Air appeared in 1939. During World War II, Orwell worked for the BBC, writing and monitoring propaganda. He was also a gifted critic and journalist. His essays, articles, many letters, and several diaries and notebooks are reprinted in The Collected Essays (1968). They include Inside the Whale (1940), Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays (1950), and England, Your England (1953).