GEORGE ORWELL

Life

George Orwell, was born in Bengal, India, in 1903. His father, sent the boy to England for his education.

He was impressed by the snobbish atmosphere and this dislike often emerges in his books, particularly in the autobiographical work Such, Such Were the Joys.

His experience into the Indian Police in Burma increased his hatred of class privilege and authority, and above all of English imperialism. The novel Burmese Days reflects his experiences in the East.

When he returned to Europe, he spent a period of 18 months in Paris, where he lived in almost absolute poverty.

When he left Paris for England, he continued to live in the same style for a few years and in 1933 wrote Down and Out in Paris and London, a fascinating account of the period he had spent as an outcast in Paris and in London. The book was well received by the critics.

Then OrweIl wrote a novel, A Clergyman's Daughter, but this work was a failure.

Keep the Aspidistra Flying came next and was based on autobiographical events.

By this time Orwell's financial position was good and so he married Eileen O'Shangnessy.

His social commitment involved him to the socialist party, and his next book, The Road to Wigan Pier deals with the conditions of life in the poor areas of England.

After the outbreak of the Spanish civil war, in 1936, Orwell and his wife left for Barcelona to work as journalists, but the writer fought alongside the Republicans. He was seriously wounded in the throat. He suffered with chronic lung problems.

Homage to Catalonia is the vivid account of his experiences in Spain.

In this period he produced an essay, Marrakesh, and the first novel that made him really popular, Coming Up for Air. It contains several autobiographical episodes. Then he produced Outside the Whale, a volume in essays.

During the war Orwell worked for the BBC. In 1945 his wife dead.

During the last months of the war he was in France, German, Austria and Germany as a correspondent for The Observer.

His most famous book, Animal Farm, appeared in 1945. Orwell continued to write: Critical Essays, Shooting an Elephant.

In 1948 he became very ill, and finished 1984 before he died. Like Animal Farm, the book is a social allegory and contains a vision of the world in the near future. This vision is gloomy and pessimistic, and points out with clear precision the consequences of a totalitarian form of government, where people lose humanity and personality.