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Against imperialism

From the road to wigan pier to world war ii.

• Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-four

Where was George Orwell educated?

Why was george orwell famous.

• What does socialism mean?
• Did socialism come from Marxism?
• How does socialism differ from capitalism?

George Orwell

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• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - George Orwell
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• The National Endowment for the Humanities - George Orwell, Outdoorsman
• The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction - George Orwell
• Official Site of The Orwell Foundation
• Spartacus Educational - Biography of George Orwell
• George Orwell - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
• Table Of Contents

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 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.

George Orwell won scholarships to two of England’s leading schools, Wellington and Eton colleges. He briefly attended the former before transferring to the latter, where Aldous Huxley was one of his teachers. Instead of going on to a university, Orwell entered the British Imperial service and worked as a colonial police officer.

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 in the Indian civil service and his mother was the daughter of an unsuccessful teak merchant. Their attitudes were those of the “landless gentry.”

George Orwell wrote two hugely influential novels: Animal Farm (1944), a satire that allegorically depicted Joseph Stalin ’s betrayal of the Russian Revolution of 1917, and Nineteen Eighty-four (1949), a chilling warning against totalitarianism. The latter deeply impressed readers with ideas that entered mainstream culture in a way achieved by few books.

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George Orwell (born June 25, 1903, Motihari , Bengal, India—died January 21, 1950, London, England) was an English novelist, essayist, and critic famous for his novels Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-four (1949). The latter of these is a profound anti- utopian novel that examines the dangers of totalitarian rule.

Born Eric Arthur Blair, Orwell never entirely abandoned his original name, but his first book, Down and Out in Paris and London , appeared in 1933 as the work of George Orwell (the surname he derived from the beautiful River Orwell in East Anglia ). 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.

He was born in Bengal , India , 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).

Orwell won scholarships to two of England’s leading schools, Wellington and Eton , and briefly attended the former before continuing his studies at the latter, where he stayed from 1917 to 1921. Aldous Huxley was one of his masters, and it was at Eton that Orwell published his first writing in college periodicals. 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 .

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. Having felt guilty that the barriers of race and caste had prevented his mingling with the Burmese, he thought he could expiate some of his guilt by immersing himself in the life of the poor and outcast people of Europe . Donning ragged clothes, he went into the East End of London to live in cheap lodging houses among laborers and beggars; he spent a period in the impoverished sections of Paris and worked as a dishwasher in French hotels and restaurants; he tramped the roads of England with professional vagrants and joined the working-class people of London in their annual exodus to work in the hopfields of Kent .

Those experiences gave Orwell the material for Down and Out in Paris and London , in which actual incidents are rearranged into something like fiction. 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 . The main character of Burmese Days is a minor administrator who seeks to escape from the dreary and narrow-minded chauvinism of his fellow British colonialists in Burma. His sympathies for the Burmese, however, end in an unforeseen personal tragedy. The protagonist of Orwell’s next novel, A Clergyman’s Daughter (1935), is an unhappy spinster who achieves a brief and accidental liberation in her experiences among some agricultural laborers. Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936) is about a literarily inclined bookseller’s assistant who despises the empty commercialism and materialism of middle-class life but who in the end is reconciled to bourgeois prosperity by his forced marriage to the girl he loves.

Orwell’s revulsion against imperialism led not only to his personal rejection of the bourgeois lifestyle but to a political reorientation as well. Immediately after returning from Burma he called himself an anarchist and continued to do so for several years; during the 1930s, however, he began to consider himself a socialist , though he was too libertarian in his thinking ever to take the further step—so common in the period—of declaring himself a communist .

Orwell’s first socialist book was an original and unorthodox political treatise titled The Road to Wigan Pier (1937). It begins by describing his experiences when he went to live among the destitute and unemployed miners of northern England, sharing and observing their lives; it ends in a series of sharp criticisms of existing socialist movements. It combines mordant reporting with a tone of generous anger that was to characterize Orwell’s subsequent writing.

By the time The Road to Wigan Pier was in print, Orwell was in Spain ; he went to report on the Civil War there and stayed to join the Republican militia, serving on the Aragon and Teruel fronts and rising to the rank of second lieutenant. He was seriously wounded at Teruel, with damage to his throat permanently affecting his voice and endowing his speech with a strange, compelling quietness. Later, in May 1937, after having fought in Barcelona against communists who were trying to suppress their political opponents, he was forced to flee Spain in fear of his life. The experience left him with a lifelong dread of communism, first expressed in the vivid account of his Spanish experiences, Homage to Catalonia (1938), which many consider one of his best books.

Returning to England, Orwell showed a paradoxically conservative strain in writing Coming Up for Air (1939), in which he uses the nostalgic recollections of a middle-aged man to examine the decency of a past England and express his fears about a future threatened by war and fascism . When World War II did come, Orwell was rejected for military service , and instead he headed the Indian service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). He left the BBC in 1943 and became literary editor of the Tribune , a left-wing socialist paper associated with the British Labour leader Aneurin Bevan . At this period Orwell was a prolific journalist, writing many newspaper articles and reviews, together with serious criticism , like his classic essays on Charles Dickens and on boys’ weeklies and a number of books about England (notably The Lion and the Unicorn , 1941) that combined patriotic sentiment with the advocacy of a libertarian , decentralist socialism very much unlike that practiced by the British Labour Party .

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George Orwell was an English novelist, essayist, and critic most famous for his novels Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949).

The following biography was written by D.J. Taylor. Taylor is an author, journalist and critic. His biography, Orwell: The Life won the 2003 Whitbread Biography Award. His new biography, Orwell: The New Life was published in 2023. D.J. Taylor is a member of the Orwell Council .

The Orwell Foundation is a registered charity. If you value these resources, please consider becoming a Friend or Patron or making a  donation  to support our work. You can find more work about Orwell in our library .

Orwell: A (Brief) Life, by D.J. Taylor

GEORGE ORWELL, the pen-name of Eric Arthur Blair, was born on 25 June 1903 in Motihari, Bengal, where his father, Richard Walmesley Blair, was working as an Opium Agent in the Indian Civil Service, into what – with the uncanny precision he brought to all social judgments – he described as ‘the lower-upper-middle classes’. In fact the Blairs were remote descendants of the Fane Earls of Westmoreland. Like many a child of the Raj, Orwell was swiftly returned to England and brought up almost exclusively by his mother. The Thames Valley locales in which the family settled provided the background to his novel Coming Up For Air (1939).

Happily for the family finances – never flourishing – Orwell was a studious child. From St Cyprian’s preparatory school in Eastbourne, a legendary establishment that also educated Cyril Connolly and Cecil Beaton, he won a King’s Scholarship to Eton College, arriving at the school in May 1917. Orwell left a caustic memoir of his time at St Cyprian’s (‘Such, Such Were The Joys’) but also remarked that ‘No one can look back on his schooldays and say with truth that they were altogether unhappy.’ At Eton he frankly slacked, leaving the school in December 1921 after only a term in the sixth form. The following June he passed the entrance examination of the Indian Imperial Police and was accepted into its Burma division.

Orwell’s five-year stint in Burma is often seen as a mournful period of parentally-ordained exile. However both sides of his family were professionally attached to the Eastern Empire, and his stated reason for applying for the Burma posting was that he had relatives there. Almost nothing is known of Orwell’s time in the province, other than that it offered the material for two of his best-known essays, ‘A Hanging’ and ‘Shooting an Elephant’ and his first novel Burmese Days (1934). It also ruined his health. Although disillusioned by the Imperial ‘racket’ he had helped to administer, he left Burma in June 1927 on a medical certificate. The decision to resign from the Burma Police was taken after his return.

For the next five years he led a vagrant life. Some of this time was spent at his parents’ home in Southwold, Suffolk. There were periods teaching in private schools, living in Paris and masquerading as a tramp, the background to his first published work, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933). His professional alias, which combined the name of the reigning monarch with a local river, was adopted shortly before publication. His teaching career was brought to a close by a bout of pneumonia and at the end of 1934, having used a long, recuperative stay in Southwold to complete a second novel, A Clergyman’s Daughter (1935), he decamped to London to work in a Hampstead bookshop. This was a productive period. Here he met and married his first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy, and wrote a third novel, partly based on his book-trade experiences, Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936).

The Orwells began their married life in a tiny cottage in Wallington, Hertfordshire, where Orwell worked up the material gathered on a recent tour of the industrial north into The Road to Wigan Pier (1937). Although the book’s second half consists of a long, inflammatory polemic on Socialism, Orwell’s political views were still not fully formed. The defining political experience of his life, alternatively, was the six months he spent in Spain, in 1937, as a Republican volunteer against Franco. He was wounded in the throat – the bullet passing within a few millimetres of his carotid artery – and was present in Barcelona when Soviet-sponsored hit-squads attempted to suppress the Trotskyist POUM militia, of which he had been a member. Spain made Orwell ‘believe in Socialism for the first time’, as he put it, while instilling an enduring hatred of totalitarian political systems.

Homage to Catalonia , an account of his time in Spain, was published in April 1938. He spent most of the next year recuperating, both in England and Morocco, from a life-threatening lung haemorrhage. At this stage Orwell was determined to oppose the looming international conflict, only changing his mind on the announcement of the Russo-German pact in August 1939. Initially Orwell had high hopes of the war, which he believed would instil a sense of Socialist purpose: this view was developed in the pamphlet essay The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius (1941). Rejected for military service on health grounds, he became a talks producer in the BBC’s Eastern Service, a job he came to dislike. The BBC’s atmosphere, he complained, ‘is something between a girls’ school and a lunatic asylum, and all we are doing at present is useless, or slightly worse than useless’. In 1943 he secured a more congenial billet as literary editor of the left-wing weekly magazine Tribune , to which he also contributed a column under the heading ‘As I Please’.

Animal Farm , his bitter satire of the Soviet experiment, was written by the middle of 1944. Publishers’ timidity, and the covert pressure exerted by a Russian spy working for the Ministry of Information, delayed its appearance until August 1945. By this time Orwell’s personal life was in ruins. Five months previously Eileen had died of heart failure during a routine operation. The couple had previously adopted a small boy, Richard Horatio Blair, whom Orwell, with the help of his sister Avril, determined to raise on his own.

Through his friend David Astor, he had already begun to explore the possibility of living on the remote Scottish island of Jura. Much of the last half-decade of his life was spent in the Inner Hebrides struggling against worsening health to complete his final novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four . After finishing a final draft at the end of 1948 he suffered a complete physical collapse and was taken away to a nursing home in the Cotswolds suffering from advanced tuberculosis. The novel’s enormous international success, on publication in June 1949, came too late for its author. He was transferred to University College Hospital in September and died there on 21 January 1950, aged 46. Shortly before his death he made an unexpected second marriage to Sonia Brownell, an editorial assistant on the literary magazine Horizon . Sitting down to read his obituaries on the day of his funeral, his friend Malcolm Muggeridge thought that he saw in them ‘how the legend of a human being is created’.

D. J. Taylor was born in Norwich in 1960. He is the author of five novels, including English Settlement , which won a Grinzane Cavour prize, Trespass and The Comedy Man . He is also well-known as a critic and reviewer, and is the author of A Vain Conceit: British Fiction in the 1980s , and an acclaimed biography, Thackeray . His critically acclaimed Orwell biography , Orwell: The Life (2003) won the Whitbread Biography Award, and he gave the 2005 Orwell Lecture entitled ‘Projections of the Inner “I”: George Orwell’s Fiction’. He is married with three children and lives in Norwich. Orwell: The New Life was published in 2023.

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George Orwell

George Orwell was an English novelist, essayist and critic most famous for his novels 'Animal Farm' (1945) and 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' (1949).

(1903-1950)

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.

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.

According to one biography, Orwell's first word was "beastly." He was a sick child, often battling bronchitis and the flu.

Orwell took up writing at an early age, reportedly composing his first poem around age four. He later wrote, "I had the lonely child's habit of making up stories and holding conversations with imaginary persons, and I think from the very start my literary ambitions were mixed up with the feeling of being isolated and undervalued." One of his first literary successes came at the age of 11 when he had a poem published in the local newspaper.

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 situation. He read works by Rudyard Kipling and H.G. Wells , among others.

What he lacked in personality, he made up for in smarts. Orwell won scholarships to Wellington College and Eton College to continue his studies.

After completing his schooling at Eton, Orwell found himself at a dead end. His family did not have the money to pay for a university education. Instead, he joined the India Imperial Police Force in 1922. After five years in Burma, Orwell resigned his post and returned to England. He was intent on making it as a writer.

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.

'Down and Out in Paris and London' (1933)

Orwell’s first major work explored his time eking out a living in these two cities. 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.

'Burmese Days' (1934)

Orwell next explored his overseas experiences in Burmese Days , which offered a dark look at British colonialism in Burma, then part of the country's Indian empire. Orwell's interest in political matters grew rapidly after this novel was published.

War Injury and Tuberculosis

In December 1936, Orwell traveled to Spain, where he joined one of the groups fighting against General Francisco Franco in 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 brought after the couple had left the country.

Other health problems plagued the talented writer not long after his return to England. For years, Orwell had periods of sickness, and he was officially diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1938. He spent several months at the Preston Hall Sanatorium trying to recover, but he would continue to battle with tuberculosis for the rest of his life. At the time he was initially diagnosed, there was no effective treatment for the disease.

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 as T.S. Eliot and E.M. Forster to appear on his programs.

With World War II raging on, Orwell found himself acting as a propagandist to advance the country's national interest. He loathed this part of his job, describing the company's atmosphere in his diary as "something halfway between a girls’ school and a lunatic asylum, and all we are doing at present is useless, or slightly worse than useless.”

Orwell resigned in 1943, saying “I was wasting my own time and the public money on doing work that produces no result. I believe that in the present political situation the broadcasting of British propaganda to India is an almost hopeless task.” Around this time, Orwell became the literary editor for a socialist newspaper.

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.

‘Animal Farm’ (1945)

Animal Farm was an anti-Soviet satire in a pastoral setting featuring two pigs as its main protagonists. These pigs were said to represent Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky . The novel brought Orwell great acclaim and financial rewards.

‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ (1949)

Orwell’s masterwork, Nineteen Eighty-Four (or 1984 in later editions), was published in the late stages of his battle with tuberculosis and soon before his death. This bleak vision of the world divided into three oppressive nations stirred up controversy among reviewers, who found this fictional future too despairing. In the novel, Orwell gave readers a glimpse into what would happen if the government controlled every detail of a person's life, down to their own private thoughts.

‘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 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.

‘Shooting an Elephant’

This essay, published in the literary magazine New Writing in 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 imperialism, he was disliked by locals. One day, although he didn’t think it necessary, he killed a working elephant in front of a crowd of locals just “to avoid looking a fool.” The essay was later the title piece in a collection of Orwell’s essays, published in 1950, which included ‘My Country Right or Left,’ ‘How the Poor Die’ and ‘Such, Such were the Joys.’

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 largely raised by Orwell's sister Avril after Eileen's death.

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. Brownell inherited Orwell's estate and made a career out of managing his legacy.

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.

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 2017.

"Would he have approved of it? It's an interesting question. I think he would have been reserved, given that he was very self-effacing,” Orwell’s son Richard Blair told The Daily Telegraph . "In the end I think he would have been forced to accept it by his friends. He would have to recognise that he was a man of the moment.”

QUICK FACTS

• Name: George Orwell
• Birth Year: 1903
• Birth date: June 25, 1903
• Birth City: Motihari
• Birth Country: India
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: George Orwell was an English novelist, essayist and critic most famous for his novels 'Animal Farm' (1945) and 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' (1949).
• Fiction and Poetry
• Journalism and Nonfiction
• Astrological Sign: Cancer
• Interesting Facts
• According to one biography, Orwell's first word as a child was "beastly."
• Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil War and was badly injured. He and his wife were later indicted of treason in Spain.
• Orwell was once a BBC producer and ended up loathing his job as he felt he was being used as a propaganda machine.
• Death Year: 1950
• Death date: January 21, 1950
• Death City: London
• Death Country: United Kingdom

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: George Orwell Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/george-orwell
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: May 3, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
• In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.
• Happiness can exist only in acceptance.
• Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.
• Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

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George Orwell

George Orwell, originally named Eric Arthur Blair, was born on June 25, 1903, in Motihari, Bengal Presidency, British India (present-day Bihar, India). He was the second of three children in the Blair family. His father, Richard Walmesley Blair, worked in the Indian Civil Service, and his mother, Ida Mabel Blair, took care of the family. In 1904, when Orwell was a year old, his family moved to England, where he spent much of his early childhood.

The Blairs settled in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. However, due to his father's occupation, Orwell spent some of his early years in boarding schools, including St. Cyprian's, a preparatory school in Eastbourne. His experiences at St. Cyprian's later served as the basis for his critique of English public school life in his essay "Such, Such Were the Joys".

Orwell's childhood was marked by financial constraints, as his father's salary was not substantial. This led to Orwell receiving scholarships for his education, and he attended Eton College, a prestigious boarding school. Despite the financial struggles, Orwell excelled academically at Eton and developed an early interest in literature and writing. After completing his education at Eton, Orwell decided not to attend university due to financial concerns.

Imperial Service in Burma and Early Adulthood

In 1922, Orwell ventured into the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, serving in a colonial outpost. This experience, marked by the harsh realities of imperial rule, sparked Orwell's growing disdain for oppressive systems. In 1927, Orwell resigned from the police force, embarking on a journey of self-discovery and literary exploration.

Orwell's official role in Burma was that of a police officer, and he was stationed in various locations, including Mandalay and Moulmein. His job involved enforcing British colonial rule, and he witnessed firsthand the oppressive nature of imperialism. The colonial administration in Burma, which was under British control, treated the local population with disdain, contributing to Orwell's growing sense of unease and moral discomfort.

During his time in Burma, Orwell became increasingly critical of the imperialist system. He observed the exploitation and mistreatment of the Burmese people by the British authorities, as well as the corruption within the colonial apparatus. His empathy for the oppressed and his disdain for the colonial establishment led to a growing sense of disillusionment with the role he played in enforcing imperial rule.

One notable incident that had a profound impact on Orwell occurred in 1926 when he witnessed the execution of a Burmese prisoner. The experience left a lasting impression on him, and he later wrote about it in his essay "A Hanging." In this essay, Orwell vividly described the dehumanizing nature of the execution and reflected on the arbitrary and cruel exercise of power by the colonial rulers.

Orwell's time in Burma also provided material for his first novel, "Burmese Days," published in 1934. The novel is a scathing critique of British colonialism in Burma, and it draws heavily from Orwell's own experiences. Through the characters and events in the novel, Orwell highlighted the moral and ethical dilemmas faced by those caught in the web of imperialism.

"Burmese Days" portrays the racism, corruption, and cultural clashes that characterized British rule in Burma. The novel explores the impact of imperialist policies on both the oppressors and the oppressed, offering a searing indictment of the injustices inherent in the colonial system. Orwell's portrayal of the characters and the setting in "Burmese Days" reflects his disillusionment with the imperialist project and foreshadows the anti-authoritarian themes that would dominate his later works.

In early 1928, George Orwell moved to Paris, residing in the rue du Pot de Fer, a working-class district in the 5th arrondissement. His aunt Ellen Kate Limouzin, living in Paris, provided social and occasional financial support. During this period, Orwell started writing novels, including an early version of "Burmese Days," although none of these early works survive.

While his attempts at novel writing were not as successful during this time, Orwell found success as a journalist. He contributed articles to various publications, such as Monde, a political/literary journal edited by Henri Barbusse, G. K.'s Weekly, and Le Progrès Civique. His first professional article, "La Censure en Angleterre," appeared in Monde in October 1928, and "A Farthing Newspaper," his first article published in England, appeared in G. K.'s Weekly in December 1928.

Orwell's focus on poverty became a recurring theme in his work, evident in articles discussing unemployment, the lives of tramps, and the beggars of London. His experiences at the Hôpital Cochin in February 1929, where he was treated for a serious illness, formed the basis for his essay "How the Poor Die," published in 1946. Orwell deliberately obscured the hospital's location in his writings.

Facing financial challenges, Orwell took on menial jobs, such as dishwashing in a hotel on the rue de Rivoli, an experience he later documented in "Down and Out in Paris and London." In August 1929, he submitted "The Spike" to John Middleton Murry's New Adelphi magazine in London, and it was accepted for publication.

On December 1929, after two years in Paris, George Orwell returned to England, settling in Southwold, Suffolk, at his parents' house for the next five years. He immersed himself in the local community, developing friendships and connections, including Brenda Salkeld, a gym teacher at St Felix Girls' School. Although Salkeld declined his marriage proposal, they remained friends.

In early 1930, Orwell briefly stayed in Leeds with his sister Marjorie, working as a tutor and writing reviews for Adelphi. He tutored three young brothers, one of whom, Richard Peters, later became an academic. Orwell's life during this period was marked by dualities, alternating between a respectable life in Southwold and experiences as "Burton" in the East End and hop fields.

Orwell continued contributing to Adelphi, and in August 1931, "A Hanging" was published. His exploration of poverty led him to the Kent hop fields, where he kept a diary of his experiences. Financially supported by his parents, he moved to Windsor Street and later contributed "Hop Picking" to New Statesman in October 1931. Mabel Fierz introduced him to Leonard Moore, who became his literary agent in April 1932.

During this time, "A Scullion's Diary", the initial version of "Down and Out", was rejected by Jonathan Cape and Faber and Faber. Orwell deliberately got arrested at the end of the year to experience Christmas in prison, but his "drunk and disorderly" behavior did not lead to imprisonment, and he returned home to Southwold after two days in a cell.

Orwell's wife

Eileen Maud Blair (née O'Shaughnessy) was George Orwell's first wife. Born on September 25, 1905, in South Shields, England, she played various roles during her life, including working for the Censorship Department of the Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Food during World War II.

Eileen received her education at Sunderland Church High School and later studied English at St Hugh's College, Oxford, earning a higher second-class degree in 1927. Her professional journey involved diverse jobs, including assistant mistress, secretary, and freelance journalist. She also assisted her brother, a thoracic surgeon, in typing and editing scientific papers.

In 1934, Eileen enrolled at University College London for a graduate course in educational psychology, where she developed an interest in testing intelligence in children.

Eileen met George Orwell (Eric Blair) in the spring of 1935. They married on June 9, 1936, at St Mary's Church, Wallington, Hertfordshire. Despite attempts to have children, Eileen did not become pregnant.

Spanish Civil War and Ideological Struggles

During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), George Orwell chose to join the fight against fascism in Spain.

He enlisted in the militias of the POUM (Workers' Party of Marxist Unification), a Trotskyist group opposing the Franco-led fascist forces. Orwell's participation in the war and his time in Spain are documented in his work "Homage to Catalonia," published in 1938.

Despite his initial alignment with the POUM, Orwell found himself caught amid tensions and divisions within the republican side. Internal strife between communists and anarchists, coupled with political rivalries, created a hostile climate among the anti-fascist factions. The Soviet Union, influenced by the Spanish Communist Party and Stalin's directives, aimed to eliminate elements considered "disloyal" or "deviationist" within the republican forces.

Orwell, advocating for democratic socialism and critical of Stalinist influence, faced a perilous situation. During the communist purge in Barcelona in May 1937, the POUM militias were declared illegal, and Orwell had to go into hiding to avoid arrest. This experience fueled his disillusionment with Soviet politics and his aversion to totalitarianism, themes that would later manifest prominently in his works, particularly "1984" and "Animal Farm."

Orwell's involvement in the Spanish Civil War and his encounters with Trotskyism deeply shaped his political outlook and subsequent literary contributions. His commitment to fighting fascism and his disappointments with internal struggles among anti-fascist forces left a lasting imprint on his worldview and his work as a writer dedicated to truth-telling and exposing oppression. During George Orwell's participation in the Spanish Civil War, he indeed suffered a severe injury. In May 1937, while fighting on the side of the POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista), Orwell was shot in the throat by a sniper during the Battle of Huesca. The injury damaged his vocal cords and left him in a critical condition.

After being wounded, Orwell was evacuated and spent some time recovering in a hospital. His experiences during the war, as well as the political intrigues and factionalism among the anti-fascist forces, deeply affected him. Orwell's injury left him with a permanently changed voice and contributed to his growing disillusionment with the internal conflicts within the Republican side. She volunteered for a position in the office of John McNair, the leader of the Independent Labour Party (ILP), who was responsible for coordinating the arrival of British volunteers.

Eileen's role involved organizing logistics for the ILP men at the front and overseeing the supply, communications, and banking operations for the entire contingent. With the assistance of Georges Kopp, she paid visits to her husband, George Orwell, who was fighting in the war. During these visits, Eileen brought him English tea, chocolate, and cigars, providing not only essential supplies but also emotional support during a challenging time.

Her dedication to supporting the cause and her active involvement in the war effort highlight Eileen's significant role in the Spanish Civil War and her unwavering support for her husband.

By June 1937, the political situation had deteriorated and Orwell and Eileen were under threat from Stalinists. Anna Funder believes that the Spanish experience is particularly revealing of Orwell's attempt to erase or minimise the importance of Eileen in his life and work:

"Eileen got them both out of Spain by fronting up to the same police prefecture those men had probably been sent from, to get the visas they needed to leave. One biographer eliminates her with the passive voice, writing: 'By now, thanks to the British consulate, their passports were in order.' In Homage, Orwell mentions 'my wife' 37 times but never once names her. No character can come to life without a name. But from a wife, which is a job description, all can be stolen. I wondered what she felt as she typed those pages".

After she got their passports in order, she and Orwell escaped from Spain by train, diverting to Banyuls-sur-Mer for a short stay before returning to England.

Literary Career

Orwell's literary output was prolific, encompassing novels, essays, and journalism. "Animal Farm," an allegory of the Russian Revolution and the dangers of totalitarianism, was published in 1945. It was followed by "1984", a dystopian masterpiece that explored the consequences of a surveillance state and totalitarian control. Orwell's keen insights into political manipulation, language, and power dynamics became hallmarks of his work.

His journalism, often reflective and incisive, included contributions to various publications. "The Lion and the Unicorn" (1941) collected his wartime essays, showcasing his commitment to democratic socialism and his critique of fascism.

Personal Life and Legacy

George Orwell married Eileen O'Shaughnessy in 1936, and they remained together until her death. Eileen died on 29 March 1945 in Newcastle upon Tyne under anaesthetic, which is extremely suspicious and indicative of foul play. There was no investigation regarding her death. Orwell later married Sonia Brownell in 1949. Orwell himself died from tuberculosis on January 21, 1950, at the age of 46. Tuberculosis was considered treatable at the time and not a death sentence and had an extremely low mortality rate, and the fact that George Orwell died only a few days before his planned move from UK to Switzerland, is something deeply strange and it seems that the medical treatment was deliberately incompetent.

George Orwell's legacy extends far beyond his lifetime. His commitment to democratic socialism, his critique of totalitarianism, and his exploration of the abuse of power continue to resonate. The terms "Orwellian" and "Big Brother" have become synonymous with the perils of government overreach and surveillance. Orwell's literary brilliance and social conscience have left an indelible mark on 20th-century literature and political thought, ensuring his enduring relevance in the realms of literature, politics, and social commentary.

Biography Online

Biography George Orwell

Orwell’s Early life

Orwell was born Eric Blair on 25 June 1903, in Motihari, Bihar, in India. Shortly after his birth, he was taken by his mother back to Oxfordshire, England. His family were financially poor, but an aspiring middle-class family. Orwell described it as ‘lower-upper-middle-class’ – a reflection of the importance he felt the English attached to class labels.

With his family unable to afford fees to a proper public school, he was educated at St Cyprian’s in Eastbourne, which served as a preliminary crammer to gaining a scholarship for public schools like Eton. In a later essay “Such, Such were the Joys” he was scathing of his time at St Cyprian’s noting how difficult it was to be happy in such a mean-spirited environment. Aged 14, he was able to move to Eton, where he had better memories because of the greater intellectual stimulation. However, the awareness of being much poorer than many of his school friends remained. He left Eton with firmly held “middle class” values but at the same time a sense of unease with his social position.

After school, he was unable to afford university, and for want of a better option, Orwell took a job with the Burmese civil service. It was here in Burma, that Orwell would begin to assert his independence from his privileged upbringing. Revealingly, Orwell later told how he found himself rooting for the local population, and despising the imperial ideology which he represented. He resigned from his position in 1927. In an essay Shooting the Elephant he describes he feelings on Burma:

“ Theoretically and secretly of course, I was always for the Burmese and all against the oppressors, the British. As for the job I was doing I hated it more bitterly than I can perhaps make clear” (1)

It was in the nature of George Orwell to try and see a situation from other people’s point of view. He was unhappy at accepting the conventional social wisdom. In fact, he grew to despise his middle-class upbringing so much he decided to spend time as a tramp. He wanted to experience life from the view of the gutter. His vivid experiences are recorded in his book “ Down and out in Paris and London ”. No longer could Orwell be described as a “Champagne Socialist”; by living with the poorest and underprivileged,  he gained a unique insight into the practical workings of working class ideas and working-class politics.

The Road to Wigan Pier

In the middle of the great depression, Orwell undertook another experience travelling to Wigan; an industrial town in Lancashire experiencing the full effects of mass unemployment and poverty. Orwell freely admitted how, as a young child, he was brought up to despise the working class. He vividly tells how he was obsessed with the idea that the working classes smelt:

“At a distance.. I could agonise over their sufferings, but I still hated them and despised them when I came anywhere near them .” (2)

The Road to Wigan Pier offered a penetrating insight into the condition of the working classes. It was also a right of passage for Orwell to live amongst the people he had once, from a distance, despised. The Road to Wigan Pier inevitably had a political message, but characteristically of Orwell, it was not all pleasing to the left. For example, it was less than flattering towards the Communist party. This was despite the book being promoted by a mostly Communist organisation – The Left Book club.

Orwell and the Spanish Civil War

It was fighting in the Spanish Civil war that Orwell came to really despise Communist influences. In 1936, Orwell volunteered to fight for the fledgeling Spanish Republic, who at the time were fighting the Fascist forces of General  Franco. It was a conflict that polarised nations. To the left, the war was a symbol of a real socialist revolution, based on the principles of equality and freedom. It was for these ideals that many international volunteers, from around the world, went to Spain to fight on behalf of the Republic. Orwell found himself in the heart of the Socialist revolution in Barcelona. He was assigned to an Anarchist – Trotskyist party – P.O.U.M. More than most other left-wing parties, they believed in the ideal of a real Marxist revolution. To members of the P.O.U.M, the war was not just about fighting the Fascist menace but also delivering a Socialist revolution for the working classes. In his book, “ Homage to Catalonia ” Orwell writes of his experiences; he notes the inefficiency with which the Spanish fought even wars. He was enthused by the revolutionary fervour of some of his party members; however, one of the overriding impressions was his perceived betrayal of the Republic, by the Stalinist backed Communist party.

“ the Communists stood not upon the extreme Left, but upon the extreme right. In reality this should come as no surprise, because the tactics of the Communist parties elsewhere ” (3)

Unwittingly he found himself engaged in a civil war amongst the left, as the Soviet Union backed Communist party turned on the Trotskyite factions like P.O.U.M. In the end, Orwell narrowly escaped with his life, after being shot in the throat. He was able to return to England, but he had learnt at first hand how revolutions could easily be betrayed; ideas that would later shape his seminal work “ Animal Farm .”

Orwell at the BBC

During the Second World War, Orwell was declared unfit for active duty. He actively supported the war effort from the start. (He didn’t wait for the Soviet Union to enter like some communists.) He also began writing for the left-leaning magazine ‘The Tribune’ which was associated with the left of the Labour Party. Orwell was appointed editor and was enthusiastic in supporting the radical Labour government of 1945, which implemented a national health service, welfare state and nationalisation of major industries. However, Orwell was not just focused on politics, he took an active interest in working class life and English culture. His short essays investigated aspects of English life from fish and chips to the eleven rules of making a good cup of tea.

Orwell described himself as a secular humanist and could be critical of organised religion in his writings. However, he had a fondness for the social and cultural aspect of the Church of England and attended services intermittently.

Barnhill. Jura

He married Eileen O’Shaughnessy in 1936 and in 1944, they adopted a three-week old child – Richard Horatio. Orwell was devastated when Eileen died and sought to remarry – seeking a mother for his young son. He asked several women for their hand in marriage, with Sonia Branwell accepting in 1949 – despite Orwell’s increasingly poor health. Orwell was a heavy smoker and this affected his lungs causing bronchial problems. In the last years of his life, he moved to a remote farm on the Scottish island of Jura to concentrate on his writings. Orwell passed away on 21 January 1950. His friend David Astor helped him to be buried at Sutton Courtenay churchyard, Oxfordshire.

The two great novels of Orwell were “ Animal Farm ” and “ 1984 ”. Animal Farm is a simple allegory for revolutions which go wrong, based primarily on the Russian revolution. 1984 is a dystopian nightmare about the dangers of a totalitarian state which gains complete control over its citizens.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of George Orwell”, Oxford, www.biographyonline.net 3 Feb. 2013. Last updated 4 Feb 2018.

• The Socialism of George Orwell
• George Orwell Quotes
• George Orwell, “Shooting an elephant”, George Orwell selected writings (1958) p.25
• George Orwell, “Road to Wigan Pier” (Harmondswith) 1980 p.130
• George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia 1959 p.58

George Orwell – a collection of essays

George Orwell – a collection of essays at Amazon.com

Animal Farm and 1984

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The Only Known Footage of George Orwell (Circa 1921)

in Literature | March 1st, 2013 8 Comments

Although he died in 1950, George Orwell  seem­ing­ly escaped the reach of mod­ern media. Orwell’s voice was nev­er cap­tured on audio. And his image nev­er appeared on film. His­to­ri­ans and lit­er­a­ture schol­ars lament­ed this for decades.

But then, in 2003, on the hun­dredth anniver­sary of Orwell’s birth, two researchers stum­bled upon a tan­ta­liz­ing piece of footage in the The Pathay Film Library in Lon­don. The very brief footage — watch in full here , or at the 50 sec­ond mark in the video above — shows an 18-year-old Orwell, then named Eric Blair, march­ing across a sports field at  Eton Col­lege , where he spent his for­ma­tive years and stud­ied French with Aldous Hux­ley. In the line of march­ing stu­dents, Orwell is the fourth stu­dent from the left.

Note: the video above comes from a British Pathe clip that fea­tures celebri­ties before they became famous. If you’re curi­ous who appears in the film, see the list below the jump.

1) Arnold Schwarzeneg­ger win­ning Mr. Uni­verse in 1969.

2) British broad­cast­ing leg­end David Dim­ble­by doing a spot of mod­ern art as a stu­dent.

3) Audrey Hep­burn mod­el­ling before she was an actress.

4) Ger­maine Greer at a Rolling Stones show in 1969.

5) Melanie Grif­fiths as a lit­tle girl, attend­ing Char­lie Chap­lin’s 77th birth­day par­ty.

6) George Orwell at Eton play­ing “The Wall Game”

7) Grace Kel­ly mod­el­ling “hon­ey­moon fash­ions” in 1949.

8) Julie Andrews singing at the 1948 Roy­al Com­mand Per­for­mance when only 14 years old.

by OC | Permalink | Comments (8) |

Related posts:

Comments (8), 8 comments so far.

I saw the Hyundai in the pho­to. After years of being a hap­py Hyundai own­er, I have had the most unpleas­ant with a Hyundai deal­er. I can hard­ly look at the pic­ture of a Hyundai.

Actu­al­ly, Orwell was cap­tured speak­ing on film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox-shlDXKO4

Actu­al­ly, that was not Orwell speak­ing. This is an actor named Christo­pher Lang­ham, por­tray­ing Orwell in a BBC­Four doc­u­men­tary on the great writer. If only it was him.….

Actu­al­ly, Orwell asked one of the Eton Wall Game spec­ta­tors to take his place as soon as he spot­ted some­one film­ing them. He then slipped off to smoke his pipe behind a tree in the dis­tance until every­one had gone.

I know because It was me he asked to take his place. We used to have a great chuck­le about it for years after­wards over a pint.

And how old will you be?

So then Roger Swythell must be about 115 years old.

It’s quite wrong to say “Orwell’s voice was nev­er cap­tured on audio”. He deliv­ered talks on the BBC’s East­ern Ser­vice, broad­cast to India. There may be no archive of them now, but they exist­ed, as attest­ed by a memo in which a BBC con­troller, JB Clark, express­es con­cern about the unat­trac­tive­ness of Orwell’s voice. You can find it in the Orwell archive on the BBC web­site. Orwell had a some­what stran­gu­lat­ed tone due to a bul­let wound to his throat received dur­ing the Span­ish Civ­il War. The memo had no effect, how­ev­er: Orwell kept deliv­er­ing the broad­casts him­self.

Orwell on mak­ing tea, in the trench­es of the Span­ish Civ­il War — in final scene https://youtu.be/tYv-yp-nidk

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