George Orwell, born Eric Arthur Blair to a minor Indian civil servant in Bengal, possessed a life-long need to speak out unpleasant truths and became the “wintry conscience of a generation.” Schooled at an expensive, English preparatory school, Orwell earned a scholarship to Eton but instead returned to Burma (Myanmar) as a police officer where the corruption of imperialism outraged his sense of justice. Returning to England he experienced the effects of poverty of the working class as a dishwasher, a farm worker, and a tramp.
At last a socialist, Orwell enlisted on the side of the leftists in the Spanish Civil War (1936). Wounded in body and mind (from the brutal, communist purges) he returned to England again disillusioned.
In the late 30’s Orwell embarked on a journalistic career and was hailed as genius as his essays covered a wide range of subjects: politics, literature, language. “Good prose is like a window pane,” he remarked and offered prose in a clear and concise style. His distinct ability was to state eloquently and provocatively what many people felt and could not express.
The two books that created his fame were Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-four (1949). Both denounce totalitarianism and warn free societies of the tenuous nature of their liberties if they abdicate their education and control.
Political Writings of George Orwell
APPLE COMMERCIAL hammer throw commercial