George Orwell

Born

in Motihari, Bihar, India

June 25, 1903

Died

January 21, 1950

Website

http://www.george-orwell.org/

Genre

Fiction, Politics, Journalism

Influences

Charles Dickens, Jonathan Swift, Charles Reade, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Gust ...more

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Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. His work is marked by keen intelligence and wit, a profound awareness of social injustice, an intense opposition to totalitarianism, a passion for clarity in language, and a belief in democratic socialism.

In addition to his literary career Orwell served as a police officer with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma from 1922-1927 and fought with the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1937. Orwell was severely wounded when he was shot through his throat. Later the organization that he had joined when he joined the Republican cause, The Workers Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), was painted by the pro-Soviet Communists as a Trotsky Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. His work is marked by keen intelligence and wit, a profound awareness of social injustice, an intense opposition to totalitarianism, a passion for clarity in language, and a belief in democratic socialism.

In addition to his literary career Orwell served as a police officer with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma from 1922-1927 and fought with the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1937. Orwell was severely wounded when he was shot through his throat. Later the organization that he had joined when he joined the Republican cause, The Workers Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), was painted by the pro-Soviet Communists as a Trotskyist organization (Trotsky was Joseph Stalin's enemy) and disbanded. Orwell and his wife were accused of "rabid Trotskyism" and tried in absentia in Barcelona, along with other leaders of the POUM, in 1938. However by then they had escaped from Spain and returned to England.

Between 1941 and 1943, Orwell worked on propaganda for the BBC. In 1943, he became literary editor of the Tribune, a weekly left-wing magazine. He was a prolific polemical journalist, article writer, literary critic, reviewer, poet, and writer of fiction, and, considered perhaps the twentieth century's best chronicler of English culture.

Orwell is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (published in 1949) and the satirical novella Animal Farm (1945) — they have together sold more copies than any two books by any other twentieth-century author. His 1938 book Homage to Catalonia, an account of his experiences as a volunteer on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, together with numerous essays on politics, literature, language, and culture, are widely acclaimed.

Orwell's influence on contemporary culture, popular and political, continues decades after his death. Several of his neologisms, along with the term "Orwellian" — now a byword for any oppressive or manipulative social phenomenon opposed to a free society — have entered the vernacular. ...more

Combine Editions
George Orwell’s books

Average rating: 4.05 · 5,143,596 ratings · 114,341 reviews · 354 distinct works • Similar authors

	1984 4.17 avg rating — 2,510,391 ratings — published 1949 — 1291 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Animal Farm by George Orwell, Russell Baker (Preface) , C.M. Woodhouse (Introduction) 3.91 avg rating — 2,290,468 ratings — published 1945 — 1228 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Animal Farm / 1984 by George Orwell, Christopher Hitchens (Introduction) 4.28 avg rating — 143,823 ratings — published 1950 — 64 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Down and Out in Paris and London 4.11 avg rating — 48,854 ratings — published 1933 — 219 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, Lionel Trilling (Introduction) 4.15 avg rating — 32,323 ratings — published 1938 — 195 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Burmese Days 3.84 avg rating — 17,797 ratings — published 1934 — 167 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Keep the Aspidistra Flying 3.88 avg rating — 13,261 ratings — published 1936 — 130 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell, Richard Hoggart (Introduction) 3.89 avg rating — 11,764 ratings — published 1937 — 135 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Coming Up for Air 3.79 avg rating — 9,811 ratings — published 1939 — 128 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Shooting an Elephant 4.12 avg rating — 6,748 ratings — published 1950 — 27 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by George Orwell…

Quotes by George Orwell

“Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.”
― George Orwell, 1984

tags: truth

12717 likes

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
― George Orwell, 1984

tags: inspirational

8265 likes

“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
― George Orwell

tags: truth

7171 likes

See all George Orwell's quotes »

Polls

¿Qué novela quieres leer?
(Club de lectura julio-septiembre 2014)

1984, de George Orwell

11 votes 40.7%

EL SUEÑO ETERNO, de Raymond Chandler

9 votes 33.3%

El Jugador / Noches Blancas, de Fyodor Dostoyevsky

7 votes 25.9%

27 total votes

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