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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, have been 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: 4.1 · 9,309,654 ratings · 254,959 reviews · 1,355 distinct works • Similar authors

	1984 by George Orwell, Thomas Pynchon (Foreword) 4.19 avg rating — 4,730,104 ratings — published 1949 — 1322 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) 3.99 avg rating — 3,982,297 ratings — published 1945 — 3673 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) 4.30 avg rating — 201,279 ratings — published 1949 — 307 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 4.09 avg rating — 90,070 ratings — published 1933 — 477 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 4.09 avg rating — 62,580 ratings — published 1938 — 581 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 3.87 avg rating — 28,982 ratings — published 1934 — 425 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) 3.92 avg rating — 24,948 ratings — published 1937 — 442 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 3.89 avg rating — 22,343 ratings — published 1936 — 309 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 — 18,637 ratings — published 1938 — 314 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
	Why I Write 4.01 avg rating — 12,784 ratings — published 1946 — 58 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…

Series by George Orwell

The Collected Essays, Journalism & Letters (4 books)
by

George Orwell,

Sonia Orwell (Editor),

Ian Angus (Editor)

4.35 avg rating — 1,690 ratings

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Polls

April 2022 Short Story/Novella Poll

The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges, 39 pages, 1941

49 votes, 29.9%

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? by Horace McCoy, 128 pages, 1935

36 votes, 22.0%

how the poor die by George Orwell, 1946

33 votes, 20.1%

My Friend Hitler and Other Plays of Yukio Mishima by Yukio Mishima Only Title Play, 49 pages, 1968

20 votes, 12.2%

My Kinsman Major Molineux by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 48 pages, 1831

12 votes, 7.3%

Jamilia by Chingiz Aitmatov 96 pages, 1958

9 votes, 5.5%

Essential Stories, Single Story (you make your own life) by V.S. Pritchett, 6 pages, 1938

5 votes, 3.0%

164 total votes

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