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Eric Arthur Blair was born in 1903 at Motihari in British-occupied India.
While growin up, he attended private schools in Sussex, Wellington and
Eton. He worked at the Imperial Indian Police untill 1927 when he went to
London to study the poverty stricken. He then moved to Paris where he
wrote two lost novels. After he moved back to England he wrote Down and
Out in Paris and London, Burmese Days, A Clergyman’s Daughter and Keep the
Apidistra Flying. He published all four under the psuedonym George
Orwell. He then married Eileen O’Shaughnessy and wrote The Road to Wigan
Pier. Orwell then joined the Army and fought in the Spanish civil war.
He became a socialist revolutionary and wrote Homage to Catalonia, Coming
Up for Air, and in 1943, he wrote Animal Farm. It’s success ended
Orwell’s financial troubles forever. In 1947 and 48 despite Tuberculosis,
he wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four. He died in 1950 (Williams 7-15). This
essay will show and prove to you that George Orwell’s life has influenced
modern society a great deal.
BIOGRAPHY
In 1903, Eric Arthur Blair was born. Living in India until he was four,
Blair and his family then moved to England and settled at Henley. At the
age of eight, Blair was sent to a private school in Sussex, and he lived
there, except on holidays, until he was thirteen. He went to two private
secondary schools: Wellington(for one term) and Eton (for four and a half
years).
After Eton, Blair joined the Imperial Indian Police and was trained in
Burma. He served there for nearly five years and then in 1927, while hom
on leave, decided not to return. He later wrote that he had come to
understand and reject the imperialism he was serving. He was
struck…between hatred of the empire and rage against the native people
who opposed it, and made his immediate job more difficult. Blair, on his
first six months of release, traveled to the East End to research the
English poor.
In Spring of 1928, he took a room in a working-class district of Paris.
He wrote two novels, which have been lost, as well as publishing a number
of articles in French and English. He became ill with pneumonia, worked
ten weeks as a dishwasher and kitchen porter, and returned to England at
the end of 1929.
He used his parents’ home in Suffolk for writing and earned money from
occasional articles and teaching. Blair then completed several versions
of what was to become his first book, called, not by his choice, Down and
Out in Paris and London. The book was a record of his experiences, but
“If it’s all the same to everybody, I would prefer [it] to be published
pseudonymously”.
Discussing the publication of his first book with his agent, he decided
on three possible pseudonyms: Keneth Miles, George Orwell and H. Lewis
Allways. He favored George Orwell. The Orwell is a river in Suffolk,
south of his parents’ home. “George Orwell” published his first book in
1933. Down and Out… was followed by the novel Burmese Days, published
first in the United States rather than in England because of his English
publishers fear of it’s giving offence in Burma. After Burmese Days came
two more novels: A Clergyman’s Daughter, published in 1935; and Keep the
Apidistra Flying, published in 1936.
In the Spring of 1936 he moved to Hertfordshire and married Eileen
O’Shaughnessy, an Oxford graduate in English, a teacher, a journalist, and
later a London graduate in psychology. Orwell’s reputation at this time
was based mainly on his accounts of poverty and depression. His next
book, The Road to Wigan Pier was written for the Left Book Club and
started his career as a political writer. Much of this book was composed
of an essay on class and socialism, which was Orwell’s first statement of
his political possition.
In July, he left for Spain to fight (and write) in the Spanish civil war.
For the next two or three years, Orwell became a revolutionary socialist.
When he returned from war , he wrote Homage to Catalonia and in the winter
of 1938, wrote Coming Up for Air. In 1941 he wrote London Letter’s and in
August joined the BBC as a talks producer in the Indian Section of the
Eastern Service. Later in the year, he began writing Animal Farm. It did
not appear until August 1945, at the end of the war.
He and his wife adopted a son in 1944, but in 1945 his wife died during
an opperation. Animal Farm’s success ended Orwell’s financial worries
that he had suffered from for twenty years. In 1946, he settled in Jura,
Scottland, with his younger sister as houskeeper, though he returned to
lundon for the winter. During 1947, in the early stages of renewed
tuberculosis, he wrote the first drafts of Nineteen Eighty-Four. In 1948,
amid several attacks, Orwell wrote the second draft. In September, 1949,
he went into a hospital in London, and in October married Sonia Brownell.
In January 1950, Eric Arthur Blair, aka “George Orwell”, died. (Williams
7-15)
WORKS
In 1933, Orwell wrote Down and Out in Paris and London. This was his
first book. It is the record of a young man’s (most-likely Orwell’s)
experiences with poverty in Paris and London. It did very well for a
first novel. In most ways it was a long, autobiographical essay on
poverty. (Wykes 71-72)
Orwell’s second novel was Burmese Days. It was an account of Orwell’s
experiences working for the Imperial Indian Police in Burma. For fear of
insulting Burma, this novel was published first in the U.S. rather than in
England. (Wykes 44)
His next two novels were A Clergyman’s Daughter and Keep the Appidistra
Flying. A Clergyman’s Daughter, published in 1935, is the journey of
Dorothy Hare. A journey of escape and self-exploration (Wykes 4). Keep
the Apidistra Flying, published in 1936, is a novel about middle-class
decline and compromise (Wykes 7). Orwell regarded these novels as
failures.
The Road to Wigan Pier, written for the Left Book Club in 1936 was
Orwell’s fourth novel. This book started Orwell’s life-long career change
to political writing. The first part of this book is reporting on the
poor and unemployed. The second part is an essay on class and socialism,
as I mentioned before. It was the first statement of Orwell’s political
possition. (Wykes 50-60)
Homage to Catalonia, Orwell’s fifth novel, completed his break with the
orthodox left. It is an attempt to tell the truth about war from Orwell’s
point of view. The genre to which this book belongs was later defined by
Orwell as the “Political book…a sort of enlarged pamphlet combining
history with political critiscism”. Orwell came to believe that Homage to
Catalonia was the best book he had ever written.
During winter in 1938, Orwell wrote his sixth novel Coming Up for Air. It
is the discovery of George Bowling, that his boy-hood home has changed
like everything else. It is regarded as his best novel (with the
exception of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four). It illustrates in
great detail, the fact that everything peacefull eventually becomes
corupt.
After Coming Up for Air, Orwell wrote one of his most-loved novels,
Animal Farm. It is the “fairy story” of an animal revolution on the Manor
Farm, The animals create a socialistic republic in which “Some animals are
more equal than others” (Orwell). The book an alagorical essay on the
Russian Revolution. By the end of the book the pigs disobey the laws of
“Animal Farm”, but as they do so, they change the laws to fit their needs.
Animal Farm is a spiritual parody of the Communist Manifesto (Calder 5-20)
Animal Farm was followed by Orwell’s eighth and last novel, Nineteen
Eighty-Four. Another of Orwell’s best novels, 1984 is the story of
Winston Smith. Smith is a member of a totalitarianist party ruled by the
god-like Big Brother. There is no freedom, privacy or choice. No
friendship or love. There is only love for Big Brother. It is the story
of Smith’s secret rebellion from the party through love, sex, free-thought
and choice. It is said to be Orwell’s greatest achivement (Calder 74-88).
CRITISCISM
This is the kind of book I like to read, where I get the truth in chapters
of real life…”, writes W.h> Davies about Down and Out in Paris and
London. Daniel George for the tribune says, “Much of it is, I should
judge, written from first-hand knowledge.” Hames Farrell comments
“[Orwell’s] account is genuine, unexagerated and intelligent” (Meyers
39-49)
About Burmese Days, an annonymus author writes, “Burmese Days, by George
Orwell is symptomatic of the reaction against conventional portrayals of
Burma as a land of tinkling temples bells, gentle charming Burmans, and
strong silent Englishman”. For the Fortnightly, G.W. Stonier observes,
“Burmese Days is another novel, and I recommend it to all those who enjoy
a lively hatred in fiction” (Meyers 50-57)
About Orwell’s next novel, A Clergyman’s Daughter, Peter Quennel writes
“A Clergyman’s Daughter is abitious yet not entirely successfull”. Michael
Sayers comments “George Orwell is a popular novelist sensitive to values
that most other novelists are popular for ignoring”. For the Commonweal,
Geoffrey Stone reports, “…in A Clergyman’s Daughter, [Orwell] arranges
circumstance so that the pessimistic conclusion will seem inevitable”
(Meyers 58-64)
“Mr. Orwell’s new book, bitter almost throughout and often crude is also
all about money,” writes William Plomer of Keep the Apidistra Flying.
Cyril Connoly, for the New Statesman and Nation, writes, “The book is the
recital of [Orwell’s] misfortunes interrupted by tirades against money and
the spiritual evil it causes”. An unsigned notice in the TImes Literary
Supplement states, “If this book is persistently irritating, this is
exactly what makes it worth reading; few books have enough body in them to
be irratants” (Meyers 65-90)
Walter Greenwood writes about The Road to Wigan Pier, “Mr. Orwell has the
gift of writing vividly, of creating in the mind’s eye a picture of the
scene described.” “Of Mr. Orwell’s book, there is little to say except
praise…,” comments Arthur Calder-Marshall. “It takes an ugly section of
British life, and it forces us to confront it for what it is,” writes H.J.
Laski (Meyers 91-118)
“Homage to Catalonia is… a book which is at the same time a work of
first-class literature and a political document of the greatest
importance,” reports Geoffrey Gorer. John McNair for the New Leader,
writes, “There have been many books written on the Spanish civil war, but
none containing so many living, first-hand experiences as this” (Meyers
119-151)
“Mr. Orwell writes with hard, honest clarity and unanswering precision of
feeling,” states of Coming Up for Air, an unsigned notice in the Times
Literary Supplement. John Cogley for the Commonweal, writes, “George
Orwell, a hard man, is frankly sentimental about the world he knew as a
boy”. “Coming Up for Air, written in 1938, reverts to the journalistic
stylo of ease and understatement, the disquietude of Burmese Days worked
out of it (Meyers 152-190).
“..it is aa devestating attack on Stalin and his ‘betrayal’ of the
Russian revolution, as seen by another revolutionary,” writes Cyril
Connoly on Animal Farm. “The staory is very well-written, especially the
Snowball episode#, which suggests that that the communist ‘Trotskyite’ is
a conception on much the same plane as the nazi ‘jew’…,”writes Northrup
Frye for the Canadian Forum. Isaac Rosenfield for the Nation, writes,
“George Orwell, to judge by his writing, is a man, not without
imagination, who is never swept away by his imagination.”
Of Nineteen Eighty-Four, Fredric Warburg comments, “This is amongst the
most terrifying books I have ever read”. “Mr. Orwell’s latest book,
Nineteen Eighty-Four, can be approached either as a political argument or
as an indictment of materialism cast in fictional foprm,” writes Harold
Nicolson. “Mr. Orwell is in every way similar to Huxley, especially in
his contempt for people, in his aim of slandering man,” reports Isaac
Anisimov for the Pravda.
CONCLUSION
As you can see, George Orwell is one of the most beloved and respected
authors in history. His works speak out against money, hypocrisy, poverty
and injustice. His style has influenced many modern authors and will,
most definetly, influence many more authors to come.
WORKS CITED
Calder, Jenni. Animal Farm & Nineteen Eighty-Four. Philadelphia:
Milton Keynes, 1986.
Meyers, Jeffery. George Orwell: The Critical Hertige. Boston:
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975.
Orwell, George. Animal Farm. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
Inc., 1982
Williams, Raymond. Orwell. London: Raymond Williams, 1991.
Wykes, David. A Preface to Orwell. New York: Longman, Inc., 1987.
