Wikipedia

George Orwell

British writer and journalist (1903–1950)

George Orwell (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English writer. His real name was Eric Arthur Blair.[1][2] He used the name George Orwell for his novels.

George Orwell

He was born in India during the British Empire's rule of India. He is best known for two novels that he wrote in the late 1940s, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. In those works, he said that totalitarianism, especially Stalinism, was very bad. He was a democratic socialist.[3]

Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil War with the anti fascist troops. They fought against the dictatorship of fascist governments.

Orwell died of tuberculosis in London.

Early life

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Eric Arthur Blair was born on 25 June 1903, in India.[4] His great-grandfather Charles Blair was a rich gentleman who had married Lady Mary Fane, and he owned slaves and plantations in Jamaica.[5][6] His grandfather, Thomas Richard Arthur Blair, was a clergyman.[7] His father, Richard Walmesley Blair, worked in the Indian Civil Service. His mother, Ida Mabel Blair, grew up in Burma.[5] He had a younger sister Avril and an older sister Marjorie. When Eric was one year old, Ida took him to England.[8]

Eric grew up with his mother and sisters. Except for a short visit, he did not see his father again until 1912. The family moved to Shiplake before World War I. There, Eric became friends with the Buddicom family, especially Gertrude Butticom. They read poetry and hoped to become famous writers. At this time, he also liked fishing and watching birds with Jacintha[who?] brother and sister.[9]

When he was five, Eric was sent to a Catholic convent school where Marjorie went.[10] His mother wanted him to go to public school, but his family was not rich enough to pay for it. Ida's brother, Charles Limouzin, was asked to help find the best school to help Eric prepare for better things.[11] He suggested St Cyprian's School in Eastbourne, Sussex. Limouzin, who was a good golfer, came to know the school and its headmaster at the Royal Eastbourne Golf Club. The headmaster helped Blair win the scholarship to pay for his education. He also let Blair's parents pay only half the usual amount of money. However, Blair hated the school.[12]

Bibliography

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Novels

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Essays

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Books based on his life

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Poems

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  • "Romance"
  • "A Little Poem"
  • "Awake! Young Men of England"
  • "Kitchener"
  • "Our Minds are Married, But we are Too Young"
  • "The Pagan"
  • "The Lesser Evil"
  • "Poem From Burma"

References

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  • Anderson, Paul (ed). Orwell in Tribune: 'As I Please' and Other Writings. Methuen/Politico's 2006. ISBN 1-84275-155-7
  • Bounds, Philip. Orwell and Marxism: The Political and Cultural Thinking of George Orwell. I.B. Tauris. 2009. ISBN 1-84511-807-3
  • Bowker, Gordon. George Orwell. Little Brown. 2003. ISBN 0-316-86115-4
  • Caute, David. Dr. Orwell and Mr. Blair, Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-81438-9
  • Crick, Bernard. George Orwell: A Life. Penguin. 1982. ISBN 0-14-005856-7
  • Flynn, Nigel. George Orwell. The Rourke Corporation, Inc. 1990. ISBN 0-86593-018-X
  • Hitchens, Christopher. Why Orwell Matters. Basic Books. 2003. ISBN 0-465-03049-1
  • Hollis, Christopher. A Study of George Orwell: The Man and His Works. Chicago: Henry Regnery Co. 1956.
  • Larkin, Emma. Secret Histories: Finding George Orwell in a Burmese Teashop. Penguin. 2005. ISBN 1-59420-052-1
  • Lee, Robert A, Orwell's Fiction. University of Notre Dame Press, 1969. LC 74-75151
  • Leif, Ruth Ann, Homage to Oceania. The Prophetic Vision of George Orwell. Ohio State U.P. [1969]
  • Meyers, Jeffery. Orwell: Wintry Conscience of a Generation. W.W.Norton. 2000. ISBN 0-393-32263-7
  • Newsinger, John. Orwell's Politics. Macmillan. 1999. ISBN 0-333-68287-4
  • Rodden, John (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to George Orwell. Cambridge. 2007. ISBN 978-0-521-67507-9
  • Shelden, Michael. Orwell: The Authorized Biography. HarperCollins. 1991. ISBN 0-06-016709-2
  • Smith, D. & Mosher, M. Orwell for Beginners. 1984. London: Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative.
  • Taylor, D. J. Orwell: The Life. Henry Holt and Company. 2003. ISBN 0-8050-7473-2
  • West, W. J. The Larger Evils. Edinburgh: Canongate Press. 1992. ISBN 0-86241-382-6 (Nineteen Eighty-Four – The truth behind the satire.)
  • West, W. J. (ed.) George Orwell: The Lost Writings. New York: Arbor House. 1984. ISBN 0-87795-745-2
  • Williams, Raymond, Orwell, Fontana/Collins, 1971
  • Woodcock, George. The Crystal Spirit. Little Brown. 1966. ISBN 1-55164-268-9
  • Orwell's meeting with dos Passos in 1937 Barcelona referenced in Stephen Koch, “The Breaking Point: Hemingway, dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles”

References

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  1. ↑ "BBC - History - Historic Figures: George Orwell (1903 - 1950)". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
  2. ↑ "George Orwell Biography - Charles' George Orwell Links". netcharles.com. Archived from the original on 7 July 2010. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
  3. ↑ Orwell, George (2014-10-30). Why I Write. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-0-14-198060-7.
  4. ↑ Crick, Bernard (2004). "Eric Arthur Blair [pseud. George Orwell] (1903–1950)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Stansky, Peter; Abrahams, William (1994). "From Bengal to St Cyprian's". The unknown Orwell: Orwell, the transformation. Styanford, CA: Stanford University Press. pp. 5–12. ISBN 978-0-80-472342-8.
  6. ↑ Olusoga, David (2015-07-11). "The history of British slave ownership has been buried: now its scale can be revealed". the Guardian. Retrieved 2020-11-07. The records show that for the 218 men and women he regarded as his property, Charles Blair, the great-grandfather of George Orwell, was paid the more modest sum of £4,442 – the modern equivalent of about £3m. There are other famous names hidden within the records. Ancestors of the novelist Graham Greene, the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and the architect Sir George Gilbert Scott all received compensation for slaves. As did a distant ancestor of David Cameron.
  7. ↑ Taylor, D.J. Orwell: The Life. Henry Holt and Company. 2003. ISBN 0-8050-7473-2
  8. ↑ Bernard Crick. George Orwell: A Life. Secker & Warburg 1980. Stansky and Abrahams had suggested that Mrs Blair moved to England in 1907 because of information given by Avril Blair remembering a time before she was born.
  9. ↑ Buddicom, Jacintha. Eric & Us. Finlay Publisher. 2006. ISBN 0-9553708-0-9
  10. ↑ Gordon Bowker, Orwell, p.21
  11. ↑ Gordon Bowker. George Orwell biography. p. 28
  12. ↑ Alaric Jacob. Sharing Orwell's Joys, but not his Fears in Christopher Norris (ed.) Inside the Myth. Lawrence and Wishart. 1984.
  13. ↑ Bowker, p. 383, 399.
  14. ↑ "Charles' George Orwell Links". Archived from the original on 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2011-02-24.
  15. ↑ "What George Orwell Wrote About the Dangers of Nationalism". Literary Hub. 16 November 2017.
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