George Orwell (1903–1950), born Eric Arthur Blair, is most remembered for his two novels Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), the dystopian vision of what life would be like if the government controlled every detail of a person’s life. The term Orwellian has come to signify, and warn against, such authoritarian practices. A critic and essayist, in his work he addressed the major movements of his times—imperialism, fascism, and communism—and he was outspoken in support of democratic socialism. Orwell died of tuberculosis and in his will requested that no biography of him be written.
Photograph from A. M. Heath.
WORKS THAT HAVE APPEARED IN NARRATIVE:
- Shooting an Elephant, an essay, in Stories of the Week: 2018–2019