Educated at Eton College, Orwell joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma as an assistant district superintendent in 1922. He became disillusioned with British imperialism and left the service in 1927. He returned to Europe and lived in poverty for a number of years in London and Paris. Beginning in 1930, he began to write as a journalist for various magazines and in 1933, published his first book, Down and Out in London and Paris, which dealt with his experiences during those years. He took part in the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and witnessed atrocities on both sides, but was especially apalled by the Communists. He became a fervent anti-Communist which would show itself in his later writings. In 1937, he published The Road to Wigan Pier, which again dealt with his years of poverty in Europe. His experiences in Spain led to his next book, Homage to Catalonia in 1938. Orwell served as a sergeant in the British Home Guard during World War II and also worked as a journalist for the Observer, BBC and Tribune. In 1945, he published his serious satire, Animal Farm, with his main character being a satirical version of Joseph Stalin. The novel for which he is best remembered is undoubtedly Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949); a futuristic view of the world that has become dominated by dictatorship and where individual freedoms no longer exist. Orwell died in London of tuberculosis in 1950. His other main works include Keep The Aspidistra Flying (1936), Coming up for Air (1939), Lion and the Unicorn (1941) and The English People (1947). Orwell also produced a large number of essays and criticism. |
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