'All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.'

English novelist, essayist and critic famous for his novels ANIMAL FARM (1945) and NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (1949; see also: Franz Kafka)

Orwell was born in Motihari, Bengal, India. His father was a civil servant in the opium departnment and his mother came from a family of old Burma hands. In 1904 Orwell moved with his mother and sister to England. He attended Eton, where he published his first writings in college periodicals. During these years Orwell developed his antipathy towards the English class systems. Also Orwell's preparatory school years at St Cyprian's were not happy. His bitter essay SUCH, SUCH WERE THE JOYS was not published until 1968.

In 1922 Owell went to Burma to serve in the Indian Imperial Police (1922-27) as an assistant superintendent. Eventually Orwell's mounting dislike of imperialism led to his resignation. His revelations of the behaviour of the colonial officers appeared in SHOOTING AN ELEPHANT (1950) and in his early essay A Hanging (1931).

Orwell returned to Europe, and lived as a tramp and beggar, workinglow paid jobs, in England and France (1928-29). His account of these experiences gave material for the DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON (1933). From 1930 Orwell contributed regularly to the New Adelphi. Unable to support himself with his writings Orwell took up a teaching post at a private school, where he finished his first novel, BURMESE DAYS (1934). In 1936 Orwell married Eileen O'Shaugnessy. KEEP THE ASPIDISTRA FLYING, the story of a young bookseller's assistant, appeared in 1936. From 1936 to 1940 Orwell worked as a shopkeeper in Wallingford, Hertfordshire. In 1936 Orwell was commissioned by the publisher Victor Gollancz to priduce a documentary account of unemployment in the North of England for the Left Book Club. The result, THE ROAD TO WIGAN'S PEER, is considered a milestone in modernliterary journalism.

In the1930s Orwell had adopted socialistic views and travelled to Spain to report on the Civil War. He fought alongside the United Workers Marxist Party militia and was wounded in the neck. The war made him strong opposer of communism and advocate of English brand of socialism. Orwell's book on Spain, HOMAGE TO CATALONIA, appeared in 1938.

During World War II Orwell served as a sergeant in the Home Guard and worked as a journalist for the BBC, Observer and Tribune, where he was literary editor from 1943 to 1945. After the war Orwell lived mostly in Jura in the Western Isles of Scotland.

The biting satire of Communist ideology in The Animal Farm made Orwell for the first time prosperous. His other world wide success was Nineteen Eighty-Four, one of the classical works of science fiction along with Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and H.G. Wells novels Time Machine, War of The World and Invisible Man. Orwell's wife died in 1945 and in 1949 he married Sonia Browell. Suffering from tuberculosis Orwell died in London on January 21, 1950.

Although Orwell is best-known as a novelis, his essays are among the finest of the 20th-century. He produced also newspaper articles and reviews, which were written for money, but carefully crafted his other essays for such journals as Partisan Review, Adelphi and Horizon. Orwell united political purpose and literary ambitions into a sharp analysis of bureauctatic institutions and cultural elite. Without hesititon he accused Yeats as a fascist, H.G. Wells is out of touch with reality, Salvador Dali is found decadent, but defends P.G. Wodehouse and rehabilitates Kilping. His view of the class bounded language has had deep effect on the political discourse of our time.

OTHER WRITERS WITTNESSIN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR: Ernest Hemingway, Federico Garcia Lorca, André Malraux, Langston Hughes

For further reading: The Crystal Spirit by G. Woodcock (1966); The Unknown Orwell by Peter Stansky (1972); Road to Miniluv by C. Small (1975); A Reader's Guide to George Orwell, ed. by Jeffrey Meyers (1975); George Orwell: The Critical Heritage, ed. by Jeffrey Meyers The Language of 1984 by W.F. Bolton (1984); Orwell by Michel Shelden (1991)

Animal Farm (1945) - satirical allegory directed against Stalin's Russia. Led by the pigs, the Animals on Mr Jones's farm revolt against their human masters. After their victory they decide to run the farm themselves on egalitarian principles. The pigs become corrupted by power and a new tyranny is established under Napoleon (Stalin). Snowball (Trotsky), an idealist, is driven out. The final betrayal is made when the pigs engineer a rapproachement with Mr Jones. The book was originally rejected for publication by T.S. Eliot in 1944, but has gained since its appearance in 1945 a status of a classic. - Film adaptation from 1955 was a faithful rendition of Orwell's original work, but watered in the end the satire, and presented a socialist viewpoint: the system is good, but the individuals are corruptible.

Selected works:

• DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON, 1933
• BURMESE DAYS, 1934
• CLERGYMAN'S DAUGHTER, 1935
• KEEP THE ASPIDISTRA FLYING, 1936
• THE ROAD TO WIGAN PIER, 1937
• HOMAGE TO CATALONIA, 1938
• COMING UP FOR AIR, 1939
• INSIDE THE WHALE, 1940
• THE LION AND THE UNICORN, 1941
• ANIMAL FARM, 1945 - Eläinten vallankumous - animated movie 1955, dir. by Joy Batchelor, John Halas
• CRITICAL ESSAYS, 1946
• THE ENGLISH PEOPLE, 1947
• NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, 1949 - Vuonna 1984 - film adaptations: 1955, dir. by Michael Anderson; 1985 dir. by Terry Gillam
• SHOOTING AN ELEPHANT, 1950
• ENGLAND, YOUR ENGLAND AND OTHER ESSAYS / SUCH, SUCH WERE THE JOYS, 1953
• A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS, 1984
• THE ORWELL READER, 1956
• DECLINE OF THE ENGLISH MURDER AND OTHER ESSAYS, 1965
• THE COLLECTED ESSAYS, JOURNALISM AND LETTERS OF GEORGE ORWELL 1920-1950, 4 vol., 1968
• THE PENGUIN ESSAYS OF GEROGE ORWELL, 1984
• ORWELL: THE WAR BROADCASTS, 1985