George Orwell

Orwell was born in British Raj, in present-day India. His parents were part of what Orwell would later describe as the lower-upper middle class. Although not wealthy, they had an air of snobbery and chauvinism with which they attempted to distinguish themselves. Orwell would leave England during his adolescence to study at Eton College in England, where he received classes from the famous writer Aldous Huxley.

Time in Burma

His academic career was short-lived, and his writing indicates that he was of shy and taciturn nature. The following years would be spent working for the Indian Imperial Police in present-day Burma. It’s here that Orwell’s political and social views first took a shift from what was mainstream or conventional. Mistreatment and disdain for natives were abundant in Orwell’s eyes, and he fostered a great dislike of British imperialism. One of his early works – Burmese Days – chronicles the life of an Englishman living in Burma. Much like Orwell, the protagonist dislikes colonialism and the chauvinistic attitude of the English, which leads him to live a lonesome life in Burma. Upon his return from Burma to England, Orwell identified himself as an anarchist.

The following years were spent pursuing a career in journalism which unfortunately never took off. Orwell worked many jobs to make ends meet, such as washing dishes and cleaning. He described this period in his life as unfair and cruel in his book Down and Out in Paris in London, where he writes about the hardship of the destitute. Shortly after Orwell moved to Lancashire and Yorkshire to write about the harsh living conditions of mining families in The Road to Wigan Pier. Around this time Orwell professed himself to be a democratic socialist.

The Spanish Civil War

The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War attracted a lot of writers, such as Ernest Hemingway who wrote about the war in his book For Whom the Bell Tolls. Arriving at first as a reporter, Orwell joined the POUM to fight for the Spanish Republic. He suffered many wounds and was forced to return home after a skirmish in Barcelona, where he faced communist forces. According to Orwell, the republican side of the war struggled with a lot of internal turmoil and political conflicts. He left Spain with contempt for communism and the Soviet Union and finished his memoir Homage to Catalonia.

Return to Engeland

These feelings of scorn would fuel Orwell to write his first successful novel Animal Farm, about a group of farm animals who successfully stage a revolt and take control of the farm they work on. Led by a group of cunning pigs, the revolution takes a turn for the worst when some of the farm animals pursue their own well-being. The entire book is an allegory of the Soviet Union and what went wrong according to Orwell. Interestingly enough both the Soviet Union and the West discouraged publishers from releasing the book. The United Kingdom feared harming its alliance with the Soviet Union during the Second World War. But criticism about Stalin and his regime did not stop at Animal Farm.

In 1949, months before his unfortunate passing, Orwell finished writing his masterpiece Nineteen Eighty-Four. The book criticizes totalitarianism and the dangers of trading individual freedoms and privacy for safety. 1984 contains plenty of words that are still used to this day within a political context, such as “Newspeak” and “Doublethink”. But the most popular phrase in the book has to be “Big Brother is Watching You”. As mentioned earlier, Orwell tragically passed away from consumption at the young age of 46.

An interesting writer himself, whose life and experiences with inequality would fuel his desire to write. Orwell remains a relevant author and his message remains timeless. We offer multiple literary works by writers such as Orwell. Our delivery estimates depend on the product ordered. Product that are on stock can be shipped on the same day when ordered on workdays before 16:00. Checkout our FAQ page for more information on our delivery terms. Or visit our store at the Coolsingel, checkout our opening hours here.