George Orwell

About AuthorEric Arthur Blair

25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950

Born in eastern India

Son of a British colonial civil servant

Educated in England

English novelist and journalist

The 20th century’s best chronicler of English culture

Wrote literary criticism, poetry, fiction

and polemical journalism

His work is marked by

• Clarity

• Awareness of social injustice

• Opposition to totalitarianism

• Commitment to democratic socialism

His work continues to influence popular & political culture

George Orwell’s Books

Term “Orwellian” has entered the language together with

several of his neologisms, including-

Cold War, Big Brother, thought police, Room 101, Double

think & thought crime

George Orwell’s Quotes

About Book Animal Farm is an allegorical and dystopian novel

Published in England on 17 August 1945

The book reflects events leading up to the Russian

Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalin era in the

Soviet Union

The original title was Animal Farm: A Fairy Story

Orwell wrote the book from November 1943–February

1944

Efforts to find Publisher

Initially rejected by a number of British and American

publishers

He encountered great difficulty getting the manuscript

published

It became a great commercial success when it did finally

appear partly because the Cold War so quickly

followed World War II

The novel addresses not only the corruption of the

revolution by its leaders, but also the ways wickedness,

indifference, ignorance, greed, and myopia corrupt the

revolution.

It also shows how potential ignorance and indifference to

problems within a revolution could allow horrors to happen

if a smooth transition to a people's government is not

achieved

AdaptationsAnimal Farm has been adapted to film twice

The 1954 Animal Farm film was an animated feature and

the 1999 Animal Farm film was a TV live action version

Both differ from the novel and have been accused of

taking significant liberties, including sanitizing some

aspects