Summary about George Orwell and the Russian Revolution
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Course
American literature
Institution
2
Nemos (fiches) about George Orwell (early life, education, personnal life, early career, later works) and the Russian Revolution (general description, the factors of the revolution, the february revolution, the october revolution, the russian civil war, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky)
Internet: Summary August 31,
2017
George Orwell www.biography.com/people/george-orwell
Early Life
-Real name: Eric Arthur Blair
-Born on June 25, 1903, in Bengal
-Born in India is because of his father (Richard Walmesley Blair) who worked for the Civil Service where he was
stationed
-At one year old, it was his mother (Ida Mabel Blair) who brought him and his older sister named Marjorie to England
to settle down, but his father soonly returned to India and rarely visited them.
-Novelist and critic, many of his works about social injustice, poverty, and politics under a pen name: George Orwell
Internet: Summary September 1,
2017
George Orwell www.Encyclopedia.com/people/english-litterature/george-orwell
Education
-Sent to a private boarding school: St Cyprian, in Sussex thanks to a scholarship
-With the England’s class system, he notices that the establishment treated the richer students better than the
poorer ones like himself
-Even thought he was poor, Orwell would make it up with his intelligence by winning scholarships to Wellington
College and Eton College.
-He decided to go to Eton College but after four years, his family didn’t have enough to pay for his university
education.
Internet: Summary September 1,
2017 George Orwell www.britannica.com/biography/George-
Orwell Personnal Life
-Around 1936, he met Eileen O’Shaughnessy (teacher and journalist)
-Married several months later and adopted a son named Richard Horatio Blair
-But her death occurred in 1945, so Richard was mainly raised by Orwell’s younger sister, Avril
, -After, he met Sonia Bronwell (editor) who he married in 1949 (only a short time before his death)
-Bronwell was the one to inherited the writer’s estate and managed his legacy
Internet: Summary September 2, 2017
George Orwell www.goodreads.com/author/show/3706.George_Orwell
Early Career
-Joined the India Police Force where he stayed for five years in Burma, but resigned from his post to pursue his
writing career.
-Orwell always loved to write like at 11 years old, one of his poems was published in the local newspaper.
-By publishing one of his first publications named Down And Out in Paris and London (1933), he didn’t want to
embarrass his family nor didn’t he want to taint his teaching career, so he preferred to publish the book under a
pseudonym: George Orwell.
-In 1936, he traveled to Spain to report the war, but ended up joining the militia. But he was badly injured by getting
shot in the arm and the throat. So his voice was permanently damaged. Then, the militia was declared illegal, so he
had to leave the country.
-His experiences to Spain made him into a revolutionary socialist, he wanted the form of the society to change
trough the rebellion of the people. Being against imperialism (‘’a political and economic practice whereby a nation
increases its power by gaining control of ownership of other territories’’), he decided to reject the bourgeois
lifestyle.
- He even joined the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as a producer, but retired from his position in 1943 and
became a literary editor of the Tribune; his job was to review books on a regular basis.
Internet: Summary+Quote September 2, 2017
George Orwell www.notablebiographies.com/Ni-Pe/Orwell-George.html
Later Works
-Toward the end of his life, he published two of his best known novels: Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.
‘’Animal Farm (1945) was an anti-Soviet satire in a pastoral setting featuring two pigs as its main protagonists. These
pigs were said to represent Josef Stalin and Leon Trotsky. The fable’s truth was about the failure of communism just
like the event of history with the Russian Revolution.
- Several publishers rejected it because of the political grounds and reasons.
‘’Published in 1949, this book is an elaborate satire (a literary work that uncovers the corrupt morals of humans) on
modern politics, foretelling a world in which humans are made less than human in a world where citizens are at the
mercy of the state’s absolute control.’’
-Orwell was always sick child, he suffered from bronchitis and the flu, but unfortunately, he was officially diagnosed
with tuberculosis, but there weren’t effective treatment for the disease at the time
-He died at the age of 46 on January 21, 1950, in London, England.
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