George Orwell Book summary

“Almost certainly we are moving into an ago of Totalitarian dictatorships.”

George Orwell

George Orwell was born to the name of Eric Arthur Blair, in India, where his father was a member of the Indian Civil Services. Eric spent the early years of his life in the Indian Subcontinent, but he soon returned to England, where he managed to secure a scholarship to Eton. He was a bright student, but he could not afford to go to university, so he traveled back to the Indian Subcontinent where he joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. Eric was a fiery political thinker who participated in the Spanish Civil War, and then later joined the ranks of Britain’s Independent Labour Party.

Eric adopted the pen name, George Orwell when he published his first book, Down and Out in Paris and London. The book describes the poverty-stricken life that he led while working as a writer in Paris and London, and since he did not want these living conditions to be associated with him and his family, Eric choose to write under a pseudonym. Eric later went on to write and then finally 1984, a book that is widely considered to be his masterpiece. He died a year after writing 1984 at the age of 46 due to Tuberculosis.