In news– Recently, a group of intellectuals, teachers and students in Motihari, the headquarters town of East Champaran district in Bihar, paid tributes to George Orwell on his 73rd death anniversary.
A brief note on him-
- Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic.
- His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and support of democratic socialism.
- He was born on 25 June 1903 in Motihari, Bihar.
- After his education in England, he joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma (now Myanmar) before resigning in 1928 to devote his life to writing.
- During the Second World War he worked as a journalist and for the BBC. The publication of Animal Farm led to fame during his lifetime
- He took his pen name from River Orwell, which flows through Suffolk County where he stayed.
- In his rather short writing career, he left an indelible stamp on 20th century English prose.
- Some of his well-recognised works are Down and Out in Paris and London; Keep the Aspidistra Flying; Homage to Catalonia; Animal Farm; and 1984 (or Nineteen Eighty-Four). The last, written a year before he died in 1950, may be regarded as his magnum opus.
- Orwell’s work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective “Orwellian”describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms.
- In 2008, The Times ranked George Orwell second among “The 50 greatest British writers since 1945”
Source: The Indian Express
