George Orwell English author and journalist (1903–1950) 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.[1] His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and support of democratic socialism.[2] Blair was born in India, and raised and educated in England. After school he became an Imperial policeman in Burma, before returning to Suffolk, England, where he began his writing career as George Orwell—a name inspired by a favourite location, the River Orwell. Life[edit] Early years[edit] Blair family home at Shiplake, Oxfordshire Before the First World War, the family moved 2 miles (3 km) south to Shiplake, Oxfordshire, where Eric became friendly with the Buddicom family, especially their daughter Jacintha. In January, Blair took up the place at Wellington, where he spent the Spring term. Policing in Burma[edit] Blair pictured in a passport photo in Burma. Works:
Burmese Days First novel by George Orwell published in 1934 Burmese Days is the first novel by English writer George Orwell, published in 1934. Set in British Burma during the waning days of empire, when Burma was ruled from Delhi as part of British India, the novel serves as "a portrait of the dark side of the British Raj." At the centre of the novel is John Flory, "the lone and lacking individual trapped within a bigger system that is undermining the better side of human nature. Burmese Days was first published "further afield," in the United States, because of concerns that it might be potentially libelous; that the real provincial town of Katha had been described too realistically; and that some of its fictional characters were based too closely on identifiable people. Background[edit] Author George Orwell, pictured in a passport picture from his time in Burma. Orwell spent five years from 1922 to 1927 as a police officer in the Indian Imperial Police force in Burma (now Myanmar). Characters[edit]
Breakfast of Champions Breakfast of Champions, or Goodbye Blue Monday is a 1973 novel by the American author Kurt Vonnegut. Set in the fictional town of Midland City, it is the story of "two lonesome, skinny, fairly old white men on a planet which was dying fast." One of these men, Dwayne Hoover, is a normal-looking but deeply deranged Pontiac dealer and Burger Chef franchise owner who becomes obsessed with the writings of the other man, Kilgore Trout, taking them for literal truth. Plot summary[edit] Kilgore Trout is a widely published, but otherwise unsung and virtually invisible writer who, by a fluke, is invited to deliver a keynote address at a local arts festival in distant Midland City. Background[edit] In the preface, Vonnegut states that as he reached his fiftieth birthday he felt a need to "clear his head of all the junk in there"—which includes the various subjects of his drawings, and the characters from his past novels and stories. Adaptation[edit] Editions[edit] References[edit] External links[edit]
A Clergyman's Daughter A Clergyman's Daughter is a 1935 novel by English author George Orwell. It tells the story of Dorothy Hare, the clergyman's daughter of the title, whose life is turned upside down when she suffers an attack of amnesia. It is Orwell's most formally experimental novel, featuring a chapter written entirely in dramatic form, but he was never satisfied with it and he left instructions that after his death it was not to be reprinted.[1] Despite these instructions, Orwell did consent to the printing of cheap editions "of any book which may bring in a few pounds for my heirs" following his death.[2] Background[edit] After Orwell returned from Paris in December 1929 he used his parents' house in Southwold as his base for the next five years. Rana Balaj was tutoring Orwell and Orwell was writing at Southwold, and resumed his sporadic expeditions going undercover as a tramp in and around London. Title[edit] How now, sirrah, that pound he lent you when you were hungry? Plot summary[edit]
The Master and Margarita The Master and Margarita (Russian: «Ма́стер и Маргари́та») is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, written between 1928 and 1940 but unpublished in book form until 1967. It is woven around a visit by the Devil to the fervently atheistic Soviet Union. Many critics consider it to be one of the best novels of the 20th century, and the foremost of Soviet satires. History[edit] Bulgakov started writing the novel in 1928. In the Soviet Union, the first complete version, prepared by Anna Saakyants, was published by Khudozhestvennaya Literatura in 1973, based on the version completed at the beginning of 1940, as proofread by the publisher. Plot summary[edit] The novel alternates between two settings. The second setting is the Jerusalem of Pontius Pilate, described by Woland in his conversations with Berlioz and later echoed in the pages of the Master's novel. Part two of the novel introduces Margarita, the Master's mistress, who refuses to despair of her lover or his work. Interpretations[edit] Natasha
Coming Up for Air Novel by George Orwell Coming Up for Air is the seventh book by English writer George Orwell, published in June 1939 by Victor Gollancz. It was written between 1938 and 1939 while Orwell spent time recuperating from illness in French Morocco, mainly in Marrakesh. He delivered the completed manuscript to Victor Gollancz upon his return to London in March 1939. Background[edit] As a child, Orwell lived at Shiplake and Henley in the Thames Valley. In 1937 Orwell spent some months fighting in the Spanish Civil War. Orwell was severely ill in 1938 and was advised to spend the winter in a warm climate. Plot summary[edit] The book's themes are nostalgia, the folly of trying to go back and recapture past glories, and the easy way the dreams and aspirations of one's youth can be smothered by the humdrum routine of work, marriage, and getting old. At the book's opening, Bowling has a day off work to go to London to collect a new set of false teeth. Characters[edit] Style[edit] See also[edit]
Mikhail Bulgakov Mikhaíl Afanasyevich Bulgakov (Russian: Михаи́л Афана́сьевич Булга́ков, pronounced [mʲɪxɐˈiɫ ɐfɐˈnasʲjɪvʲɪt͡ɕ bʊɫˈɡakəf]; May 15 [O.S. May 3] 1891 – March 10, 1940) was a Soviet writer and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century.[1] He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, which has been called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.[3] Life and work[edit] Early life[edit] Mikhail Bulgakov was born on May 15, 1891, in Kiev, at that time in the Russian Empire. In 1901 Bulgakov joined the First Kiev Gymnasium, where he developed an interest in Russian and European literature (his favourite authors at the time being Gogol, Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin, and Dickens), theatre and opera. In 1913, Bulgakov married Tatiana Lappa. In 1916, Bulgakov graduated from the Medical Department of Kiev University and, after serving as a surgeon at Chernovtsy hospital, was appointed provincial physician to Smolensk province. Career[edit] Last years[edit]
Keep the Aspidistra Flying Novel by George Orwell Book cover of a Penguin Books edition. Keep the Aspidistra Flying, first published in 1936, is a socially critical novel by George Orwell. It is set in 1930s London. The main theme is Gordon Comstock's romantic ambition to defy worship of the money-god and status, and the dismal life that results. Background[edit] Orwell wrote the book in 1934 and 1935, when he was living at various locations near Hampstead in London, and drew on his experiences in these and the preceding few years. In 1932 Orwell took a job as a teacher in a small school in West London. In October 1934, after Orwell had spent nine months at his parents' home in Southwold, his aunt Nellie Limouzin found him a job as a part-time assistant in Booklovers' Corner, a second-hand bookshop in Hampstead run by Francis and Myfanwy Westrope. By the end of February 1935 Orwell had moved into a flat in Parliament Hill; his landlady, Rosalind Obermeyer, was studying at the University of London. Title[edit]
All Quiet on the Western Front All Quiet on the Western Front (German: Im Westen nichts Neues) is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental stress during the war, and the detachment from civilian life felt by many of these soldiers upon returning home from the front. The novel was first published in November and December 1928 in the German newspaper Vossische Zeitung and in book form in late January 1929. The book and its sequel, The Road Back, were among the books banned and burned in Nazi Germany. It sold 2.5 million copies in 22 languages in its first eighteen months in print.[1] Title and translation[edit] Brian Murdoch's 1993 translation would render the phrase as "there was nothing new to report on the Western Front" within the narrative. Although it does not match the German exactly, Wheen's title has justly become part of the English language and is retained here with gratitude. Plot summary[edit] Themes[edit] Tjaden[edit]
Nineteen Eighty-Four 1949 dystopian novel by George Orwell Nineteen Eighty-Four (also published as 1984) is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale by English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. Thematically, it centres on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance and repressive regimentation of people and behaviours within society.[2][3] Orwell, a democratic socialist, modelled the authoritarian state in the novel on Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany.[2][3][4] More broadly, the novel examines the role of truth and facts within societies and the ways in which they can be manipulated. Writing and publication[edit] Idea[edit] The Orwell Archive at University College London contains undated notes about ideas that evolved into Nineteen Eighty-Four. Writing[edit] The novel was completed at Barnhill, Jura Title[edit] This idea [...] seems far too cute for such a serious book. [...] Trotsky