Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist and essayist, journalist and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism.
As a writer, Orwell produced literary criticism and poetry, fiction and polemical journalism; and is best known for the allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in the north of England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics and literature, language and culture. In 2008, The Times ranked George Orwell second among "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
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, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", and "Hate week", "Room 101", the "memory hole", and "Newspeak", "doublethink" and "proles", "unperson" and "thoughtcrime".
England 1938 – truslen om arbejdsløshed, krig, fascisme eller kommunisme hænger som en truende sky over nationen. George Bowling, en tyk, djærv og gemytlig 45-årig orsikringsmand, bor sammen med sin kone Hilda og deres to børn i et trøstesløst rækkehuskvarter i en af Londons forstæder.
En dag minder en tilfældig avisoverskrift ham pludselig om barndommen i den lille by Lower Binfield i Oxfordshire og de fredelige tider før Første Verdenskrig. Og da han netop har vundet 17 £ på galopbanen, beslutter han sig til en uges afstikker fra dagligdagen og sin evigt bekymrede kone for at opsøge barndommens steder.
Men ak, alt er forandret. Binfield er blevet opslugt af en middelstor industriby, fabrikker og ensformige arbejderboliger breder sig overalt, og den stille dam med de store karper, han altid har drømt om at fiske i, er blevet losseplads…
Det er dystre perspektiver, der oprulles, men gennem fortællingen går en undertone af humor og fortrøstning, som efterlader læseren med en fornemmelse af, at den rare gemytlige George Bowling nok skal klare den alligevel på en eller anden måde.
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