'George Orwell'

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George Orwell was the nom de plume, or pseudonym, of the English writer Eric Blair (1903 - 1950). He learned to dislike authority during his schooldays, and developed a strong anti-imperialism during service in the colonial service of the British empire in Burma, recorded in several essays and a novel, Burmese Days. His left-wing politics developed during a period of poverty after he left the Burmese police, described in Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) and The Road to Wigan Pier (1937). He fought for the republican government against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War (1936-9), joining a Marxist militia in 1937. He was shot in the neck in 1937. He had become involved in the bitter arguments between factions of the left, and was being hunted by Stalinists when he was wounded; he escaped to recover outside Spain. He wrote of his experiences in Homsage to CataloniaThe experience of Stalinist repression added to his hatred of fascism to make him strongly anti-totalitarian, and to reduce his commitment to any single political party or faction.

Anti-totalitarianism is at the heart of his two most famous novels, Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949). The first is a famous allegory depicting a Stalinist take-over of government in the guise of animals taking over a farm.