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Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to all totalitarianism (both authoritarian communism and fascism), and support of democratic socialism. Orwell is best known for his allegorical novella ''Animal Farm'' (1945) and the Utopian and dystopian fiction, dystopian novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (1949), although his works also encompass literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. His non-fiction works, including ''The Road to Wigan Pier'' (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in the industrial north of England, and ''Homage to Catalonia'' (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as George Orwell bibliograph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nineteen Eighty-Four
''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also published as ''1984'') is a dystopian novel and cautionary tale by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final completed book. Thematically, it centres on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance and repressive regimentation of people and behaviours within society. Orwell, a democratic socialist and an anti-Stalinist, modelled Britain under authoritarian socialism in the novel on the Soviet Union in the era of Stalinism and the practices of censorship and propaganda in Nazi Germany. More broadly, the book examines the role of truth and facts within societies and the ways in which they can be manipulated. The story takes place in an imagined future. The current year is uncertain, but believed to be 1984. Much of the world is in perpetual war. Great Britain, now known as Airstrip One, has become a province of the totalitarian superstate Oceania, which is led b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homage To Catalonia
''Homage to Catalonia'' is a 1938 memoir by English writer George Orwell, in which he accounts his personal experiences and observations while fighting in the Spanish Civil War. Covering the period between December 1936 and June 1937, Orwell recounts Catalonia's revolutionary fervor during his training in Barcelona, his boredom on the front lines in Aragon, his involvement in the interfactional May Days conflict back in Barcelona on leave, his getting shot in the throat back on the front lines, and his escape to France after the POUM was declared an illegal organization. The war was one of the defining events of his political outlook and a significant part of what led him to write in 1946, "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, ''against'' totalitarianism and ''for'' democratic socialism, as I understand it." Initial reception was mixed, often depending on whether the reviewers' analyses of events aligned with Orwell' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Animal Farm
''Animal Farm'' (originally ''Animal Farm: A Fairy Story'') is a satirical allegorical novella, in the form of a beast fable, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of anthropomorphic farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy and away from human interventions. However, by the end of the novella, the rebellion is betrayed, and under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon (Animal Farm), Napoleon, the farm ends up in a far worse state than it was before. According to Orwell, ''Animal Farm'' reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), Stalinist era of the Soviet Union, a period when Russia lived under the Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist ideology of Joseph Stalin. Orwell, a democratic socialist, was a critic of Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Road To Wigan Pier
''The Road to Wigan Pier'' is a book by the English writer George Orwell, first published in 1937. Its first half documents his sociological investigations of the bleak living conditions among the working class in Lancashire and Yorkshire in the industrial north of England before World War II. Its second half is a long essay on his middle-class upbringing, and the development of his political conscience, questioning British attitudes towards socialism. Orwell states plainly that he himself is in favour of socialism, but feels it necessary to point out reasons why many people who would benefit from socialism, and should logically support it, are in practice likely to be strong opponents. According to Orwell biographer Bernard Crick, publisher Victor Gollancz first tried to persuade Orwell's agent to allow the Left Book Club edition to consist solely of the descriptive first half of the book. When this was refused Gollancz wrote an introduction to the book. "Victor could not bear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Down And Out In Paris And London
''Down and Out in Paris and London'' is the first full-length work by the English author George Orwell, published in 1933. It is a memoir in two parts on the theme of poverty in the two cities. Its target audience was the middle- and upper-class members of society—those who were more likely to be well educated—and it exposes the poverty existing in two prosperous cities: Paris and London. The first part is an account of living in near-extreme poverty and destitution in Paris and the experience of casual labour in restaurant kitchens. The second part is a travelogue of life on the road in and around London from the tramp's perspective, with descriptions of the types of hostel accommodation available and some of the characters to be found living on the margins. Background After giving up his post as a policeman in Burma to become a writer, Orwell moved to rooms in Portobello Road, London at the end of 1927 when he was 24. While contributing to various journals, he under ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eileen O'Shaughnessy
Eileen Maud Blair (née O'Shaughnessy, 25 September 1905 – 29 March 1945) was a British poet and psychologist, involved in the Spanish Civil War. She was the first wife of George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair). During World War II, she worked for the Censorship Department of the Ministry of Information in London and the Ministry of Food. She was born in South Shields in the northeast of England. Her mother was Marie O'Shaughnessy and her father was Lawrence O'Shaughnessy, a customs collector. She died at the age of 39 during a hysterectomy. Education and early life O'Shaughnessy attended Sunderland Church High School. In the autumn of 1924, she entered St Hugh's College, Oxford, where she studied English. In 1927, she received a higher second-class degree. By choice there followed a succession of jobs 'of no special consequence and with no connection from one to the next', which she held briefly, and which began with work as an assistant mistress at Silchester House, a girls' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Blair (patron)
Richard Horatio Blair (born 14 May 1944) is a British trustee and patron who is the only (adopted) son of English author George Orwell. Life and works Blair was adopted by Eileen and Eric Blair (George Orwell), and after their deaths, lived with Avril Dunn (née Blair, Orwell's sister, his legal guardian) and Bill Dunn. Blair learned that he had been adopted when he was around ten years old: "I didn't know I was adopted until I was about nine or 10. Avril was driving me somewhere and just dropped it in the conversation". Blair went to Loretto School from 1953 to 1960, and attended the agricultural colleges of Wiltshire College and Scotland's Rural College, before joining Massey Ferguson, where he worked in sales and marketing from 1975 to 1986.Richard Blair, 2009 “Op. Cit.” He married Eleanor in 1964 and they have two sons. Blair's stepmother Sonia died in 1980, passing the income from the Orwell estate on to him. In 1985, Blair bought Loch Craignish (self-catering) Cotta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sonia Brownell
Sonia Mary Brownell (25 August 1918 – 11 December 1980), better known as Sonia Orwell, was the second wife of writer George Orwell. Sonia is believed to be the model for Julia, the heroine of ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''. Sonia worked with the Information Research Department (IRD), a propaganda department of the British Foreign Office, which helped to increase the international fame of ''Animal Farm'' and ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''. With her support, the IRD was able to translate ''Animal Farm'' into over 16 languages, and for British embassies to disseminate the book in over 14 countries for propaganda purposes. Soon after her husband's death, Sonia sold the film rights to ''Animal Farm'' to a pair of movie executives, unaware they were agents of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). This deal resulted in the creation of the propaganda film ''Animal Farm'' (1954), which became the first feature-length animated film made in Britain. Early life Brownell was born in Ranchi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motihari
Motihari is a city and headquarters of East Champaran district in the Indian state of Bihar. It is located 80 kilometres west of Muzaffarpur and 152 kilometres northwest of the state capital Patna. In early days the land of Motihari was ruled by different kingdoms as Videha, Sunga, Kanvas. It is also believed that Champaran used to be a major part of King Janak's empire. Mahatma Gandhi started his famous Satyagraha movement from here. Geography Motihari is located on 26°39' N and 84°55' E in northwestern Bihar. It is about northwest from the state capital Patna, from Bettiah, from Muzaffarpur, from Chakia, from Mehsi, and from Sitamarhi. It is on the east bank of a lake, about southeast of Bettiah. Topography The topography of Motihari has been described as scenic, with the "stunning beauty" (in classical terms) of Moti Jheel Lake dividing the town in two halves. In Gangan Lit-Mag (Gangway Literary Magazine), Austria, wrote Anant Kumar: "The play ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fascism
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived interest of the nation or Race (human categorization), race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy. Opposed to communism, democracy, liberalism, Pluralism (political philosophy), pluralism, and socialism, fascism is at the far right of the traditional left–right spectrum.; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Fascism rose to prominence in early-20th-century Europe. The first fascist movements Italian fascism, emerged in Italy during World War I, before Fascism in Europe, spreading to other European countries, most notably Nazi Germany, Germany. Fascism also had adherents outside of Europe. Fascists saw World War I as a revolution that brought massive changes to the nature ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dystopia
A dystopia (lit. "bad place") is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. It is an imagined place (possibly state) in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one. Dystopia is widely seen as the opposite of utopia – a concept coined by Thomas More in 1516 to describe an ideal society. Both ''topias'' are common topics in fiction. Dystopia is also referred to as cacotopia, or anti-utopia. Dystopias are often characterized by fear or distress, tyrannical governments, environmental disaster, or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society. Themes typical of a dystopian society include: complete control over the people in a society through the use propaganda and police state tactics, heavy censorship of information or denial of free thought, worship of an unattainable goal, the complete loss of individuality, and heavy enforcement of conform ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
All Saints' Church, Sutton Courtenay
The Church of All Saints, Sutton Courtenay is the Church of England parish church of Sutton Courtenay in Oxfordshire, England. Extant since at least the 12th century, the church has been Grade I listed since 1966. It is in the centre of the village, near the northeast corner of the village green. History and description The nave and lower stages of the west tower are late Norman. The font is also Norman, but decorated with a series of pointed arches. The chancel and third stage of the tower are 13th-century. The nave clerestory, north and south aisles and their four-bay arcades are 14th-century additions. The clerestory has five windows on each side. Most are Perpendicular Gothic, but two on the north side are Decorated Gothic. The two-storey brick south porch is early 16th-century. The panelled south door is oak, dating from the same period. Control of the church at Sutton varied between Abingdon Abbey and the Pope. In 1258 the Abbey leased the church. When Hugh Courtenay i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
