Eric Arthur Blair (1903-1950), better known by his pen-name,
George Orwell, was born in India, where his father worked for the Civil Service. An author and journalist, Orwell was one of the most prominent and influential figures in twentieth-century literature. His unique political allegory
Animal Farm was published in 1945, and it was this novel, together with the dystopia of
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), which brought him world-wide fame. His novels and non-fiction include
Burmese Days, Down and Out in Paris and London, The Road to Wigan Pier and
Homage to Catalonia.
George Orwell's masterwork, now in the Penguin Clothbound Classics series with a cover designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith
One of the BBC's '100 Novels that Shaped the World'
'Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past'
Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescreens and the watchful eye of Big Brother, symbolic head of the Party. In his longing for truth and liberty, Smith begins a secret love affair with a fellow-worker Julia, but soon discovers the true price of freedom is betrayal.
George Orwell's dystopian masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four is perhaps the most pervasively influential book of the twentieth century.
