A website was today launched on the birth place of
British author George Orwell who was born at Motihari in East Champaran
district of Bihar in 1903.
Orwell was a British journalist and author, who wrote two of the
most famous novels of the 20th century 'Animal Farm' and 'Nineteen
Eighty-Four'.
Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair on 25 June 1903 in eastern
India, the son of a British colonial civil servant. He was educated in
England and, after he left Eton, joined the Indian Imperial Police in
Burma, then a British colony. He resigned in 1927 and decided to become a
writer. In 1928, he moved to Paris where lack of success as a writer
forced him into a series of menial jobs. He described his experiences in
his first book, 'Down and Out in Paris and London', published in 1933.
He took the name George Orwell, shortly before its publication. This was
followed by his first novel, 'Burmese Days', in 1934.
An anarchist in the late 1920s, by the 1930s he had begun to
consider himself a socialist. In 1936, he was commissioned to write an
account of poverty among unemployed miners in northern England, which
resulted in 'The Road to Wigan Pier' (1937). Late in 1936, Orwell
travelled to Spain to fight for the Republicans against Franco's
Nationalists. He was forced to flee in fear of his life from
Soviet-backed communists who were suppressing revolutionary socialist
dissenters. The experience turned him into a lifelong anti-Stalinist.
Between 1941 and 1943, Orwell worked on propaganda for the BBC. In
1943, he became literary editor of the Tribune, a weekly left-wing
magazine. By now he was a prolific journalist, writing articles, reviews
and books.
In 1945, Orwell's 'Animal Farm' was published. A political fable
set in a farmyard but based on Stalin's betrayal of the Russian
Revolution, it made Orwell's name and ensured he was financially
comfortable for the first time in his life. 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' was
published four years later. Set in an imaginary totalitarian future, the
book made a deep impression, with its title and many phrases - such as
'Big Brother is watching you', 'newspeak' and 'doublethink' - entering
popular use. By now Orwell's health was deteriorating and he died of
tuberculosis on 21 January 1950.
The website showcases details about the one-storied house where Orwell, best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four and the allegorical novella Animal Farm, was born and lived for sometime.
His photographs and related materials are also on display.
The
details of local people who strived hard to protect the birth place of
the 20th century's best chronicler of English culture over the years too
have been put up on the website.
source:PTI
No comments:
Post a Comment