Un dels escriptors més famosos de tots els temps, la vida de George Orwell va tenir un paper important en la seva comprensió del món. Crític constant del poder i l’autoritat, les arrels de La rebel·lió dels animlas i 1984 van començar a créixer en els seus anys de formació com a alumne d’una escola privada estricta a Eastbourne. El seu assaig Tantes eren les alegries relata les lletges realitats del règim al qual estaven sotmesos els alumnes en nom del prejudici de classe, la jerarquia i el destí imperial. Aquesta novel·la gràfica dona vida a les seves experiències a l’escola. La violència dels seus professors i la vergonya que experimentava diàriament salten de les pàgines, evocant com es veia aquest món dur a través dels ulls innocents d’un nen mentre juxtaposava les rumilacions d’un Orwell madur sobre el que deia aquesta escola i sobre el que diu la societat. Avui, mentre l’escola privada i el sistema de classes perduren, aquests text és un recordatori viu que el món que Orwell va intentar canviar encara està amb nosaltres
Eric Arthur Blair 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 fascism and stalinism), and support of democratic socialism.
Orwell is best known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the 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 of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture.
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", "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink", and "thoughtcrime". In 2008, The Times named Orwell the second-greatest British writer since 1945.