The Strange Life Of George Orwell Explains So Much Of His Work
An acknowledged literary great, George Orwell found his audience by pushing boundaries and penning challenging narratives. Considering the tone of his work, it’s no wonder he was seen as something of a “paranoid rebel”! But there was more to Orwell than that: away from the typewriter, he lived a strange and fascinating life.
He was born and raised in India
Orwell, real name Eric Arthur Blair, was welcomed into the world in June 1903. But the English writer’s early years weren’t spent in the United Kingdom: he was actually born and raised in Bengal, India.
His British dad worked for the Indian civil service, while his mom came from a French family. They were a lower-middle-class family that some claimed had an air of “impoverished snobbery” about them.
He stood out at school because of his impoverished background
When Orwell got a little older, his family packed their bags for England and said goodbye to India. He went on to be enrolled at a Sussex boarding school in 1911.
Orwell’s time there was anything but straightforward. Even though the young boy’s intelligence was clear for all to see, his lower-middle-class background made him stand out from the rest; he wasn’t like the other students.
He was quite the prankster at school
Still, while those circumstances did take a toll on Orwell, he was able to find some joy during that period, albeit at the expense of others. The future author was a major prankster!
One such joke involving a birthday note and the body of a rat even got him thrown out of crammer school. And the high jinx only continued when he rocked up at Eton College: Orwell wrote a less-than-flattering song that focused on his housemaster.
After college, he joined the Indian Imperial Police
Orwell spent four years at Eton between 1917 and 1921 before making a significant decision. While he had the opportunity to stay at college, the young man instead opted to join the Indian Imperial Police in 1922.
He traveled to Burma, where he served as an assistant district superintendent. It’s said that Orwell was a “model” worker at the start of his career, but his mindset soon changed as the job continued.
The experience left him ashamed
You see, Burma was under British rule at that time, and Orwell got a first-hand look at how much the people hated it. The experience left him with feelings of great shame and guilt.
After all, he was essentially working as a colonial cop. So, upon taking a break back in England in 1927 Orwell made a big choice that would shape his life in a major way.
The guilt pushed him to live as a “tramp”
Orwell opted against going back to his police job, formally quitting at the start of 1928. Here’s where things get wild, though. After returning to England, Orwell was eager to shed the shame he was still carrying.
He couldn’t stand the fact that social division had stopped him from spending time alongside the Burmese people. So, the future author took to the streets and began living with the have-nots.
He was once arrested on purpose
Orwell spent time with the poor in both London, England, and Paris, France. But that’s not all. On top of that, he got picked up by the police in 1931 due to drunken behavior. That wasn’t an accident, though: Orwell wanted to go to jail.
Why? Well, as writer Gordon Bowker informed The Guardian, “[It was] in order to get a taste of prison and to bring himself closer to the tramps and small-time villains with whom he mingled.”
It all led to his first book
Yet there was more to this than met the eye. Ever since he was a kid, Orwell had harbored dreams of working as a writer, and now he had what he needed to write his first book.
Detailing his exploits on the streets, as well as behind bars, Orwell’s unique adventures formed the basis of his debut work, titled Down and Out in Paris and London. It hit the bookshelves in 1933.
Coming up with his pseudonym
Now at this point, another big choice had to be made. As we know, his real name was Eric Arthur Blair. Initially, he planned on publishing his book under the name E.A. Blair.
However, the writer didn’t want to embarrass his parents by making his impoverished roots public, so he came up with a selection of pseudonyms. In the end, George Orwell won out. His other options included P.S. Burton, Kenneth Miles, and H. Lewis Allways.
His changing political stance
With a brand-new name, Orwell cranked out three novels between 1934 and 1936 that highlighted his distaste towards repressive social systems. As for his political stance, his leanings did shift with time.
The author w a seaslf-confessed anarchist following his time with the Indian Imperial Police. Then, Orwell became a socialist as the ’30s progressed, but he never made the extra jump towards communism.
He had knuckle tats
While searching for his first publisher, Orwell was joined by a close friend. During that period, Adrian Fierz, the son of that friend, saw something quite unusual on the author’s hands: tattoos.
Fierz noted, “They were blue spots the shape of small grapefruits, one on each knuckle.” It’s believed that Orwell got the ink while he was serving in Burma.
His first socialist book turned a lot of heads
That’s certainly one way to make sure you stand out from the crowd! But it wasn’t the knuckle tats that got Orwell noticed: that was all down to his thought-provoking writing.
The author’s first socialist text hit the bookshelves in 1937 and it proved a particularly intriguing read. It was called The Road to Wigan Pier, and Orwell didn’t hold back when hitting out at the “existing socialist movements” of the time.
He joined the fight during the Spanish Civil War
When the book came out, though, Orwell wasn’t in the country. After the Spanish Civil War began in 1936, he traveled over there to cover the conflict for the media.
Yet as the fighting continued, the writer decided to take a more actively engaged role, signing up to become part of the Republican militia. Orwell eventually earned a second lieutenant’s position during his time with them.
He was under heavy surveillance from MI5 and Soviet spies
Now, Orwell certainly caught quite a bit of unwanted attention during the course of the conflict. In 1937 he found himself under heavy surveillance from Soviet spies while staying in Barcelona.
But shockingly, this wasn’t the first time that Orwell had been watched by shadowy figures. When he lived on the streets of Paris years before, MI5 had been keeping an eye on him as a potential communist.
Fleeing Spain
Mind you, spies were the least of Orwell’s concerns as the war intensified. He was unlucky enough to get shot in the throat, with the injury causing lasting damage to his vocal cords.
Orwell noted, “[It felt like] a tremendous shock — no pain, only a violent shock, such as you get from an electric terminal.” He had to escape Spain in May 1937 to ensure his safety.
Rejection for World War II military service
As we all know, though, further conflicts were on the horizon. Just two years after Orwell had departed Spain for England, World War II began. But he didn’t take part in any of the fighting.
Turned away by the army, Orwell sought out other opportunities during that tense period. He worked for the BBC up until 1943 before joining the staff of the left-wing publication Tribune.
He learned French from Aldous Huxley
Orwell also penned some other pieces for different papers. In one such article from 1944, he revealed, “In my life I have learned seven foreign languages, including two dead ones.”
He added, “And out of those seven I retain only one, and not that brilliantly.” French was on that list, which he’d picked up thanks to Aldous Huxley. The famed author and thinker was a former teacher at Orwell’s old school!
Things got complicated between them...
That wouldn’t be the last they’d hear from each other, either. After Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four came out in 1949, Huxley reached out to his fellow younger author with some notes.
He hailed aspects of the book, only to question if its dystopian view of the future was realistic. In fact, Huxley suggested that the prediction in his 1931 text, Brave New World, was a more likely outcome.
Publishing Animal Farm proved challenging
Prior to writing Nineteen Eighty-Four, though, Orwell’s first real major literary success came in 1945. Of course, we’re talking about Animal Farm, an allegorical story that examines the Russian Revolution and what followed.
These days it’s regarded as a bona fide literary classic, yet publishing the novella proved to be very challenging. Certain people just didn’t get it, while another publisher had been wary of hitting out at the Soviet Union.
Even the Ministry of Information stepped in!
When Orwell finally found someone willing to publish Animal Farm, those hopes were dashed as well. The Ministry of Information stepped in to scupper the agreement, not wanting to anger the Soviet Union as a World War II ally.
Some time later, it was found that the person who had spoken up was a Soviet spy. Fortunately, Orwell’s book was taken on by a different publisher, and the rest is history.
The original manuscript was nearly destroyed
Then again, while the publishers proved to be a problem, something else came close to culling Animal Farm, too. In 1944 Orwell’s home was bombed, leaving the author in a state of panic.
As his adopted son Richard Blair recalled to Ham & High, “Of course he had all his books in that house and he couldn’t find the… [Animal Farm] manuscript! He spent hours and hours rifling through [bomb-site] rubbish. Fortunately, he found it.”
Feud with H.G. Wells
But as the world got to know Orwell through his writing, he had other things on his mind. For instance, the author was embroiled in an intellectual feud with fellow legendary writer H.G. Wells during that time.
Orwell hit out at his wholly optimistic view of science, pointedly observing that the Nazis’ early war plans had benefited hugely from the work of the scientific community in Germany. Their debate got pretty heated!
Ernest Hemingway gave him a gun
Away from those arguments, though, Orwell had been beset by paranoia when he journeyed into Paris in 1945. The writer went there as a news reporter, but he was convinced that communists would try to capture him.
Why? Well, it goes back to his ties in the Spanish Civil War: his militia had become an enemy of Joseph Stalin’s supporters. So, in a bid to feel safer, Orwell got his hands on a gun. Who gave him the weapon? The one and only Ernest Hemingway!
His marriage ended in tragedy
Yet as Orwell’s European trip continued, he got wind of some gut-wrenching news from home. While he was away, his beloved spouse Eileen had been taken into hospital for a “routine” piece of surgery.
During the procedure, though, her heart had failed and the doctors couldn’t do anything to bring her back around. It was an awful tragedy that threw Orwell’s life into complete disarray.
Grief turned him into a workaholic
Orwell was now all alone in trying to raise a young son, with the loss weighing heavily on his shoulders. Hiding from his emotional pain, he dived head-first into his work.
The widower barely came up for air in this period: in 1945 alone he penned close to 110,000 words for articles in several newspapers. Orwell had pretty much turned himself into a workaholic.
Did he predict the Cold War?
Still, while he was in a very dark personal place, Orwell’s words continued to leave an impact at the time. To give you an example, the author penned a Tribune essay in the fall of 1945 titled “You and the Atom Bomb.”
In the piece, he made mention of a “cold war” starting to develop between the Soviet Union and America. It’s said to be the first time anyone used the phrase.
He despised American fashion magazines
But Orwell’s writing wasn’t just focused on lofty topics. In another Tribune piece from 1946, he let rip at U.S. fashion publications. Touching on the images in one such magazine, he noted, “Nearly all of these women are immensely elongated.”
“A thin-boned, ancient-Egyptian type of face seems to predominate: narrow hips are general, and slender non-prehensile hands like those of a lizard are everywhere,” he added. It seems fair to say he wasn’t impressed!
The success of Animal Farm drained him
As Orwell continued to work through his grief by writing, Animal Farm was only growing more popular with the masses. And the public interest that came with that left the author drained.
He once said to his friend Arthur Koestler, “Everyone keeps coming at me, wanting me to lecture, to write commissioned booklets, to join this and that, etc. You don’t know how I pine to be free of it all and have time to think again.”
Moving to a remote Scottish Island
With that in mind, David Astor gave Orwell a chance to be “free of it all” in 1946. As the editor of The Observer, he sensed the writer’s inner turmoil, so he asked if Orwell fancied taking a vacation to one of his family’s properties.
It was located on Jura, a lonely island in Scotland. Orwell jumped at the offer, feeling this was a great opportunity to pen a new book. He set off that May.
“A horrible, exhausting struggle”
Yet Orwell knew that the writing process wouldn’t be easy. As he had bemoaned in a piece called “Why I Write” some time earlier, “Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle.”
“Like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some demon whom one can neither resist [nor] understand.”
He went back to basics for Nineteen Eighty-Four
Despite the challenges, Orwell eventually pressed ahead with his writing during the spring months of 1947. The book in question? The soon-to-be groundbreaking Nineteen Eighty-Four.
When he began, the writer was working in the most basic of surroundings. The house in Jura didn’t have any electricity, and Orwell had only packed a camp bed, some cooking utensils, a few chairs, and a table. No distractions there!
He raised his adopted son alongside his beloved sister
But Orwell wasn’t alone on Jura: his young son, Richard Blair, eventually made the trip as well. In addition to that, the author’s sister, Avril, moved in to help around the place, too.
Blair told The Guardian, “[My dad] couldn’t have done it without Avril. She was an excellent cook, and very practical. None of the accounts of my father’s time on Jura recognize how essential she was.”
Health issues hindered their relationship
So alongside the writing, Orwell was able to savor some quality time with his family. Unfortunately, though, his ailing health threw a major spanner in the works, as Blair later explained to Ham & High,
He said, “His problem, of course, was that because he suffered from TB [tuberculosis] he didn’t want to be close to me physically. He was highly concerned that I might contract TB, so he had to stand back. It was definitely something that troubled him.”
He was prescribed a new “wonder drug” with awful side-effects
Orwell received the dreaded diagnosis in December 1947. The news came just months after he had been involved in a boating accident near the house in which he nearly drowned.
While TB couldn’t be cured at that time, the writer was prescribed with a new medication to battle the symptoms. It was called streptomycin. The drug came at cost, though: Orwell developed mouth blisters, throat ulcers, and lost his nails.
Publishers pushed him to the brink
Mind you, the drug seemed to work. Following three months of doses at the hospital, Orwell was back on his feet. But the jubilation didn’t last for long. Before the author had been allowed back home, his publishers sent him a concerning message.
It read, “It really is rather important from the point of view of your literary career to get [the new novel] by the end of the year and indeed earlier if possible.”
Orwell was “not pleased” with Nineteen Eighty-Four
So the pressure was on: Orwell was now on a strict timetable to finish Nineteen Eighty-Four regardless of his health. And matters weren’t helped by the author’s conflicting feelings about its quality.
As Orwell admitted at the time to his agent, “I’m not pleased with the book but I am not absolutely dissatisfied. I think it’s a good idea, but the execution would’ve been better if I hadn’t written it under the influence of TB.”
Completing the book was a nightmare
There were other issues to contend with as well. As Orwell’s health took another bad turn, he couldn’t agree with his publisher on which typist to use to rewrite the manuscript.
In the end, he chose to do it himself — from his sickbed. Somehow, Orwell was able to get Nineteen Eighty-Four wrapped up in November 1948. It hit bookshelves the following summer and was instantly hailed as a classic.
He accused Charlie Chaplin — and many more — of being communist
In the weeks before the book came out, though, Orwell switched his focus. To help Britain’s Information Research Department, he compiled a jaw-dropping list of supposed “crypto-communists” in May 1949, and it made for crazy reading.
Charlie Chaplin and Michael Redgrave were arguably the stand-out names to be included. Meanwhile, the likes of Katharine Hepburn and Orson Welles were also listed, although he didn’t hand over those names.
He got married from his hospital bed
Unfortunately, Orwell’s health only got worse as the year progressed. By the fall, he was staying at University College Hospital in London. His TB was now at an “advanced” stage.
Yet the doom was momentarily lifted in October 1949. From his bed, Orwell tied the knot with an editorial assistant named Sonia Brownell. Few people had seen that coming at the time.
He died alone at age 46
After that, Orwell managed to hold on for another couple of months. He sadly passed away in January 1950 at the age of just 46. The cause of death was lung hemorrhage.
None of his loved ones were by his side at the time: it was a heartbreaking end to a quite incredible life, but today few authors can lay claim to a legacy that matches his.