How a sick George Orwell finished '1984'

Read George Orwell's essay 'Why I Write,' the writer's memoir on how he came to literature.

George Orwell's '1984' is one of the most famous dystopian works

Orwell's life experiences, from living among the poor to witnessing the rise of authoritarian regimes, deeply shaped his worldview. His iconic works, "Animal Farm" and "1984," offered stark warnings about power, control, and propaganda, making him one of the most enduring voices against totalitarianism.

How Orwell's time in Myanmar influenced his writing

Orwell joined the Indian Imperial Police in Myanmar (then Burma, a British colony) in 1922, at 19. In her introduction for Orwell's debut novel, "Burmese Days," Emma Larkin unpacks how Orwell's five years working there shaped the book and informed his politics, especially his negative view of colonialism.

See the list of alleged communists Orwell gave to the British government

In 1949, Orwell provided a list of communist sympathizers to a British anti-communist propaganda unit, naming figures like actor Charlie Chaplin and writer John Steinbeck. When it was made public in 2003, some called Orwell a government informant, though others blamed his tuberculosis, which would take his life a year later, while others blamed his romantic interest in the woman who asked him for the names.

George Orwell, avid outdoorsman

The writer is often pigeonholed as either a cranky paranoiac or a self-righteous scold, but this essay by Danny Heitman explores a lesser-known side of Orwell's personality: his love for nature, something that's subtly expressed in some of his greatest works.

Why Orwell fought in the Spanish civil war

Orwell wanted to volunteer for the International Brigades, a loose conglomerate of leftists fighting against Franco's Nationalists, in order to participate in what he saw as a struggle against fascism. The group rejected him, though Orwell still made his way to Barcelona to fight with a smaller sect, an experience that's laid out in this history from William Chislett.

The story behind David Bowie's failed '1984' musical

The musician hoped to adapt Orwell's dystopian novel for the stage, though the project floundered after Orwell's widow—who found Bowie's vision in poor taste—refused to grant him the rights. Several of the project's songs—including "Big Brother" and "1984"—eventually appeared on Bowie's 1974 album "Diamond Dogs."

A critic evaluates Orwell's lesser-known books

Orwell is primarily known for "Animal Farm" and "1984," but The Critic's Alexander Larman argues that Orwell's other titles—especially the 1936 novel "Keep the Aspidistra Flying"—are also worthy reads. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Aldous Huxley, author of 'Brave New World,' wrote to his former student, George Orwell, after the release of '1984,' suggesting that Orwell's vision of dystopia was misguided.

Read the scathing review of '1984' by science fiction legend Isaac Asimov

Asimov, the author of the "Foundation" series and a major figure in science fiction, tore Orwell's novel apart in a 1980 review, writing, "This is not science fiction, but a distorted nostalgia for a past that never was."

The nonfiction book that kick-started Orwell's career

1935's "The Road to Wigan Pier" was a piece of investigative journalism that explored how the impoverished were handling the Great Depression, known in England as "the Slump." Orwell divided the book into two parts: One that described the living conditions of the working poor, and the other that criticized middle-class socialists' ineffectiveness at helping them.

Why Orwell called Dalí a 'disgusting human being'

Writer George Orwell took offense at the disturbing actions described in Dalí's salacious autobiography "The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí." In a 1944 essay, Orwell described the cruelty and moral degradation of Dalí—while also admitting the artist's undeniable talent.

George Orwell's original preface to 'Animal Farm' criticized the publishers who had rejected the book for political reasons.

George Orwell: What is fascism?

This 1944 article by George Orwell attempts to answer the question, "What is fascism?" Orwell's book Animal Farm was published at about the same time at the article, and he penned 1984, a book with anti-totalitarianism sentiments, a few years afterward. In this article, Orwell argues that the term "fascism" has become near "meaningless" due to being essentially demoted to a swearword.

Browse an Orwell superfan's book collection

This Brown University Library exhibit displays scans from collector Daniel Leab's extensive trove of Orwell's works, including many first editions and translations. In addition to the beautiful covers, there's also plenty of fascinating bibliographic information.

Writer Christopher Hitchens on why Orwell matters

In this 2008 segment with NPR, the author of "Why Orwell Matters" discusses his admiration for the author and fields questions from callers. Hitchens notes that anyone can write about tyranny, but that Orwell's brilliance is in exploring why people "are so keen to obey."

Browse a fan-made 'Newspeak Dictionary'

In Orwell's "1984," citizens of Oceania are expected to use Newspeak, a form of English that limits abstract thought and reinforces the government's version of reality. This satirical dictionary of the language demonstrates how Orwell constructed a lexicon for his fictional world.

T.S. Eliot rejected George Orwell's 'Animal Farm,' suggesting that the despotic pigs might be the best leaders for the farm.

Hear 2 literature professors unpack the legacy of 'Animal Farm'

The University of Oxford's David Dwan—a professor of English literature and intellectual history—is an Orwell scholar who has written about the author's politics, especially as they relate to "Animal Farm." In this conversation with Dr. Nathan Waddell, from the University of Birmingham, UK, Dwan explores how framing the novella as a beast fable both made it more accessible and allowed it to be overly simplified.

Camus contracted tuberculosis as a teenager

There was still little understanding of treatment for the disease at the time; for most people, a tuberculosis diagnosis was a death sentence. The 17-year-old Camus was quarantined in his uncle's house, where he grew into an avid reader. Scholars note that the experience would inform his later work, including his 1947 novel "The Plague."

Orwell warned readers about how abuse of language can lead to dystopias

In his 1946 essay "Politics and the English Language," Orwell argues that language is the primary tool of political control and is "designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." The essay warns readers that how they use and consume language will dictate what they permit—or prohibit—in society.

What it means to call something 'Orwellian'

The adjective often refers to anything that resembles the dystopian governments of George Orwell, usually a state like the one in "1984" that monitors its citizens to ensure compliance. But as this video essay from Noah Tavlin makes clear, the more precise definition is a society that redefines language to control thought.

While on vacation, writer Mary Shelley was inspired by a challenge from British poet Lord Byron to write the novel 'Frankenstein.'

'Brave New World' author Aldous Huxley turned to LSD on his deathbed

As "Brave New World" author Aldous Huxley lay dying of cancer in 1963, he asked his wife Laura to dose him with the hallucinogen LSD. A month later, Laura Huxley wrote a letter detailing the author's final trip, which she notes ended "so slowly, so gently, like a piece of music just finishing in a sempre piu piano dolcemente."

Watch the 1954 film adaptation of George Orwell's 'Animal Farm,' which was covertly funded by the CIA.

Why both the left and the right use 'Animal Farm' as an allegory

Figures from both ends of the political spectrum have claimed Orwell's novella as their own, sometimes ignoring inconvenient aspects of the plot or details of Orwell's biography. This analysis of those political reactions explores why the text is so malleable.

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the entire first draft of 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' in a frantic three days, only to burn it out of disgust.

JD Salinger served in World War II while working on a draft of his most famous novel, 'The Catcher in the Rye.'

Sartre spent his time in the French Army working on a novel

The writer's physical limitations (including partial blindness and balance issues) prohibited him from serving on the front lines. Instead, he worked as a military meteorologist. The job was not very demanding, so he spent most of his time writing. He told Simone de Beauvoir it was "extremely peaceful work; indeed I cannot think of any branch of the services that has a quieter, more poetic job."

Dystopian satire became more prominent in the 20th century

Although "anti-utopian" stories have always existed, the international conflicts of World War I and World War II inspired some of dystopian literature’s most influential novels, like Yevgeny Zamyatin’s "We," Aldous Huxley’s "Brave New World," and George Orwell’s "1984." In the decades to follow, more writers would follow the example of those early novels, using the dystopian model to critique artificial intelligence, climate change, and more.

An academic on why the animals in 'Animal Farm' matter

Although Orwell intentionally wrote his 1945 novella as an allegory of the Russian Revolution, Charlotte Sleigh—an associate professor of science and technology—argues that the text can also be used to understand (and complicate) our relationship with the nonhuman world.

Inside 'Blood Meridian' author Cormac McCarthy's library of 20,000 books

The reclusive writer published 12 novels and taught himself stonemasonry and quantum physics, among myriad other skills and subjects. Since he died in 2023, scholars have been mining his personal library for lessons on his influences, interests, and more.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, readers returned to Camus' 'The Plague'

The 1947 novel, about a city in Algeria that enacts a city-wide quarantine to battle a deadly outbreak, captured readers' attention in the early months of 2020. In the UK, over 2,000 copies of the book were sold in March of that year, over six times what it had sold the month before.

Why school boards ban dystopian books

Journalist Ali Velshi analyzes the lasting appeal of Lois Lowry's "The Giver" and George Orwell's "1984," two dystopian novels that have courted controversy since their publications. Beyond his interpretations, though, Velshi wants to understand why school boards perennially ban these books—and what makes them so fascinating for adolescent readers. In his search, he talks to Lowry about the lasting influence of her novel and to Orwell expert James McCallister about the prescient political portrait in "1984."

In the late 1800s, over 10,000 entries of the Oxford English Dictionary were written by a patient in a psychiatric hospital.

The mysterious details of Stalin's death

The 73-year-old dictator of the Soviet Union died March 5, 1953, officially from a stroke, on top of nearly a decade of significant medical issues. But evidence suggests the longtime leader might have been poisoned less than a week before at an intimate gathering of Stalin's closest confidantes and advisors. Explore the current evidence for Stalin's alleged murder here.

Listen to the Pink Floyd album inspired by 'Animal Farm'

The 1977 album "Animals" was loosely inspired by Orwell's 1945 novella, though it was not a strict allegory for the Russian Revolution. Instead, Roger Waters' and David Gilmour's songs criticize what they see as the inhumanity of modern capitalism.

In 1999, King survived a near-fatal car accident

In 1999, a distracted driver hit writer Stephen King as he walked on the side of the road near his house in Maine. He recounts the event in his famous memoir, "On Writing." This interview with Katie Couric took place five months after the accident and shows King in a fragile state, wondering about the long-term effects on his mind. When Couric asks if he'll try to work the incident into his work, he smiles. "Sooner or later," he says, "everything goes in."

How famous writers chose their pen names

From Joseph Conrad to JK Rowling, writers employ pseudonyms for all kinds of reasons. How they find those pseudonyms, however, depends on the individual.

Jean-Paul Sartre worked on 'Being and Nothingness' while a prisoner of war

The Nazis invaded France in May 1940. Sartre, as a member of the French Army, was taken prisoner that June. While he was in captivity, he studied Martin Heidegger and worked on "Being and Nothingness," one of his most famous philosophical works.

King George III assembled a 65,000-volume personal library.

Voltaire's writing sent him into exile

In 1717, the writer's satirical poem "La Henriade" landed him in prison for a year. By 1726, the French government's distaste for his work caused him to leave the country for England, though he returned a few years later. That would be short-lived: In 1734, his "Lettres Philosophiques" sent him packing again, moving to Champagne, then Berlin, then Switzerland, before finally returning to Paris in 1778.

Winston Churchill said he was comforted by Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' and its characters' calmness during World War II.

Camus died in a car crash, an act some believe was orchestrated by the KGB.

The first draft of the classic American novel 'Of Mice and Men' was torn to shreds by John Steinbeck's dog.

The story of the real-life 'Lord of the Flies'

William Golding's 1954 novel "Lord of the Flies" is about a group of schoolboys who crash land on a remote island and are forced to fend for themselves. It's a situation that ends in chaos and, at least according to generations of English teachers, reveals the cruelty lurking in all of us. But a real-life story eerily similar to Golding's novel suggests something very different.

An Irish soldier recounts the horrors of fighting in World War I

Jack Campbell, who died in 1992, at age 97, served in the British army during World War I with four of his older brothers. Ireland's last "Old Contemptible," Campbell was gassed during the course of the war, and he shares this and other memories on Ireland's 'The Late Late Show' in this 11-minute video.

Ray Bradbury wrote 'Fahrenheit 451,' his landmark dystopian novel, on a rented typewriter in the basement of a UCLA library.

O’Connor was shaped by her time with Sally and Robert Fitzgerald

After Iowa, O’Connor moved to Connecticut to stay in the garage apartment of Sally and Robert Fitzgerald—the legendary translator of Homer, Sophocles, and other classics—while working on her first novel, “Wise Blood.” Like O’Connor, the Fitzgeralds were devout Catholics, and the three attended mass every morning.

Read a 1971 magazine feature on Lucas' debut film, the sci-fi 'THX 1138'

Almost a decade before the arrival of "Star Wars," George Lucas directed "THX 1138," a grim science fiction film about a dystopian future in the vein of George Orwell's "1984." This article from the October 1971 issue of American Cinematographer features a young George Lucas, who developed the film from a short he worked on while a student at the University of Southern California just a few years earlier.