Referat The most important literary works of George Orwell

The Person George Orwell

Orwell was a political writer. In his writings he thought about the political problems all over the world and especially in England.

But he didn't only describe political problems. In his Socialist times he wrote about the social problems in England. The Road To Wigan Pier, published in 1937, is a good example for this period of his life. He wrote about the problems of the English class system and it's "disputes" with Socialism.

Later on Orwell tried to combine political concerns with artistry, as he writes in "Why I Write" (1946). This happened the first time in "Animal Farm" (1945).

Something very typical for Orwell is, that he often used his own experiences in his books. For example for "The Road To Wigan Pier" Orwell lived along English coal-miners and even tried to work as a coal miner. All these experiences he used to write this book. It's the same with "Down And Out In Paris And London", in which he describes how he lived as a plongeur in the streets of Paris and his time tramping around the countryside of London. He really lived among bums and criminals in the streets. He had no money and so he had to pawn all his clothes and belongings in Paris.

Because of this I'm sure that Orwell was really interested in the topics he wrote about.

At the end Orwell in his own words : "Every line I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism, and for democratic Socialism, as I understand it." (taken from the preface to "Animal Farm") I think this sentence he wrote, describes his interests behind his works, the best.

The most important literary works of George Orwell

His first work to be published was Awake Young Men Of England, which was a poem. It came out in 1914 when Orwell was just 11 years old.

The next important work by George Orwell was published in 1930. It was called Down And Out In Paris And London. The original version of this book entitled 'A Scullion's Diary' was completed in October 1930 and came to only 35,000 words because Orwell has used only a part of his material. In 1931 the London Chapters were added. One year later the title was first changed to 'Confession of a Down and Out in Paris and London', and then to its actual name. In the original manuscript Orwell used an 'X' for his name before he finally adopted his pen-name, 'George Orwell'.

Between 1934 and 1935 Burmese Days and A Clergyman's Daughter were published.

One year later Keep The Aspidistra Flying was published.

In 1937 The Road To Wigan Pier is the next important work to be published. In this

book George Orwell describes the bad conditions in which the coal-miners and their

families had to live. Orwell also talks about Socialism and the English class system in

this book. He gathered the information and his material for this book by living with

the miners families and visiting mining towns. It had a Left Book Club edition with

more than 40.000 copies.

Just one year later Homage To Catalonia was published. This book is about the

Spanish Civil War.

In 1939 Coming Up For Air was published.

In May of 1940 Inside The Whale came out.

One year later The Lion And The Unicorn was the next book to be published.

Animal Farm came out in August of 1945. It was very difficult for Orwell to get this politically brisant story printed, which was refused by several publishers, before it finally could be presented to the readers all over the world. One year later this book was very popular in the U.S.A., and so it was elected "the book of the month" there, because of selling more than 500.000 copies.

1946 is the year in which Critical Essays and "Why I Write" were published.

The last book to be published was Nineteen Eighty - Four. It came out in June 1949 in London, and sold more than 400.000 copies in the first year. Since 1954, this was when the first paperback of this book came out, it has been reprinted twenty - six times. This book is also politically brisant, just like Animal Farm or The Road To Wigan Pier.