“To walk through the ruined cities of Germany is to feel an actual doubt about the continuity of civilization.”

English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic

George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic. He is known for writing with clear prose and for work shaped by social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and support for democratic socialism. His writing is marked by direct language and a strong political conscience. Across his novels, essays, and journalism, he returns to questions of power, public life, and freedom, and he is closely associated with criticism of totalitarian rule and with democratic socialist ideas.