The author of the dystopian novel 1984 celebrates a birthday – but who was George Orwell really? Today’s poem, a sonnet from Shakespeare.
The date is June 25th, Tuesday, and today I’m coming to you from La Serena, Chile.
Today is the birthday of English writer Eric Arthur Blair, known better by his pen name George Orwell. He’s remembered today for his novella Animal Farm and novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. From his work we get terms like “Big brother” and the “Thought Police” and of course there is the word “Orwellian” which refers to the dystopian reality depicted in Nineteen Eighty-Four.
During his short lifetime, Blair, or Orwell, was best recognized for his writing in magazines, periodicals, and newspapers. He wrote numerous essays on life, particularly as life from a poor-man’s perspective.
After a few years spent as an Imperial Officer in the British-ruled India, Orwell returned to England. He wanted to write, but at first wasn’t sure about what. A mentor suggested he head to London’s East End, a working-class neighborhood, for inspiration and content.
Orwell gave it a try. He spent a few years masquerading as a ‘tramp’ in London and the Paris, working menial jobs and living the life of a vagrant, getting to know the habits and struggles of the poor living in the big cities. His essays gave readers glimpse the hardships of the lower classes and garnered a decent readership, allowing Orwell to practice writing while on a slim budget.
He would publish Down and Out in Paris and London as a full volume of his time spent as a ‘tramp’ and included calls for improvement in the very classist English social system. One thing he concluded from his immersive experience was that fish and chips, football, the pub, and strong tea among other things, were of the greatest comfort to London’s lower classes.
Orwell continued to lean toward socialist policies, and although he had Communist sentiments, his novella Animal Farm to most scholars appears as a warning against how communism (and government in general) can easily transition into something more sinister. It is generally accepted as an allegorical tale for its parallels to the Russian Revolution, Stalinism, and the Soviet Union. Published in August 1945, Animal Farm resonated instantly with the people and Orwell enjoyed a busy period as a full-time writer. He continued to work as a journalist while simultaneously crafting his next book, Nineteen Eighty-Four. It was published in 1949, also an immediate success.
Orwell, who said “The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection” wasn’t all political socialist sentiment. He also managed to write about food though his tastes were not sophisticated. Perhaps, having been around during Britian’s WWII food-rationing, he got used to lean meals. He extolled the perfection of British beers and condemned lagers, fantasizing about what the perfect pub would be like in an essay in 1946.
But he reserved his true ardor for the cup of tea. He wrote an essay titled “A Nice Cup of Tea” also in 1946. He said “tea is one of the mainstays of civilisation in this country and causes violent disputes over how it should be made.” One of the highlights of Orwell’s day was taking afternoon tea at a cozy table.
Both Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm received the Prometheus Book Award in the years after Orwell’s death at the age of 50, and his many essays on English life and culture are treasured by the nation.
Sonnet 18 [Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?]
William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.