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Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 4: Animal Farm by George Orwell

Unit 4: Animal Farm by George Orwell Notes

CONTENTS
Objectives

Introduction
4.1 Life and Works of George Orwell

4.2 Animal Farm
4.3 Symbolism/Interpretation
4.4 Summary

4.5 Keywords
4.6 Review Questions
4.7 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
Describe the life and works of George Orwell
Know about dystopian and an allegorical novel Animal Farm

Interpret Animal Farm

Introduction

Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), popular by his pen name George Orwell, was
a renowned English author and journalist. His work displays his intelligence and wit, and his
deep awareness of social injustice, a passion for clarity and simplicity in language, a belief in
democratic socialism and an intense opposition to totalitarianism.

Considered perhaps the 20th century’s best chronicler of English culture, George Orwell wrote
literary criticism, fiction, poetry and polemical journalism. He is popularly known for the
allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949),
which together have sold more copies than any two books written by any other author of the
20th-century. Orwell’s book Homage to Catalonia (1938), which gives an account of his experiences
in the Spanish Civil War, is widely acclaimed, as are his several essays on literature, politics,
culture and language. The Times in 2008, ranked George Orwell second on a list of “The 50
greatest British writers since 19453 .

George Orwell’s influence on political and popular culture endures, and many of his neologisms,
along with the term Orwellian — a byword for manipulative social practices or totalitarian have
entered the vernacular.
Animal Farm is a dystopian and an allegorical novel by George Orwell which was published in
England on 17 August 1945.
In this unit we will study more about George Orwell and the book Animal Farm.

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