George Orwell was an English essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterized by lucid prose, biting social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic
socialism. As a writer, Orwell is best known for the book Animal Farm and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (
1984). He also wrote Homage to Catalonia, an account of his experiences as a soldier for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil
War. The Spanish Civil
War played the most important part in defining Orwell's
socialism. Having witnessed the success of the anarcho-
syndicalist communities in Anarchist Catalonia, and the subsequent brutal suppression of the anarcho-
syndicalists… Read more by the Soviet Union-backed
Communists, Orwell was strongly influenced by the anarchist critiques of the Soviet regime, and by the anarchists' emphasis on individual
freedom. Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"?describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices?is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "
Big Brother" and "Thought Police".
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