returned from war , hewrote Homage to Catalonia and in the winter of 1938, wrote Coming Up for Air. In 1941he wrote London Letter’s and in August joined the BBC as a talks producer in the IndianSection of the Eastern Service. Later in the year, he began writing Animal Farm. It didnot appear until August 1945, at the end of the war. He and his wife adopted a son in1944, but in 1945 his wife died during an operation. Animal Farm’s success endedOrwell’s financial worries that he had suffered from for twenty years. In 1946, he settledin Jura, Scotland, with his younger sister as housekeeper, though he returned to Londonfor the winter. During 1947, in the early stages of renewed tuberculosis, he wrote the firstdrafts of Nineteen Eighty-Four. In 1948, amid several attacks, Orwell wrote the seconddraft. In September, 1949, he went into a hospital in London, and in October marriedSonia Brownell. In January 1950, Eric Arthur Blair, AKA “George Orwell”, died.(Williams 7-15) WORKS In 1933, Orwell wrote Down and Out in Paris and London.This was his first book. It is the record of a young man’s (most-likely Orwell’s)experiences with poverty in Paris and London. It did very well for a first novel. In mostways it was a long, autobiographical essay on poverty. (Wykes 71-72) Orwell’s secondnovel was Burmese Days. It was an account of Orwell’s experiences working for theImperial Indian Police in Burma. For fear of insulting Burma, this novel was publishedfirst in the U.S. rather than in England. (Wykes 44) His next two novels were AClergyman’s Daughter and Keep the Aspidistra Flying. A Clergyman’s Daughter,published in 1935, is the journey of Dorothy Hare. A journey of escape andself-exploration (Wykes 4). Keep the Aspidistra Flying, published in 1936, is a novelabout middle-class decline and compromise (Wykes 7). Orwell regarded these novels asfailures. The Road to Wigan Pier, written for...
