Discussion : Frequently Asked Questions

When Eric Blair wrote his first book 'Down And Out In Paris And London', where he described his expirience as a tramp and dishwasher, he adopted a pen name so that his parents and middle class friends wouldn't find out about his live on the street. (In the original manuscript Orwell used an 'X' for his name)

A second reason for this name change might be that Eric Blair wanted to change his identity: He tried to change himself from Eric Blair, old Etonian and English colonial policemen, into George Orwell, classless antiauthoritarian.