Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. Orwell was an outspoken supporter of democratic socialism and his work is defined by clear prose, spreading awareness of social injustice, and an intense opposition to totalitarianism. Marked by his keen intelligence and sharp wit, Orwell is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) and the satirical novella Animal Farm (1945), both works have together sold more copies than any two books by any other twentieth-century writer.