eric. arthur blair. eric arthur blair is george orwell. orwell actually is his pen name. he takes it when he publishes his first novel, largely so as not to embarrass his parents. you know, he's writing about some vulgar subjects both about his time initially working as police officer in burma. and his disenchantment with the empire. but then being and out in paris and london, as he put it, slumming it in those two metropolitan capitals. and his experience with the unemployed and underemployed of 1930s europe. so he never formally changes his name, though. i mean, his first wife, eileen o'shaughnessy, becomes eileen o'shaughnessy. blair and his second wife takes the last name. but that is not his legal surname. it's a nom de plume. what did he write that first novel and how many novels did he write over the course of his writing career? so he's write seven books, length novels and nonfiction, as well as countless newspaper and magazine articles. over the course of his career. he starts his first novel, which burmese days. it's not first novel he publishes, but it's the fi