A breath of air

George Orwell (1903–1950) is an English writer and publicist who became famous thanks to the most famous novel in the dystopian genre, “1984,” where he depicted a terrible totalitarian society of the future, as well as the story “Animal Farm,” which in an allegorical form tells about the times of the formation of the USSR.

However, Orwell’s other works are also no less interesting and relevant for the present, in particular the novel “A Breath of Air,” which is a kind of prequel to the famous “1984.” It tells about the existential crisis of an ordinary representative of the English middle class against the background of the general crisis on the eve of World War II. From this novel, you can learn about the prerequisites and see the first sprouts of the terrible world described in "1984", since, according to the main character of the work, the destruction of the former cozy world began on the eve of the First World War, continued and intensified after its end, and, apparently, will be completed by the Second World War - the last, eternal, endless.

The midlife crisis sneaks up suddenly and imperceptibly, and then suddenly it turns out that most of the years of your adult life are actually devoid of any meaning, and the happiest period is hidden in the past, in your childhood, which you can no longer reach and the memories of which haunt you more and more.

This is exactly how the hero of the novel "A Breath of Air" feels when he realizes that something is wrong in his life, and in fact everything is. This prompts him to embark on an imaginary and real journey to the world of his childhood - the only place where he was once happy. Of course, such journeys to the origins of his former life and his former identity almost never succeed.

Meanwhile, the world is hanging over the abyss of a new great war, only a few months of the former peaceful life remain - huge black bombers are flying in the sky more and more often, heralding irreversible, rapid and terrible changes.