Orwell wrote Animal Farm at the end of 1943, but its savage attack on Stalin — then Britain’s wartime ally — saw it turned away by publisher after publisher before it finally appeared in 1945. The wait proved worthwhile: this deceptively simple fable has since become one of the most celebrated works in the English language. ‘It is the history of a revolution that went wrong — and of the excellent excuses that were forthcoming at every step for the perversion of the original doctrine,’ Orwell wrote for that first edition. When the long-suffering animals of Manor Farm overthrow their master Mr Jones, they believe they are seizing a new life of freedom and equality. Slowly, however, a cunning and ruthless elite emerges — led by the pigs Napoleon and Snowball — and begins to tighten its grip on the farm. The remaining animals find that one tyranny has simply been replaced by another, and that the founding promise of equality rings ever more hollow. ‘All animals are equal — but some are more equal than others.’ This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Malcolm Bradbury.
ISBN 13: 9780141393056
Author: George Orwell
