Animal Farm Synopsis
First published in 1945, "e;Animal Farm"e; is an allegorical novella by George Orwell that tells the tale of the animal inhabitants of a farm who engage in a rebellion against the farmer in order to usher in a free, equal society. However, their efforts are subverted by a pig called Napoleon who leads them into a brutal dictatorship instead. The story is based upon the 1917 Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union under Stalin, written at a time when Stalin was held in high esteem by the British intelligentsia. An absolute classic of Western literature not to be missed by those with a keen interest in history and politics. Eric Arthur Blair (1903-1950), more commonly known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English journalist, essayist, critic. His work is characterised by an opposition to totalitarianism and biting social commentary, and remains influential in popular culture today. Many of his neologisms have forever entered the English language, including "e;Thought Police"e;, "e;Big Brother"e;, "e;Room 101"e;, "e;doublethink"e;, "e;thoughtcrime"e;, and "e;Newspeak"e; to name but a few. Other notable works by this author include: "e;Burmese Days"e; (1934), "e;Keep the Aspidistra Flying"e; (1936), and "e;Coming Up for Air"e; (1939). Read & Co. Classics is proudly publishing this novel now in a new edition complete with the introductory essay "e;Why I Write"e;.
About This Edition
About George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell) was born in 1903 in India, where his father worked for the Civil Service. The family moved to England in 1907 and in 1917 Orwell entered Eton, where he contributed regularly to the various college magazines. From 1922 to 1927 he served with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, an experience that inspired his first novel, Burmese Days (1934). Several years of poverty followed. He lived in Paris for two years before returning to England, where he worked successively as a private tutor, schoolteacher and bookshop assistant, and contributed reviews and articles to a number of periodicals. Down and Out in Paris and London was published in 1933. In 1936 he was commissioned by Victor Gollancz to visit areas of mass unemployment in Lancashire and Yorkshire, and The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) is a powerful description of the poverty he saw there. At the end of 1936 Orwell went to Spain to fight for the Republicans and was wounded. Homage to Catalonia is his account of the civil war. He was admitted to a sanatorium in 1938 and from then on was never fully fit. He spent six months in Morocco and there wrote Coming Up for Air. During the Second World War he served in the Home Guard and worked for the BBC Eastern Service from 1941 to 1943. As literary editor of the Tribune he contributed a regular page of political and literary commentary, and he also wrote for the Observer and later for the Manchester Evening News. His unique political allegory, Animal Farm was published in 1945, and it was this novel, together with Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), which brought him world-wide fame.
George Orwell died in London in January 1950. A few days before, Desmond MacCarthy had sent him a message of greeting in which he wrote: ‘You have made an indelible mark on English literature . . . you are among the few memorable writers of your generation.’
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