With a foreword by Ann Patchett
George Orwell's timeless fable - a parable for would-be liberators everywhere, glimpsed through the lens of our own history
As ferociously fresh as it was more than a half century ago, this remarkable allegory of a downtrodden society of overworked, mistreated animals, and their quest to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality is one of the most scathing satires ever published. As we witness the rise and bloody fall of the revolutionary animals, we begin to recognize the seeds of totalitarianism in the most idealistic organization; and in our most charismatic leaders, the souls of our cruelest oppressors.
This new , beautiful paperback edition with a foreword by Ann Patchett features deckled edges and french flaps -- a perfect gift for any occasion.
George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, born in 1903 in colonial India. He attended boarding school in England, and it was there that he first became aware of the hurtful class prejudice that plagued British society, developing an early sensitivity to the uses and abuses of power. Upon graduating from Eton in 1921, Orwell signed on with the Burmese Indian Imperial Police, about which he commented: "In order to hate imperialism, you have got to be part of it." His time in Burma affected him profoundly, and he quit without explanation five years later, announcing that he was to become a writer. Finding himself nearly penniless and taking a job as a dish-washer, the young writer explored the topic of poverty firsthand in his first published book, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), followed soon after by Burmese Days (1934), which recalled his time in the Imperial Police. Though his interest in the plight of individuals attempting to transcend their social roles came across in such early comic novels as Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936), it wasn't until his impassioned account of the plight of English workers in The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) that his new political consciousness fully blossomed. Around this time, he and his new wife joined an antifascist militia at the outbreak of the civil war in Spain, as is recounted in his Homage to Catalonia (1938). Though he is perhaps best known for his brilliant satire Animal Farm (1946) and his classic dystopian novel 1984 (1949) which followed, essay collections such as Inside the Whale (1940) reflected his continuing concern with the very real political and social circumstances of his day. Following the death of his wife in 1945, Orwell contracted tuberculosis, and, soon after his second marriage, died in 1950 at the age of forty-six.
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