‘Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength; and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty. No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth.’
Not all satires are equal. Written in 1943-4, and eventually – after a series of publishers’ rejections, including one inspired by a Soviet spy – published in 1945, Animal Farm: A Fairy Story chronicles the revolution of the animals against Mr Jones at Manor Farm. An allegory on the Soviet regime, Animal Farm was banned in the Eastern bloc and is one of the great political works of the 20th Century.
More by Orwell related to Animal Farm
- Arthur Koestler (written 1944)
- The Freedom of the Press: Proposed Preface to Animal Farm
- Preface to the Ukranian edition of Animal Farm by George Orwell
More about Animal Farm
- British Pathé: The making of Animal Farm cartoon, 1955 (video, British Pathé)
- Margaret Atwood: Orwell and me (The Guardian)
- Karl F. Cohen: Halas and Batchelor’s Animal Farm and the CIA (Animation World Network)
- Karl F. Cohen: The cartoon that came in from the cold (abridged version of the above, The Guardian)
- Sébastien Denis: La ferme des animaux revisitée – sur deux films et un album (video) (French)
- Valerie Eliot: T. S. Eliot and Animal Farm – reasons for rejection (Times Archive)
- The Guardian: Books of the Day – Animal Farm, 1945 (The Guardian)
- Christopher Hitchens: Introduction to Animal Farm (extract)
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