Animal Farm [A Fairy Story]

155 pp. 8vo. Illustrations by Joy Batchelor & John Halas. Endorsement by Christopher Morley printed on front jacket panel, and by TIME on rear panel. A satirical look at Soviet totalitarianism using animals on a farm as an allegorical device. The revision of history by those in power is a theme that returns in Orwell's famous dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. While the setting of Animal Farm does not quite fit the parameters of a dystopian society, Orwell's work here seems to progress directly toward the speculations about future society in Nineteen Eighty-Four, common themes being the will to power, power's corrupting influence, and the obliteration of history.