"ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS": RARE FIRST EDITION OF ORWELL'S ANIMAL FARM

ORWELL, George. Animal Farm: A Fairy Story. London: Secker & Warburg, 1945. Slim octavo, original green cloth, original dust jacket. $22,000.

First edition, first printing, of Orwell’s "savagely ironical allegory" (Clute & Grant) on the gap between radical ideals and reality, his most famous and widely read work, a handsome copy in original dust jacket.

"A political fable that partly recounts, in an allegorical mode, the aftermath of the Russian revolution, and partly illustrates a belief in the universal tendency of power to corrupt" (Stringer, 22). "Animal Farm, which owes something to Swift and Defoe, is [Orwell's] masterpiece" (Connolly 93). Because of wartime paper shortages, the first printing of this book was only 4500 copies and the dust jacket was usually printed on the reverse of Searchlight Books jackets (as here in blue). With "May 1945" imprint. Fenwick A.10a. Fantasy and Horror 5-236.

Book about-fine with slight toning to spine ends, dust jacket bright and near-fine with a bit of wear to spine extremities, affecting first letter of title, one short closed tear to rear panel. An exceptionally handsome copy.