L i t e r a t u r e 34 “All Animals Are Equal, But Some AnimalsAreMoreEqualThanOthers”: First Edition Of Orwell’s Animal Farm 36. ORWELL, George. Animal Farm: A Fairy Story. London, 1945. Slim octavo, original green cloth, dust jacket. $17,500. 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, in scarce 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 red). With “May 1945” imprint. Fenwick A.10a. Book fine, scarce dust jacket with only light wear to spine extremities, a few faint marks. An exceptional copy. “Four legs good, two legs bad.”
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