Since its publication fifty years ago, "Animal Farm" has become one of
the most controversial books ever written. It has been translated into
seventy languages and sold millions of copies throughout the world. This
edition is being published to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of
its original U.S. publication.
It features 100 full-color and halftone illustrations by world-renowned
artist Ralph Steadman. As vital and relevant as it was fifty years ago,
"Animal Farm" is a devastating satire of the Soviet Union by the man V.
S. Pritchett called "the conscience of his generation." A fable about an
uprising of farm animals against their human masters, it illustrates how
new tyranny replaces old in the wake of revolutions and power corrupts
even the noblest of causes.
This anniversary edition includes Orwell's proposed but unpublished
preface to the original edition and his preface to the 1947 Ukranian
edition. These appendices evoke the historical context in which Orwell
conceived and wrote his classic novel.