ISBN 978-0-141-03613-7. George Orwell’s “Animal Farm – A Fairy Story” was published by Penguin in 2008. It was fist published in the post-war Britain of 1945. This edition with introductory notes on the text by Peter Davison came out in 1989. “Animal Farm” is now considered a literary classic and has been used to teach English Literature to teenagers. Noam Chomsky considers it dissident literature that is only acceptable in our society because it is considered a work concerning the misdemeanours of an official enemy – communism. Orwell himself challenged the idea that “Animal Farm” only concerned Stalinism. He said that although it was “primarily a satire on the Russian Revolution” it was intended to have a wider application. Continue reading →

Arguably one of the most widely read and important books ever. Orwell never did things by halves. He had personal experience of the Spanish Civil War and Stalinism. His experiences caused him to write two of the most stunningly original books on totalitarianism ever put to paper. This and “Animal Farm” are probably the only two novels you really need to read on this topic. “1984″ has entered the lexicon of modern life. How many of the millions of mindless drones who watch Endemol’s “Big Brother” on TV aware of the irony? Do any of them even know who coined this phrase? I doubt it. Orwell hated the rise of the Communists and Fascists in Europe. He observed the mechanisms whereby human populations can be caught up in the machinations of power. Continue reading →