George Orwell’s Animal Farm is published in London.
On August 17, 1946, George Orwell’s Animal Farm: A Fairy Storywas published in London; a year later, it was published (sans subtitle) in the US. In both countries—despite the relative difficulty Orwell had getting it published in the first place—it was an immediate success. According to the note accompanying a 2009 edition of the novel, until Animal Farm, Orwell’s books had collectively sold fewer than 200,000 copies; four years after its publication, Animal Farm alone had sold over 600,000. “With Animal Farm, Orwell—then a 42-year-old democratic socialist known primarily for essays and journalism exploring social injustice and class iniquities across Europe—hoped only to dissuade his countrymen from what he recognized as a dangerous infatuation with Joseph Stalin,” wrote Téa Obreht in 2020. “It is indisputable that an author’s intentions for his or her work usually don’t survive publication, let alone the author’s death. Nothing of Animal Farm’s success during Orwell’s lifetime could really augur the varied purposes it would come to serve, or the global behemoth it would quickly become.” Animal Farm has, of course, become a major touchstone of English-language literature. If you grew up in the UK or the US, almost certainly read it in high school. Not too shabby for an allegorical work of anti-Stalinist satire populated primarily by talking pigs. Alas, it continues to remain as relevant as ever. “All evidence points to the fact that we’re in a great deal of very familiar trouble the whole world over,” wrote Obreht. “That we so dependably manage to be, despite the existence of prophetic works like Animal Farm, should worry us to the point of despair. But this is the way of our species: memory fades. We grow bored with the lessons of the past. We tell ourselves: things could never get as bad as they once were because, unlike those who came before us, we are good people who know better than to let it happen again.” So if you’re looking for a good excuse to re-read a classic—and take its lessons to heart—consider this your sign.
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