"A delightfully humorous and caustic satire on the rule of the many by the few." Animal Farm, The Guardian.
"I do not think I have ever read a novel more frightening and depressing; and yet, such are the originality, the suspense, the speed of writing and withering indignation that it is impossible to put the book down." - V. S. Pritchett of Nineteen Eighty-Four.
"One cannot help but be struck by the degree to which he (George Orwell) became, in Henry James's words, one of those upon whom nothing was lost. By declining to lie, even as far as possible to himself, and by his determination to seek elusive but verifiable truth, he showed how much can be accomplished by an individual who unites the qualities of intellectual honesty and moral courage." -- Christopher Hitchens
"We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. ... There will be no art, no literature, no science. ... There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always, always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless." -- George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
This little volume contains two of the most prophetic and chilling novels of the twentieth century‑‑Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell clear-sightedly looks at humanity and human nature and shows us what could go terribly wrong.
Orwell wrote Animal Farm - A Fairy Story in three months from November 1943 to February 1944. It was only published in August 1945 because it was seen for what it was: a critique of Stalin's Soviet Union, which, much to Orwell's disgust, was a strategic ally of the United Kingdom.
In his compelling dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell created the world of Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, Room 101, 2 + 2 = 5, and the memory hole: indeed, a complete "Orwellian" society. In the twenty-first century, in a world of fake news and ubiquitous state and corporate monitoring of citizens, in which vast regions of the world are governed by totalitarian regimes, Nineteen Eighty-Four is even more relevant than when it was written. It is essential reading.
George Orwell (born Eric Blair, 1903, Motihari, Bengal, died Jan 1950, London)was a leading British writer of the twentieth century. He studied at Wellington College and Eton (1917-1921) where he was a King's Scholar. After Eton, he followed family tradition and joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, until 1927 when, disgusted by imperialism, he resigned to pursue his boyhood dream of being a writer.
He published an autobiographical book Down and Out in London and Paris, with Victor Gollancz Ltd. under his pen name of George Orwell. This established his literary career. Orwell was a prolific journalist, essayist, novelist and nonfiction writer. He is remembered for his prescient writing and his unwavering commitment to truth and clarity of expression. His last two novels--Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four--have placed him at the pinnacle of British literature.
