It was on this day (August 17) in 1945 when George Orwell's classic novella 'Animal Farm' was published. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Orwell's 'Animal Farm' is based on the Russian Revolution and Joseph Stalin's subsequent betrayal, which is deemed as an allegory in the story.
The novella follows the story of a few farm animals who are fell that they are being exploited by their human masters. And so, the animals decide to over throw the humans and form their own egalitarian society. However, in the end, the power-loving animal leaders end up becoming dictators and their rule is much more oppressive than that of their previous human masters.
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According to British Library’s official website, Orwell wrote the first draft of the book in 1944 and it was intially titled 'A Fairy Story'. After facing several rejections by many publishers, the book was finally published on August 17, 1945, as 'Animal Farm'.
In his essay titled 'Why I Write', Orwell had said that 'Animal Farm' was his first book in which he attempted "to fuse political and artistic purpose into one whole."
It is noted that Orwell's 'Animal Farm' didn't go well with the Soviet Union and so it was banned by them upon its release. Meanwhile, ‘Animal Farm’ is still banned in North Korea and Cuba. The book was also also banned in the UAE as it shows pigs talking-- a concept which is considered against Muslim's beliefs.
Today, Orwell's 'Animal Farm' is considered a modern classic and it widely adapted for stage and screen.
For the unversed, the author was born as Eric Arthur Blair on June 25, 1903, in India. It was in the 1930s, when he took the name Orwell.
