Animal Farm

This special new edition of one of the world's 100 best English-language novels (Times Magazine) adds engraved illustrations, Student Notes and a stimulating essay on The Relevance of Animal Farm Today. Aimed at both new and returning readers, it attractively presents George Orwell's classic satire on dictatorship, political spin and a revolution betrayed. The Student Notes provide a practical guide to the book's story structure, themes, parallels with Soviet Russia, style and songs.

Published in 1945, Animal Farm tells how a determined group of farmyard animals drive off their cruel human master and set about running the farm themselves. They are surprisingly successful. Inspired by a philosophy of Animalism, which seeks a fair deployment of labour and reward among the different animals - and rejects human practices - the revolutionaries work hard to create a new society.

However, one species starts to dominate. Whether through intelligence or ambition, the pigs extend control over the farm. Life for the other animals becomes harder and more dangerous. As the original ideals become diluted, and corruption pervades, the pigs deploy ever greater doses of propaganda and terror to stay in power.

Animal Farm reads most obviously as a satire on the betrayal of the Russian Revolution by the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. But the book's abiding popularity rests on wider strengths. Its lessons on political corruption are universal. Modern equivalents can be found for the archetypal figures of the tyrant Napoleon, the idealist Snowball, the propagandist Squealer, the noble worker Boxer, and others. Moreover, nations today can chart their own progress within the trajectory of political decline - and the normalisation of falsehood - presented by the book.

Animal Farm is, above all, a darned good read. The story grabs you fast. Then through clear characters, escalating jeopardy and memorable set-piece scenes, it pulls you towards a tragic climax that is both shocking and inevitable.