Books

Reprint, Paperback. 8vo. pp 120. Original publisher's orange green and red Penguin paperback. Ronald Searle's copy with sentences underlined and loosely inserted paper notes at various pages in his unmistakable hand. Also closely written notes ('9 dogs, enormous with brass-studded collars, fierce' 'pile of corpses before Naploeon's feet, smell of blood' 'Mollie, fancy white mare, Boxer (horse) enormous. .muddy forelock, stupid look.') on a card and a piece of foolscap with 2 drawings by Searle - a potential flag- a horn crossed with a hoof, also a black cockerel and some watercolour smudges of colours he might use. Evidence of a close reading of the book by Searle and painstaking work working out possible illustrations. There is no record of a Searle illustrated Animal Farm edition so this is probably the only record of a possible project.Provenance; bought from his heirs at his house at Tourtour in the South of France. There a few words in Frenchin Searle's hand - 'Les chien les engorerent sans tarder.' suggesting his notes and research may have been for a never published French edition. Very good.

Animal Farm is an allegorical novella by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. The book tells the story of a group of farm animals who revolt against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where animals can be equal, free, and just. However, the revolution is hijacked by the pigs, who become just as oppressive as the humans. Animal Farm is an allegory for the Russian Revolution and the subsequent Soviet Union.