Publisher, Blackstone Audiobooks (November 2004)

ALERT! YOUR CD PLAYER MUST BE MP3 COMPATIBLE! MP3 audiobooks on compact disc can be played on newer CD players that support MP3 technology and accept a 4.75" diameter disc, and on any personal computer that has Microsoft's Media Player or similar software.

George Orwell's classic satire of the Russian Revolution is an intimate part of our contemporary culture. Animal Farm has been read and reread and quoted so often that we tend to forget who wrote the original words. It is an account of the bold struggle that transforms Mr. Jones' Manor Farm into Animal Farm-a wholly democratic society built on the credo that All Animals Are Created Equal. Out of their cleverness, the pigs Napoleon, Squealer and Snowball emerge as leaders of the new community in a subtle evolution that bears an insidious familiarity. The climax is the brutal betrayal of the faithful horse Boxer, when totalitarian rule is re-established with the bloodstained postscript to the founding slogan: But Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others...

Orwell's succinct, frightening words have been heard since 1946 as unsparingly descriptive of the fate of those who suffer totalitarian regimes. This audio edition of the masterpiece reminds us of Orwell's genius.

Arthur M. Schlesinger, reviewing Animal Farm in The New York Times Book Review, hailed it as "a wise, compassionate and illuminating fable of our times... The steadiness and lucidity of Orwell's merciless wit are reminiscent of Anatole France and even of Swift."