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Shop nowAnimal Farm
Narrator
Ralph Cosham
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Length
3 hours 11 minutes
Language
English
George Orwell’s classic satire of the Russian Revolution has become an intimate part of our contemporary culture, with its treatment of democratic, fascist, and socialist ideals through an animal fable.
The animals of Mr. Jones’s Manor Farm are overworked, mistreated, and desperately seeking a reprieve. In their quest to create an idyllic society where justice and equality reign, the animals of Manor Farm revolt against their human rulers, establishing the democratic Animal Farm under the credo, “All Animals Are Created Equal.” Out of their cleverness, the pigs—Napoleon, Squealer, and Snowball—emerge as leaders of the new community. In a development of insidious familiarity, the pigs begin to assume ever greater amounts of power, while other animals, especially the faithful horse Boxer, assume more of the work. The climax of the story results in a brutal betrayal, when totalitarian rule is reestablished with the bloodstained postscript to the founding slogan: “But Some Animals Are More Equal than Others.”
This astonishing allegory, one of the most scathing satires in literary history, remains as fresh and relevant as the day it was published.
Eric Arthur Blair (1903-1950), better known by his pen-name, George Orwell, was born in India, where his father worked for the Civil Service. An author and journalist, Orwell was one of the most prominent and influential figures in twentieth-century literature. His unique political allegory Animal Farm was published in 1945, and it was this novel, together with the dystopia of Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), which brought him world-wide fame. His novels and non-fiction include Burmese Days, Down and Out in Paris and London, The Road to Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia.
Geoffrey Howard (a.k.a. Ralph Cosham) (1936–2014) was a British journalist who changed careers to become a narrator and screen and stage actor. He performed in more than one hundred professional theatrical roles. His audiobook narrations were named “Audio Best of the Year” by Publishers Weekly, and he won seven AudioFile Earphones Awards, and in 2013 he won the coveted Audie Award for Best Mystery Narration for his reading of Louise Penny’s The Beautiful Mystery.
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Reviews
“Animal Farm ought to resonate because it’s about the beguiling lure of messages that tell you they have answers…A very pertinent book for protecting you against making the small concessions towards being cruel or unfair or accepting injustice.”
“There is a timeless, even transcendent quality to this little story.”
“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.”
“Absolutely first-rate…comparable to Voltaire and Swift.”
“Animal Farm is a nearly perfect piece of writing, both an engaging story and an allegory that actually works.”
“A modern day fable, with modern implications in a deceiving simplicity…Orwell’s animals exist in their own right, with a narrative as individual as it is apt in political parody.”
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