Writing in The Guardian earlier this year, Christopher Hitchens revisited Animal Farm, George Orwell’s “dystopian allegorical novella” that took aim at the corruption of the Soviet Union and its totalitarian rule. Published in 1945, the short book appears on the Modern Library’s list of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th century, and Time Magazine’s own honors list.
But, as Hitchens reminds us, Animal Farm was almost never published. The manuscript barely survived the Nazi bombing of London during World War II, and then initially TS Eliot (an important editor at Faber & Faber) and other publishers rejected the book.
It eventually came to see the light of day, but, 65 years later, Animal Farm still can’t be legally read in China, Burma and North Korea, or across large parts of the Islamic world. But, no matter where you come from, you can listen to Animal Farm for free. That’s right, I said it – free. The Internet Archive offers free access to audio versions of Animal Farm and Orwell’s other major classic, 1984. Both texts appear in our collection of Free Audio Books, and you can download them directly from the Internet
Archive here (Animal Farm) and here (1984). The text versions of these classics also appear in our collection of Free eBooks.
Finally, if you’re interested in downloading a free audio book from Audible.com (pretty much any book you want), you can get more details here.
Download George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984 as Free Audio Books | Open Culture
No comments:
Post a Comment