The first edition of Orwell's socio-political classic, intended by the author to serve as a satirical take on the events that led up to the Russian Revolution and Stalinism whilst simultaneously illustrating the weaknesses inherent in the human condition that make any political and economic ideal almost unworkable. As the author states himself in his 1946 essay Why I Write, the motivation behind Animal Farm was 'to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole'.

Examples in this condition are of the utmost scarcity. The jackets for the entire edition were printed on the porous side of recycled wrappers, due to paper supply regulations in the UK during World War II. As a consequence they are extremely prone to rubbing and chaffing.

The book was banned in the Soviet Russia for obvious reasons, however it is interesting to note that printers were discouraged from printing it in the United Kingdom during the second world war as it was thought it might provoke their Soviet allies. The book was also banned in the United Arab Emirates in 2012 for 'un-Islamic' values and North Korea which is unsurprising given that the book questions authoritarian leadership.

First edition, first impression; 8vo; unmarked internally; publisher's green cloth, titles to spine in white, with endpapers, tiny strip of fading to cloth at foot of spine, with the price-clipped dust-jacket on the blue printed Searchlight Books blank, minor edge-wear, merest trace of rubbing to spine; an exceptional copy, scarce thus.