Animal Farm

Reprint

George Orwell 저자(글)

Penguin Publishing Group · 2003년 05월 06일

책 소개

George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, born in 1903 in colonial India. He attended boarding school in England, and it was there that he first became aware of the hurtful class prejudice that plagued British society, developing an early sensitivity to the uses and abuses of power. Upon graduating from Eton in 1921, Orwell signed on with the Burmese Indian Imperial Police, about which he commented: "In order to hate imperialism, you have got to be part of it." His time in Burma affected him profoundly, and he quit without explanation five years later, announcing that he was to become a writer. Finding himself nearly penniless and taking a job as a dish-washer, the young writer explored the topic of poverty firsthand in his first published book, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), followed soon after by Burmese Days (1934), which recalled his time in the Imperial Police. Though his interest in the plight of individuals attempting to transcend their social roles came across in such early comic novels as Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936), it wasn't until his impassioned account of the plight of English workers in The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) that his new political consciousness fully blossomed. Around this time, he and his new wife joined an antifascist militia at the outbreak of the civil war in Spain, as is recounted in his Homage to Catalonia (1938). Though he is perhaps best known for his brilliant satire Animal Farm (1946) and his classic dystopian novel 1984 (1949) which followed, essay collections such as Inside the Whale (1940) reflected his continuing concern with the very real political and social circumstances of his day. Following the death of his wife in 1945, Orwell contracted tuberculosis, and, soon after his second marriage, died in 1950 at the age of forty-six.
The animals on Mr. Jones's farm stage a successful revolution, and take the place over. Their hopes, their plans, and their achievements form the subject of Animal Farm. In the first flush of enthusiasm there is set up a great commandment, All animals are equal, but unfortunately leadership devolves almost automatically on the pigs, who are on a higher intellectual level than the rest. The revolution begins to go wrong-yet at every step excellent excuses are always forthcoming for each perversion of the original doctrine. Mr. Orwell has a wonderful sympathy for most of his animal characters, and they are all very much alive. It is not only the fight between the two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, as to who shall run things-what equally stirs the reader and brings tears is what happens to the devoted work-horse, Boxer, and even to that less admirable but very deftly pictured character, the mare Mollie, who loved ribbons. About this little book there is the same kind of reality one concedes to Alice in Wonderland. It lives in the heart as a direct story, as a story for its own sake, and yet, although the author never intrudes or points a moral, it also takes on meaning from what we have all noticed in the affairs of the world. To read it is an experience out of the ordinary, for it goes at a bounce into that region where the heart and the head join together in enjoyment.
George Orwell's timeless fable - a parable for would-be liberators everywhere, glimpsed through the lens of our own history As ferociously fresh as it was more than a half century ago, this remarkable allegory of a downtrodden society of overworked, mistreated animals, and their quest to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality is one of the most scathing satires ever published. As we witness the rise and bloody fall of the revolutionary animals, we begin to recognize the seeds of totalitarianism in the most idealistic organization; and in our most charismatic leaders, the souls of our cruelest oppressors.
As ferociously fresh as it was more than a half century ago, this remarkable allegory of a downtrodden society of overworked, mistreated animals, and their quest to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality is one of the most scathing satires ever published. As we witness the rise and bloody fall of the revolutionary animals, we begin to recognize the seeds of totalitarianism in the most idealistic organization; and in our most charismatic leaders, the souls of our cruelest oppressors.
George Orwell's timeless fable is now released in a centennial edition with aForeword by Gore Vidal.

작가정보

저자(글) George Orwell

1903년 인도 벵골 지방의 모티하리(Motihari)에서 에릭 블레어(Eric Arthur Blair)라는 이름으로 태어났다. 1904년 어머니와 함께 영국에 귀국해 성장하고 1917년 이튼스쿨 국왕 장학생으로 입학한다. 1921년 졸업 후, 대학 진학을 포기하고 인도 제국주의 경찰로 근무하였고 압제의 일원으로 복무하며 양심의 가책을 느낀다. 1927년 작가가 되겠다고 마음먹고 사직원을 제출한 뒤 1928년 봄에 파리로 건너가 작가의 길을 걷기 시작한다. 초기 작품은 주로 ‘가난’, ‘제국주의’를 주제로 한다. 빈민가를 전전하며 밑바닥 생활을 한 경험과 제국주의 경찰 시절의 체험을 글로써 표출한 것이다. ‘조지 오웰’이라는 필명을 사용하기 시작한 것은 1933년 『파리와 런던의 밑바닥 생활』을 출간하면서부터다. 하층민들의 고달픔과 열악한 삶에 대해 관심을 기울였으며, 서구 사회에 존재하는 가난이 결국 계급 제도와 사회 제도가 빚어내는 현상임을 지적했다. 이어 『버마 시절』을 펴냈으며, 〈트리뷴〉에서 문학 편집자로 일하면서 틈틈이 집필한 정치 우화 『동물농장』으로 큰 명성을 얻었다. 스페인 내전 때는 파시즘에 대항해 싸우기 위해 마르크스주의 통일 노동자당(POUM) 의용군으로 참전해 115일 동안 스페인 아라곤 전방에서 복무했다. 1947년 11월 폐결핵과 사투를 벌이면서도 『1984년』의 초고를 완성한다. 이즈음 헤어마이어스 병원에 입원해 폐결핵 양성으로 25개월밖에 살 수 없다는 진단을 받는다. 『1984년』은 1949년 세커앤드워버그에서 출간되었으며 1950년까지 10개 외국어로 번역 출간되는 등 열렬한 인기를 얻는다. 대표작으로 우화적 소설인 『동물농장』(1945)과 디스토피아 소설 『1984』(1949)가 있다. 비소설 작품으로는 영국 북부에서의 노동 계급 생활을 기록한 『위건 부두로 가는 길』(1937)과 스페인내전(1936~1939)에서 공화당 인민군으로 복무한 경험을 담은 『카탈루냐 찬가』(1938) 등이 있으며, 정치와 문학, 언어, 문화에 관한 에세이만큼이나 비평가들 사이에서 찬사를 받고 있다. 2008년 『타임스』(The Times)는 「1945년 이후 가장 위대한 영국 작가 50인」 중 2위로 선정했다. 1950년 1월 25일 스위스의 요양원으로 가기로 되어 있었으나, 나흘을 남겨 놓고 1월 21일 마흔일곱 나이로 숨을 거두고 만다.

기본정보

ISBN	9780452284241 ( 0452284244 )
발행(출시)일자	2003년 05월 06일
쪽수	128쪽
크기	140 * 206 * 13 mm / 159 g
총권수	1권
언어	영어

Klover 리뷰 (1)

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동물 농장! 두 말 필요 없죠. 이 작품을 원어로 읽어보시길 추천합니다.