Through a coincidence of history, Animal Farm appeared in stores the same month that the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The irony of this publication date for one of the most politicized novels of the 20 century did not escape its early readers, or its author. Orwell made no secret of the fact that his writing, and Animal Farm in particular, was single-mindedly focused on the obliteration of totalitarian regimes. Animal Farm, while obviously referring to the general scope of all forms of totalitarian governments, may be seen as a satire of the Russian Revolution of 1917 in particular. Because of this controversial subject matter, British publishing houses were loathe to take on Orwell’s work, and he was rejected throughout his entire first round of publishing attempts. Upon the novel’s eventual publication in 1945, however, Orwell was instantly famous. The reception of Animal Farm led to many different interpretations of its meaning, which Orwell perhaps clarifies best himself, in his article called "Why I Write": "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism….Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole.
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