Product Description

1984

Orwell depicts a gray, totalitarian world in which privacy does not exist, news is manufactured according to the authorities' will, and those with unorthodox ideas are brainwashed or put to death. Orwell's 1949 nightmare vision of the world we were becoming is still the great modern classic of negative Utopia.

Animal Farm

In this satire of the Russian Revolution, Manor Farm is transformed into Animal Farm, a democracy proclaiming, "All Animals Are Created Equal." But through the natures of the various animals, totalitarian rule is eventually resumed under the slogan, "But Some Animals Are More Equal than Others."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #296109 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 12
• Binding: Audio CD
• 200 pages

Review
"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." --New York Times Book Review

Customer Reviews

Very Pleasant Introduction to Audio Books
This was my first venture into audio books and I purchased this because I could get two books for only a few dollars more than 1. This turned out to be a great purchase. I do not own a cd player that plays MP3's, but I was able to put the disk into my computer and drag and drop the files into my portable MP3 player and copy the files onto my hard drive so that I can listen on my computer or convert the files to WAV myself and burn onto a standard CD.

The boxed set is essentially a regular DVD sized box with a chapter listing. Nothing else is included, but you don't need anything else. The readers are wonderful. Very clear voices with nice inflection that doesn't distract from the story. Both these books are classic reads, so if you'd like reviews on the content of the books, I'd suggest you look up the paper editions as they are heavily reviewed and provide a lot of information.

This version is unabridged so the same information should apply. As a matter of fact, much of the information is easier to understand when listening to it rather than reading it off the page - particularly the introduction portion which I normally just skip over to get to the story was very interesting and much more thought provoking to listen to than I would have expected.

The sound is crystal clear and the product is highly recommended.

Great readers
Simon Prebble and Ralph Cosham both do a fine job of narration. They both have easily understood English accents, and differentiated character voices that are not distracting and allow the listener to easily follow dialog between multiple characters.

Both books are very good cautionary tales about over-mighty governments that remain unchecked by citizens. I am a naturally optimistic person, but after I read either one of these books I am forced to take a more warily critical look at the government and media. It is very important that all citizens do this occasionally to avoid becoming the sheep of Animal Farm or the blind party member of 1984.