Orwell, George (1949) ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’, UK first edition in original red dust jacket

George Orwell (1949) ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four‘, UK first edition, first printing, published by Secker & Warburg. In the scarcer original red variant dust jacket (about one in three jackets is the red variant; about two in three are the green variant). One of 26,575 copies printed copies, but few have survived the passage of time with the original wrapper.

Condition: a near fine book in a very good dust jacket. The cloth boards have retained their original green colour and the spine is a trifle colour faded. Internally absolutely clean without any prevous owner’s names (we have carefully erased a name from the ffep which was written in pencil), no bookplates, no stamps. The red top stain is present, fading closer towards the spine. Light shelf wear, ni major bumps nor rubbing. The razor-thin dust jacket is – as usual – faded on the spine. It is NOT price clipped showing the correct first issue 10S net price as called for. Slight soiling on the back panel as shown. The reverse has some tissue paper strengthening to the folds as shown.

‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’, along ‘Animal Farm’ is Orwell’s masterpiece which has permeated the English language with terms like ‘Big Brother’. Orwell and ‘1984’ do not require any introduction. One of the landmark dystopian novels of the 20th century which has never been more popular given the current global political developments.