Orwell, George (1949) ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’, UK first edition with the original unrestored red variant 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 very good to near fine book in a good dust jacket. The cloth boards have mostly retained their original green colour apart from the spine which is slightly colour faded as usual (most copies are faded more than our specimen). Internally clean without any previous owner’s names, no bookplates. One light seller stamp at the bottom of the rear pastedown. The red top stain is present, a bit dusty and fading closer towards the spine. Light shelf wear and light foxing to front page block. The razor-thin original dust jacket is – as usual – faded on the spine, but has retained some of the red pigments rather than being completely white. It is NOT price clipped showing the correct first issue 10S net price as called for. Clean dust jacket with rubbing and chipping to the spine ends and the folds as shown. The reverse is clean without spotting and with NO tape repairs. Fair value. As a reference ‘1984’ copies in the red dust jacket in fine-ish condition without/ minimal fade to the spine fetch about ten grand – at auction.

‘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 out of print and now more popular that ever given the current global political developments.