‘What Was Needed Was Not More Communism But More Public-Spirited Pigs’ – When Editor T.S. Eliot Rejected ‘Animal Farm’

“We agree that it is a distinguished piece of writing; that the fable is very skilfully handled, and that the narrative keeps one’s interest on its own plane – and that is something very few authors have achieved since Gulliver. … On the other hand, we have no conviction … that this is the right point of view from which to criticise the political situation at the present time.”