Near the beginning of Animal Farm (1945), Major recalls (or, at least, claims to recall) a song that he had heard when he was a piglet. Major’s source—his mother and the other sows—“knew only the tune and the first three words.” But the whole thing came (back) to him, and he sings it for the farm’s other animals. “Beasts of England,” the animals’ cry for freedom, travels far and wide. It’s simply “irrepressible.” 

In this lecture, the sounds of Animal Farm (1945) reveal their importance to Orwell, to modernist writing, and to conversations surrounding censorship in our own time, whence, to quote Yeats, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.”

Presented by Tom Ue, Assistant Professor in English of the Long Nineteenth Century Department of Literature, Folklore, and the Arts, Cape Breton University .

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This event is part of Toronto Public Library’s Great Books Lecture Series, made possible through a gift from the Ann Thoburn Fund. The lecture series, delivered by academics, explores humanity, diverse views and possibilities on literary titles as they relate to the series’ annual theme. The theme of Toronto Public Library's 2024 Great Books Lecture Series is Books as Battlefields and is curated by Paul Chafe of Toronto Metropolitan University.

If you identify as a person with a disability and require an accessibility accommodation to participate in this program, please contact Accessibility Services by email, accessibleservices@tpl.ca, or voicemail, 416-393-7099, to make a request. Please contact us at least three weeks in advance.

The Sounds of Orwell’s Animal Farm