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ORWELL, GEORGE. Nineteen Eighty-Four/ The Facsimile of the Extant Manuscript. 1 of 55 copies full morocco bound and boxed by Gray Parrot. Introduction by Peter Davidson.  Preface by Daniel G. Siegel. ISBN 087730-015-1. Weston, Mass: M & S Press, 1984. Sm. folio. 406 pp. $650.00

 

George Orwell was not a keeper of manuscript drafts, and this manuscript, consisting of nearly one-half of the text of the final published book, is the only major Orwell holograph manuscript to survive.�? The thousands of handwritten ink corrections and dozens of holograph pages are faithful in size and color to the original.�? Peter Davison's masterful transcript on facing pages allows a line-for-line reference to the original blue colored text.�? Davison carefully lays the foundation for new critical assessments of Orwell's methods of composition and last painful years of work.�? The manuscript is now owned by the John Hay Library at Brown University, where it is annually exhibited.