Animal Farm

by George Orwell

Malcolm Bradbury (Introduction)

'All animals are equal - but some are more equal than others'

When the downtrodden animals of Manor Farm overthrow their master Mr Jones and take over the farm themselves, they imagine it is the beginning of a life of freedom and equality. But gradually a cunning, ruthless élite among them, masterminded by the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, starts to take control. Soon the other animals discover that they are not all as equal as they thought, and find themselves hopelessly ensnared as one form of tyranny is replaced with another.

'It is the history of a revolution that went wrong - and of the excellent excuses that were forthcoming at every step for the perversion of the original doctrine,' wrote Orwell for the first edition of Animal Farm in 1945. Orwell wrote the novel at the end of 1943, but it almost remained unpublished; its savage attack on Stalin, at that time Britain's ally, led to the book being refused by publisher after publisher. Orwell's simple, tragic fable has since become a world-famous classic.

This Penguin Modern classics edition includes an introduction by Malcolm Bradbury.

• ISBN10: 014139305X
• ISBN13: 9780141393056
• Publish Date: 3 January 2013 (first published 14 July 1905)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Imprint: Penguin Classics
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 128
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/isbn/9780141393056

Reviews

[Danielle Renee Wallace]

Originally, I gave this three stars. Fast forward a few years later and I read it again. To be honest, the story grew on me the second time around. While Animal Farm isn't in a genre that would generally have my interest, I found it a truly unique allegory.

I'm teaching this for a book club and believe there's a lot of different applications one can discuss.

[Bianca]

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

— Power corrupts.

LOVED
The parallels to the Russian Revolution (the History student in me was ecstatic!)
That I was angry and enraged at the social injustices
The fact that there are Napolean's, Squealer's and Benjamin's in every single environment
The manner of relevance in today's society and life
The irony and satire!
The way I flew through this.

UNSURE OF
The plot felt pointless, simplistic and insubstantial
That type of ending isn't my usual cup of tea

I'll definitely do a full review of this book after my amazing English teacher does a chapter-by-chapter analysis with us and my rating could possibly change.

Full review to come...

[adamfortuna]

I'm not sure what was scarier about this - that it was based on real events, or that still seems relevant today. Either way, an intriguing read and effective allegory.

A classic book I've finally read. Although it reads like anti communist propaganda it conveys its message well and even had me rooting for the characters. Shorter and lighter than I expected which might explain why it's so popular in schools.

[leahrosereads]

Still such a powerful perspective on society which I absolutely recommend everyone read at least once. I listened to it this go around as an audiobook. I loved the narration and re-exploring this story. The thing that struck me most that I definitely missed the first go around was the introduction (since I may or may not skip a lot of introductions to books) explaining how Animal Farm is a fairy story. I cannot unhear that now. It will stick with me always.

[clementine]

This was a quick, entertaining read, and I get that context matters, but I just felt like I was being beaten over the head with a metaphor for Communism. It was interesting how there were parallels to 1984 (the statistics always showing they're better off, confusing the animals and constantly rewriting history), and it's a fairly effective metaphor, but I guess I'm not really into books that scream "HELLO I AM ALLEGORY" at me.

In the end I feel like Animal Farm is basically the same book as 1984 (i.e. a critique of a totalitarian form of government, albeit a slightly different kind), and just... done less well. Because I really liked 1984, but Animal Farm just feels too overtly like A Warning to me, which is also how I felt about Fahrenheit 451 and a large pat of why I wasn't really into it. I do understand the value of this kind of book, but I suppose I like my books to serve a purpose other than pure allegory. At least 1984 had a cool story.

[jamiereadthis]

Tell me again how this is Orwell talking politics, not religion, because the similarities there are scathing.

Also, I liked this so much more than 1984.

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

‘Animal Farm’ is truly an interesting story; we all know what the story represents but George Orwell portrayed communists Russia in World War II really well. The book was short and I was able to read it in one day, almost in one sitting. I think we could spend a long time discussing which animal represents which Russian and working out which battle was The Battle of the Cowshed or The Battle of the Windmill. I did especially enjoy the flag (The Horn and Hoof Flag reminiscent of the hammer and sickle), Squealer (propaganda pig) and Moses the Raven (the Russian Orthodox Church). It is definitely one of those books you need to read at least once in your lifetime. I think I enjoyed it more than ‘Nineteen Eighty Four’.

I read it. It's a classic. I just didn't like it. I don't like when animals talk. It's creepy.

1.5 stars.