Can be enjoyed at more than one level - Rated 
Timeless classic that can be enjoyed at various levels: adults, especially those familiar with Soviet history, can appreciate the political allegory, while children could still appreciate this as an amusing and frightening tale of animals taking over from people. Orwell's original foreword, reproduced at the end of this edition, is also worth reading for its salutary lesson on how liberal intellectuals can sometimes fool themselves into supporting the most illiberal regimes.
Animal Farm - Rated 
The book isn't bad. i ended up reading it to my daughter. she loved it. George's works are really quite dark. "Animal farm" is not a satire its more of a Dark drama. its good for a quick read but it lacks feeling.
read it if you haven't got anything better to do.
Aren't you all so very clever - Rated 
Other reviewers choose to linger on the rather obvious allegory of the parallels between Napoleon and co. and Trotsky, Marx, Lenin and Stalin. This is not just supposition, it had been stated by many (author included) that this was his intent. I think too many people have been reading this at G.C.S.E and now think they're literary experts. Those same people are not so adept at drawing out themes from the likes of Hemingway and Dostoyevsky.
Look, the novel is interesting and concise, little over 100 pages. It tells of an uprising on a farm led by Napoleon and a brigade of pigs, under the teachings of an old pig (Marxism anyone?). They rouse the poplation of farm to throw off the shackles of human autocracy (i.e Russian Tsars) and establish themselves.
This is where the problems become apparent. The animals are set to gruelling tasks and must also repel the invading farmers (could represent any nations who favoured the Tsars at this time). It mirrors the failure of Communism and why it fails, that being that the leaders are prone to corruption and are capitalists at heart. So Napoleon re-writes the tenets of their rules (an interesting metaphor that is relevant in the spin obsessed politics of today), the pigs choose to shed the squalor of their comrades and begin to live in the same manner as those they deposed, and become worse dictators than those they deposed. They even have a secret police.
A good story, with strong characters, surprising for such a short book of such strong allegory. If you ignore the whole metaphor of Russia, you are left with a story that stands up in its own right. The villainous pigs will incite the anger due for any good antagonist, the touching loyalty of the horse who works himself to death because he has been brainwashed, and the treatment he receives.
Napoleon Strikes Once More! - Rated
This book, as the name suggests, is about animals and how they feel. But, I think what Orwell is trying to do is relate all that human modern dictators do to leading animals in a farm. Orwell has been claver because it shows, in a way, the things that happen during a dictatorship.
In the beginning the book introduces us to all main animals and the sufferings that go on at Manor Farm. The first chapters is about the leader of the animals, Major, telling them that soon an animal rebellion would come along and the humans would not have to be called master. He teaches them a song called 'Beasts of England' in which the lyrics tell the animals about animal freedom. That night poor old major dies. The animals then decide to rebel, they do this successfully and drive their evil master Jones out. The animals knew that they had to be civilised and so every day they had a meeting to discuss how to improve the new 'animal farm' (they decided to call it that). When they went to the meetings they marched pass the old head of Major. Eventually Jones came back but Snowball, a strong young pig, and Boxer, an extremely strong horse, and their animal comrades defeated them using roman battle tactics. Snowball and Boxer were given an award, Animal Hero, First Class and a sheep that died was given Animal Hero, Second Class. The animals try and show their freedom in every way, they even make a flag! They make commandments which every animal must follow and they try to spread the word to neighbouring farms. They found a gun that Jones had left. They fired this gun twice a year, once on the day of the rebellion and once on the day of the Battle of Cowshed (where they finally defeated the humans). At the meetings there seemed to be a continuous rivalry, Snowball and Napoleon, two pigs. Eventually Napoleon defeats and drives Snowball away unfairly. Then Napoleon changes everything and starts to change the commandments to suit him, but no-one can get near him because of his guard of grizzly dogs. But the animals don't realise what is happening...
This book was very interesting and made me think about, how modern politics actually works. Very relevant to the Russian Revolution. It was a great read.
As relevant today as it was in 1946 - Rated
When in high school the head of English lit. deemed it a wiser or safer choice to go with 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and Laurie Lee's 'Cider With Rosie' than Orwell's classic. What a regrettable decision that was; because it was not until 20 years after graduation that I finally got to read this seminal work. A work that has such profound possibilities to shape the minds of readers both young and old alike that I wonder if we shouldn't be prescribing books like that in our schools instead of Shakespeare? To call a work 'seminal' or to say that it is worthy of actually making a 'prescribed reading' list is no mean feat and there are really comparatively few books worthy of such adoration; this though is surely one of them. Whether you agree with the books political or moral standpoint or not is an irrelevancy that should have no bearing on your desire to read or prescribe this book.
In being desirous of understanding this text, it is firstly important to understand just what we are presented with here, for this book is NOT an overtly political or subversive anti-communist thesis (despite what Orwell may have originally intended). What it is in fact, is a precise, poignant, cutting and very astute examination of human nature; the motives, desires and inner reflections of humanity and the internal struggles we all face. What I found most impressive about this work was that as a critique of humanity and the complexities of hierarchical societies it is an examination that resounds as strongly now as it did in 1946. Especially in the wake of 11/9 and the measures that have been introduced to 'protect' and 'guard' the people by various governments around the globe, not to mentions how far from the truth we have been lead by the 'news' media. When one considers the impact the media had in back in the '70s, in bringing the terror of Vietnam home to the news-stands and the enormous social and political repercussions that spread outwards from that; who would have thought that a mere quarter of a century later the public would have gradually succumb to the acceptance of what before was seemingly unacceptable... sound familiar? Animal Farm, where "all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others".
|
