115 pages
English language
Published April 15, 2012 by Brawtley Press.
"Animal Farm is an allegorical and dystopian novella by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. According to Orwell, the book reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union. Orwell, a democratic socialist, was a critic of Joseph Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism, an attitude that was critically shaped by his experiences during the Spanish Civil War. The Soviet Union, he believed, had become a brutal dictatorship, built upon a cult of personality and enforced by a reigh of terror. In a letter to Yvonne Davet, Orwell described Animal Farm as a satirical tale against Stalin ('un conte satirique contre Staline'), and in his essay 'Why I Write' (1946), wrote that Animal Farm was the first book in which he tried, with full consciousness of what he was doing, 'to fuse political purpose …
"Animal Farm is an allegorical and dystopian novella by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. According to Orwell, the book reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union. Orwell, a democratic socialist, was a critic of Joseph Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism, an attitude that was critically shaped by his experiences during the Spanish Civil War. The Soviet Union, he believed, had become a brutal dictatorship, built upon a cult of personality and enforced by a reigh of terror. In a letter to Yvonne Davet, Orwell described Animal Farm as a satirical tale against Stalin ('un conte satirique contre Staline'), and in his essay 'Why I Write' (1946), wrote that Animal Farm was the first book in which he tried, with full consciousness of what he was doing, 'to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole'. -- back cover.
Another great Orwell book. As 1984 the story is quite sad.
The funny fact is that the book can be easily mapped to soviet's history or today's states.
It's sad to see how much we gave up on liberty ideals.
I don't really remember it... kind of like high school.
Can't believe Orwell looked at the rise of the Soviet Union, the bloody collapse of a workers revolution into a personality cult that was completely detached from its original intensions, and thought "a great way to summarise this would be with farm animals".
And was correct.
Meh.
‘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 this a long time ago, and I remember it only vaguely, except that I clearly recall being unimpressed by it. It all seemed too obvious. Compared to 1984, it is not worth reading. At least that's what I thought at the time.
