Animal Farm

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		List Price: $10.95		From: 1st World Library - Literary Society From: 1st World Library - Literary Society Salesrank: 239760 Released: 2004-09-01
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		Pages: 113 Format: Paperback Customer Rating:

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Animal Farm Editorial Review:
Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the henhouses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes. With the ring of light from his lantern dancing from side to side, he lurched across the yard, kicked off his boots at the back door, drew himself a last glass of beer from the barrel in the scullery, and made his way up to bed, where Mrs. Jones was already snoring. As soon as the light in the bedroom went out there was a stirring and a fluttering all through the farm buildings. Word had gone round during the day that old Major, the prize Middle White boar, had had a strange dream on the previous night and wished to communicate it to the other animals. It had been agreed that they should all meet in the big barn as soon as Mr. Jones was safely out of the way. Old Major (so he was always called, though the name under which he had been exhibited was Willingdon Beauty) was so highly regarded on the farm that everyone was quite ready to lose an hour's sleep in order to hear what he had to say.

Customer Reviews:
It's All About Boiling a Frog
Orwell shows the incrimental rise of tyrrany among barnyard animals. That's really what is at the heart of this book: the slow methodical creep of ever more constrictive, exploitive, and oppressive laws which transform a free society to a totalitarian dictatorship. Each step is slowly introduced, and introduced to the public in a calm and well-reasoned manner. If done skillfully, no individual step will incite the public to stand up and oppose the overarching plan to enslave them. Joesph Stalin came to power around 1922-26, depending on the criterion applied, but it took him another 10 years to really cement together his ironclad dictatorship. So it is with Napolean the Pig, who becomes the barnyard leader with the slogan "All animals are created equal", and only later quietly adds "...but some animals are more equal than others." The book unfolds in baby steps, slowly constructing a regime no better (indeed far worse) than the one it replaced. Once he removes the Farmer, Napolean purges potential rivals (e.g. the popular and beloved horse), trains a private army of attack dogs answerable only to him, and starts to set himself apart in a seperate and superior class from the other animals by walking upright like the Farmer did

Average. This book was OK, but I wouldn't read it twice.
This book was quite different from George Orwell's 1984 (Max Notes), the only other of Orwell's works that I have read. The allusions to communism are obvious and character development was sacrificed in favour of narrative. As a study of historical narrative, this book is important. As an enjoyable book to read, Animal Farm: A Fairy Story falls short of the mark.

A blazing fast and memorable read
Take something like Charlottes Web and blend it with the Russian Revolution, shake it up a bit and you have Animal Farm.

Animal Farm is a satirical look at totalitarianism, complete government control. The animals are sick of the humans controlling them. They are underfed and caged up and just generally mistreated. The animals decide to start a revolution and they successfully drive the humans away. The pigs are known as the intellectuals so they quickly become the leaders of the animals, Napoleon the bore being the one in charge. With the pigs in charge how much will life really improve?

Orwell's prose in this book is absolutely flawless. The scenes really jump out of the pages. Right in the beginning Orwell drops quite a large cast of characters for such a quick read but he fleshes them out so perfectly (and succinctly) that you won't become lost.

This is a blazing fast read! Orwell doesn't waste a single word. This is a very memorable book. I can't imagine giving it anything less then 5 stars.

Great for those living in communist type of socialism
I come from a country oppressed by a disguised form of socialism. It is instead communism, the old one. I was impressed on how our own reality is pictured so very well in this book. I couldn't finish it, I read it in two afternoons.
A classic to give as a gift to someone that doesn't actually grasp the sad reality they live in.

All ism's (Animalism here) eventually encounter the same issues
Animal farm was not part of my high school curriculum, so I happened to read this "A Fairy Story" at a later stage in my life. It's an allegory depicting the Bolshevik revolution using pigs, dogs, horses and other farm animals. The much expected revolution had animals in the beginning saying "Four legs good, two legs bad" and towards the end of the satire the sheep's were bleating "Four legs good, two legs better" and the pigs (the ruling class) were walking on their hind legs. It's the story of a revolution gone bad, the wicked and the scheming taking over and the lot of the ordinary working class staying as is or perhaps even worse. The characters Napoleon and Snowball represent Stalin and Trotsky while Squealer and Minimus represents Stalin's sycophants. It's fairly good; however, I'm not sure why this book is a literary masterpiece though. It's a fairly simple mapping of the main characters of the Russian revolution to farm animals with a decent dose of humor sprinkled here and there. It's popularity (and addition to the school curriculum) could perhaps be attributed to the "Red scare"?

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