Animal Farm
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4.3 • 213 Ratings
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
'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 Orwell wrote the novel at the end of 1943, but it almost remained unpublished; its savage attack on Stalin, at that time Britain's ally, led to the book being refused by publisher after publisher.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 Robert Colls.
Customer Reviews
Superb, work of genius
How a man writing a critique of stalinist russia would concieve the idea of conveying it through the struggles of a group of farm animals is beyond me (i obviously lack the creativity and intellect of a writer no doubt!), but orwell's ability to communicate the hypocrisy, evil and totalitarianism of stalin's russia towards its subjects, all the while twisting the principles and dreams of the original revolution to create a hierarchical and oppressive ruling elite which out does any comparable fascist government at the time in oppression is mesmerising and superbly told.
A book so simply and unpretentiously written that a school kid could follow it, it will entertain any level of reader. Having a decent grasp of 20th century russian history will help, but not essential by any means.
What really amazes me about the man is his willingness to speak out when others wouldnt; despite being an ardent socialist himself, he spoke out about the evils of the russian regime when the prevailing opinion at the time (across the uk political spectrum) was to support stalin as an ally against the nazis. This makes him not only a great writer and thinker, but a man of great conviction and bravery.
An essential part of anyone book collection written by a man whose biography is well worth reading. Bravo!
Loved this book.
Great little read!
Very entertaining
This book was really good and enjoyable by anybody based on the Russian evolution.