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Summary: Praise for the anniversary edition!
Review: The book includes two of the author's prefaces which are illuminating - but really, I think it's the illustrations that make this particular edition the finest available.
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Summary: Great book! Depressing book!
Review: You have GOT to read this. It is so sad when Boxer gets done away with, and that last part with the human/pig party is one of the scariest things I've read. When it sank in that the animals traded one master for a worse one, it just about made me cry. This is one of the best books I've ever read.
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Summary: Read it and understand
Review: Orwell was passionately anti-Communist. He first drafted Animal Farm during WWII but was prohibited from publishing in case it weakened the unnatural alliance between America, Britain and Stalin's Russia. After 1945 there were no such restraints and Animal Farm became available to remind people how evil Communism really was. For the sake of clarity, the pigs are the Bolsheviks who take over the farm (Russia) seizing it from the humans (Tzars). Over time, the pigs become as corrupt as the humans had been before them.The contents of Animal Farm are known to many in the free world. But read it again because totalitarianism comes in many forms, Communism just being the most obvious one. With the current outrage following the World Towers disaster, it's interesting to note that those who follow and support the Taliban (bin Laden) have been deluded into believing that, by their submission, they're engaged in a noble cause. People like Saddam Hussein, just like the Communists of the Cold War era, disguise their crimes under the banner of acting for the 'common good'. They deceive their people with false information. They protect their political powers with force, terrorizing their dissenters into silence. All the while presenting themselves as selfless protectors of the common good. Communism is alive and well in China, North Korea, Vietnam and many other areas of the world. Totalitarianism flourishes in 50% of the rest of the world, including many countries of Latin America. The 'FREE' world, as we often refer to it, is little more than USA and Europe. We need to understand the threat, to enjoy and protect our freedoms. A good starting place to gain this understanding is Animal Farm. I first read this book when I was about 15. Now, over thirty five years later, I find that it still hasn't lost its power. There's a great deal more to it than just ' animals that run around and saying Comrade!'....
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Summary: Short, Meaningful
Review: Author George Orwell abstracts communism into Animal Farm. Animals banded together for absolute freedom and naturally disintegrated for the stupidity of the extreme ideal. Orwell cleverly presents different stages of communism through the ordeals of the Animal Farm. Story is fast moving, clear and satirically funny. Unlike the much darker portrait in Orwell's 1984 (see my review), Animal Farm proves the point and it's much easier to swallow. Very worth the small dollars and time.
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Summary: Amazing satire
Review: I read this book in 9th grade and it has still stuck with me and remains one of my favorite books. Animal farm sets up a society of farm animals that form their own government and throw the farmer off the property. It is a biting satire that evaluates the effects of communism on the modern world. This is a book that should be on everyones bookshelf at home.
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Summary: Down with communism!!!!
Review: Animal Farm, by George Orwell, represents how communism, designed to aid the public, really does the opposite. In addition, the book shows the horrifying consequences of totalitarianism, as well as the pluses of Democracy. For example, in the beginning of the book, Manor Farm is controlled by Mr. Jones, a cruel man who frequently gets drunk and often forgets to feed the animals. Then, suddenly, the animals of Manor Farm rebel. They kick Mr. Jones out of his own farm and take over. The farm is now dubed "Animal Farm." Immediately, the animals realize that they need a ruler. It seems that Snowball, a very smart pig, is suited for the job. Animal Farm is running smoothly, with snowball as the farms ruler, until Napoleon, another very smart pig, has his say. He had been training nine large and scary dogs since their birth, training them in his own ways. In a meeting with all of the animals, while Snowball is speaking, the nine dogs burst into the meeting and chase Snowball out of the barn. Napoleon then becomes ruler. No one dared to disobey him, for they do not want to feel the wrath of the nine, terrifying dogs. As ruler of Animal Farm, Napoleon steadily uses his power more and more. In the end, Napoleon is punishing animals with death and acting like humans. He uses his power to the fullest in the worst way possible. Additionally, in the last few pages of the book, the pigs are having a meeting with the humans. They praise each other and are having an enjoyable meal until a fight breaks out. That is when the animals realize that they are being used just as much as they were with Mr. Jones. They have no say or rights; all they can do is work or die. They are living with communism.
The strengths of this book are that it is realistic, not in the sense of the characters but that it shows what communism is. Also, in this book you can relate to the characters even though they are animals. The weakness of this book is that it is a short read.
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Summary: Fart farm
Review: This book is disgraceful! It is the worst book ever! It really stinks! All it has is animals that run around and say "Comrade!"
Good grief!
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Summary: A reveiw for the Animal Farm
Review: Pigs and men sitting at a table together? What is the matter with this picture? In the book Animal Farm, by George Orwell, the Manor Farm is set in England. The farm animals kick out their master and decide to wage war with the human race if they try to return to the farm. The animals rename the farm Animal Farm.
Snowball is the leader of the Animal Farm in the begining of the book, but a boar named Napoleon chases him out of the farm and convinces all the animals that he is evil.
The horses, Clover and Boxer, and the donkey named Benjamin start to suspect that Napoleon is lying, but the over feed pig Squealer always makes up a good excuse.
In the end of the book there is a scene with pigs and men sitting at the same table drinking whisky and playing cards. But the animals looking through the window can't tell who is who.
This book is a very interesting book with and includes funny parts some serious parts and some sad parts. Animal Farm is also a little confusing at times; therefore, it is a little hard to follow.
Animal Farm is very interesting because of all of the surprises. George Orwell makes you feel like you're inside the story.
I recommend this book to people who like cliffhangers and surprises.
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Summary: A Spot on Satire about Communism and Human nature
Review: I don't think I can add much more praise to what has already been mentioned, suffice to say that it is one of life's must read books, and that it is a brilliant damming indictment on communism. The animals well meaning idea of a Utopian farm being cruelly destroyed by a corrupt pig and his minions, is a brilliant parallel of a human desire to build a Utopian Heaven on Earth being knocked sideways by the corruptibility and sinfulness that exists in all humans. You end up feeling intensly sorry for Boxer, wishing that Snowball would come back, hoping that the animals have the guts to start a rebellion fairly early on and trying to avoid a sneaking and vindictive desire to see Napoleon and Squealer packed off to the nearest abitoir and served as rashers of bacon on a farmers breakfast plate.
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Summary: Much More Than a 'Fairy Story'
Review: Of George Orwell's two most well known books- "Animal Farm" and "1984"- it is my observation that the latter is generally the more widely read. It is difficult to see just why this is. Perhaps people have a more difficult time relating to a 'fairy story' involving farm animals than they do with a novel involving real people. Perhaps the presence of some of the more sexually explicit scenes in "1984", and the absence of such scenes in "Animal Farm", makes "1984" more attractive to certain readers. Or perhaps (this is my theory) readers do not think that any 'fairy story' can possibly have enough substance to be relevant to them and their world. If people really think this, and some evidently do, they are quite mistaken. Far from being fanciful or childish, "Animal Farm" is arguably a better book than its more famous sibling. It is the more consise and well written of the two; it has a discipline of purpose that the other does not; it contains all Orwell's famous insights into totalitarian corruption of language and disregard of historical fact. In short, it contains everything that "1984" does, without any of the nonsense. It may be argued that Orwell's message- that totalitarianism is evil- is an obvious one. This is not an unreasonable argument. Nobody, or at least nobody with any sense, believes that there is anything good about totalitarianism. However, Orwell also makes it clear that totalitarianism comes in many forms, and it can easily be disguised as something noble, and the people who are placed under its yoke are often under the delusion that they are acting nobly by their submission. Today's tyrants can do much that their forerunners could only dream of: they disguise their crimes with elegant euphamisms; they decieve whole nations by widely spreading false information; they protect their political powers through the use of force to magnify their supporters and to frighten and silence their dissenters; and they can do these things while presenting themselves as selfless protecters of the common good. If we are to protect ourselves against today's tyrants, we must first be aware of the existence of such people. Our ignorance, far from being our bliss, may prove our downfall. Contemporary Amaricans still tend to turn a blind eye to the atrocities of the totalitarian governments such as in China, Cuba, and Iraq. We ignore the fact that these nations hate all the values for which the free world stands. We pay no heed to the fact that these nations torture and murder innocent political prisoners without trial. We do not recognize that the rulers of these countries are homicidal maniacs. We are helping nothing by our ignorance. "Animal Farm" is not a fable. Quite to the contrary; it remains, more than five decades after it was written, a terribly urgent reality.
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