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Summary: Ironic
Review: Those that wish to control society have learned more from such works as "Animal Farm" and "1984" "Brave new World" than the societies that their respective authors wished to protect. Sad and ironic.
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Summary: Napoleon our not so great leader!
Review: George Orwell's Animal farm, a political allegory of the extraordinary events of The Russian Revolution, was republished by Penguin Books in 1989. This complex book isn't as simple as first thought, Orwell referred to it as a fairytale but infact is a short enjoyable novel. This book is what I was told to expect it's wonderful and a real thrilling and a splendid read. Although it was first wrote in the 1950's its still as good as first written. This clever book will let you drift away and watch the hours fly by. On first reading this book I was amazed at the way Orwell managed to take a complicated issue such as the Russian Revolution and turn it into an enjoyable, informative read. Old major dreamt of a loving peaceful world, free of all men and so the animal's rebel against farmer Jones and so he soon gives up the fight. But things don't turn out to plan and things soon go wrong. All the animals should have been equal but the more clever ones soon start to take control. Napoleon, who becomes the main leader after much deliberation, gets a loyal pig, squealer, to distort the truth on what's happening behind the lines.
If you like a fun, pleasurable, different book about animals rebelling against their master and the Russian Revolution then this is the book for you. It's interesting, complex it has a lot of excitement and is first class it's a good fun read and I recommend that you read it but isn't one of the best books ever published as some people may say.
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Summary: Classic!
Review: A great read! I enjoyed this book as I did with Harper Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and Jackson McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD. Great, all of them!
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Summary: Very Compelling Work
Review: This is a very interesting novel - there is more to it than meets the eye. The book is replete with political and social metaphors. It is essentially a mockery of communism. Orwell's characterization is interesting indeed.
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Summary: It's Orwell!
Review: What interest's you in a book? Do crooks, twists and turns around every action intrigue you? Do you want the plot to be teeth grinding, lead you on through a tale of heroes and villains, Traumas and tragedies? Well....
If so I've got just the book for you It's called Animal Farm by George Orwell.
Old Major had a dream, a dream to lead all animals to power. Then in steps Napoleon and Snowball, watch them take a grasp for power and let the dream slip through their slimy trotters.
This novel a political allegory of the momentous events of the Russian Revolution was published in 1945.
This mind-boggling novel of adventures is targeted at the years 11 and above, but on the other hand Adults that have views on the Russian Revolution mat be intrigued.
The dream of power starts all so well, everyone trying equally hard, things running like clockwork then everything takes a horrible turn over Power Hungry animals.
My views on the book are that it is cleverly worded in a sophisticated language that people will take pleasure out of reading.
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Summary: The Ultimate Satire
Review: Animal Farm is a just a lovely and very easy book to read. One may just think it is a regular fairy tale at first glance but as you think on it, the hidden message, the subtle satire becomes apparent and pronounced. If you wonder "satire of what", then I strongly recommend you to read this book and find it out yourself. I admire Orwell`s ingenuity for transforming a fairy tale into a great literary success - that is the ultimate satire. Good job.
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Summary: Revolution of Greatness
Review: George Orwell's Animal Farm is a magnificent allegory of the Russian revolution in a thrilling short novel. Old Major, an old boar, speaks out his dream of an equal community of animals without the power hungry humans. As this dream becomes a reality characters change, like their great leader Napoleon ( a boar), who becomes more and more like the despised Farmer Jones, who was a tyrant at his time at the farm. Boxer (a horse) a loyal determined worker and Squealer a lying henchman of Napoleon cross destinies horribly. Napoleon rules murderously with evil henchmen at his side to make the other animals fear his presence everywhere. When you read the book you will feel the annoyances and the irritation when the pigs lie to the other animals. Orwell takes you on a roller coaster of emotion, which you never forget. The book is steeped in Soviet history, as if Orwell was a fortuneteller in his time. As you read the book you can see the writer knew a lot about the corruption of power. The novel is a great read for anyone who enjoys a good book even they it has the underlining of the momentous occasion, the Russian Revolution. Animal Farm can be read as a fairytale for the young majority but for the older readers a political novel, I fully advise anybody to read Animal Farm because of the sheer greatness that the pages echo.
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Summary: An allegory that so well describes the US in 2000-2004
Review: America in 2000-2004 is living out Animal Farm at this very moment. It's all here in this classic from 1945: terrorism, a 9/11, a rebuilding of a WTC-like symbol, a war on terror, an elusive Osama/Saddam evildoer to be hunted down, a Code-Orange-like level of threat alert, an Axis-of-Evil, use of fear and deception to keep the population confused and distracted, rhetoric about freedom and patriotism that somehow never ceases to do the trick, lies and misrepresentations, government by the wealthy elite for the wealthy elite, political spin-meisters, trained political attack dogs, a hard-working but uninformed and easily-misled population, a tax-paying class that does all the work while a political-corporate elite reaps all the rewards, the wholesale selling-out of the hardest-working for the profit of the few, the re-writing of rules and regulations for the blatant benefit of the few, the unfulfilled promise of trade for the benefit of all, the unfulfilled promise of trickle-down economics, the promise of retirement robbed, the trusting, idealistic population that somehow never catches on and never tires of giving their "heroic" leader the benefit of the doubt again and again. To view Animal Farm as only being about socialism, communism, and Stalinism in Russia, and thus not applicable to America and capitalism and democracy, would be to miss its message about plutocratic leaders, in any system, blatantly exploiting a trusting, optimistic population's faith in their cherished system and ideals. The same author also has another uncanny book on today's America called Nineteen Eighty-Four. It may well have been the source of inspiration for the naming of such Bush administration programs as "Homeland Security Department", "Clear Skies Initiative", and "Healthy Forest Initiative". Highly recommended, a definite must-read for all Americans.
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Summary: wonderful portrayal of stalinism
Review: Orwell wrote this book after expieriencing the communist party for himself while fighting in the POUM militia in the spanish civil war. The communist party are the reason for the loss of the socialists, anarchists, etc during the war, because the communist party suppressed their allie militias. They seeked only power in spain. At the time, people didn't realize what was going on in the soviet union. Many people respected stalin as a leader, including churchill who once called stalin a man of courage. Orwell wrote this book not as a way of discrediting socialism, but as a way to warn future generations about stalinism or soviet communism. He portrays the russian revolution and what went wrong. Often people, especially conservatives, believe Orwell was anti socialist, and they often refer this book to socialists. They are completely misunderstanding the novel. this book isn't an attack against socialism, as a matter of fact, Orwell was a socialist. Orwell explained this in his intro to the book when he originally wrote the book, but it wasn't allowed to be published.
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Summary: Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
Review: On its deepest level Animal Farm is about a revolution of an oppressed class of beings (the farm animals) over their oppressors (the farmer). Orwell does this very creatively. Throughout the book the mood changes from glorious revolution of the animals all living in harmony together too a worse situation then when the farmer was in power. The pigs, by force of their army of dogs, use their positions to turn their rule over the other animals into a Stalin-like dictatorship.
This book points out the dangers of a system of government (socialism in this case) that is supposed to be great for all "comrades" but inevitably can turn horribly wrong by the corruption of the leaders.
I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in politics (it may make you question your own political leadership), the study of people in other positions of power or anyone who wants to read good literature in general.
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