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Animal Farm

George Orwell,

Russell Baker (Preface),

C.M. Woodhouse (Introduction)

3.96 · Rating details · 2,876,529 ratings · 59,682 reviews

Librarian's note: There is an Alternate Cover Edition for this edition of this book here.

A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned –a razor-edged fairy tale for grown ...more

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Mass Market Paperback, 141 pages

Published April 1996 by Signet Classics (first published August 17th 1945)

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Jun 13, 2008 Petra-X Off having adventures rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, reviewed

Amazon's very Orwellian involvement with this book at the end. If Amazon ever partnered Facebook they'd own us.

This is not really a review, but one of those moments where everything that was clear to you suddenly becomes utterly muddied and you really can't say what lies beneath the murky waters although a moment before you were sure you could.

I'm reading Christopher Hitchen's astonishingly percipient and brilliant Arguably: Essays. I read Animal Farm too young to identify the individual animals Amazon's very Orwellian involvement with this book at the end. If Amazon ever partnered Facebook they'd own us.

This is not really a review, but one of those moments where everything that was clear to you suddenly becomes utterly muddied and you really can't say what lies beneath the murky waters although a moment before you were sure you could.

I'm reading Christopher Hitchen's astonishingly percipient and brilliant Arguably: Essays. I read Animal Farm too young to identify the individual animals with actual characters on the stage of communism (the old boar Major is Marx, Farmer Jones is the Tsar, the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, Stalin and Trotsky respectively) so this essay is giving me a lot to think about. So far, nothing more so than this quote (below).

(Background to the quote): A group of Ukrainian and Polish refugees in a displaced persons' camp had discovered sympathetic parallels with their own plight in Orwell's parable and had begged him for permission to translate his almost-totally unknown book. But...

The emotions of the American military authorities in Europe were not so easily touched. They rounded up all the copies of Animal Farm they could find and turned them over to the Red Army to be burned. The alliance between the farmers and the pigs so hauntingly described in the final pages of the novel were still in force.

The book is banned in Cuba, North Korea, Burma, Iran, Kenya and most Arab countries. It is banned in the UAE not because of it's content but because it has anthropomorphic talking pigs which are unIslamic (is this not Orwellian in itself?). It is still censored in Vietnam. These nations wouldn't want ordinary people reading the book and looking at their own ruling porcine elites and seeing any parallels now would they? Who knows what kind of thoughts and actions that might lead to?

Amazon and Animal Farm
On 17 July 2009, Amazon.com withdrew certain Amazon Kindle titles, including Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, from sale, refunded buyers, and remotely deleted items from purchasers' devices after discovering that the publisher lacked rights to publish the titles in question. Notes and annotations for the books made by users on their devices were also deleted. After the move prompted outcry and comparisons to Nineteen Eighty-Four itself, Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener stated that the company is "changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers' devices in these circumstances." However, Amazon does not seem to a guarantee in its ToS that they won't don't this again and I understand that authors have the ability to edit (read 'change') parts of their books. This is because you can't buy a Kindle book, only rent one and Amazon can update (read 'change') them. Wikipedia and other sources

Next step: Fahrenheit 451. Get the firemen out to burn the books, only ebooks allowed where content can be controlled.

Original review 30 Oct 2011, updated several times. ...more

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Nov 08, 2008 Shannon (Giraffe Days) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: cover-love, 2008, classics, satire

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is a book I've been meaning to read for ages but never got around to - last week I not only read it but gave a lesson on the historical context for the grade 8 class, who will be reading this book and The Wave. As I found, out of the class of 24, about 20 of them had already read the book, and at least one kid knew it was an allegory of the Russian Revolution. Still, my lesson wasn't totally redundant :)

For anyone who isn't familiar with the story, Animal Farm is about the animals on a farm This is a book I've been meaning to read for ages but never got around to - last week I not only read it but gave a lesson on the historical context for the grade 8 class, who will be reading this book and The Wave. As I found, out of the class of 24, about 20 of them had already read the book, and at least one kid knew it was an allegory of the Russian Revolution. Still, my lesson wasn't totally redundant :)

For anyone who isn't familiar with the story, Animal Farm is about the animals on a farm in England rising up against the incompetent, cruel farmer (Mr Jones, who represents the deposed Tsar, Nicholas II) and taking over the farm, renaming it Animal Farm (USSR) and - so the glorious vision intended - running it for themselves, so their lives would be better.

The vision is given to them by a pig, Old Major, who dies not long afterwards. Old Major probably represents Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx, and it's not the socialist ideal put forward that is critiqued by this book but how that vision is corrupted by certain other characters, namely another pig called Napoleon, who represents Joseph Stalin. Napoleon chases a pig called Snowball (Leon Trotsky) off the farm with his personally trained dogs (while still just the General Secretary of the Party, Stalin recruited people who would follow him blindly, so that when Lenin died in 1924 he was able to defeat Trotsky for the leadership position and his "dogs" kept everyone else in line).

The pigs then take charge, and with their literacy skills keep changing the rules the animals established in order to suit themselves, using a pig called Squealer to convince the other animals that their memories are faulty. After all, as the drafthorse Boxer keeps saying, "Comrade Napoleon is always right".

Boxer is - for me - the most heartbreaking character in the novel. He represents the peasants, and is the most hardworking animal on the farm. He has utter faith in the leadership of Napoleon and works himself to the bone - literally. His reward is very telling, though I don't want to give it away. Most of the characters represent either a person, several people or groups of people, and for the complete list you can check it out on Wikipedia.

Orwell, while a socialist, was very cynical about Stalin's communist USSR - and for good reason! Animal Farm is a very well-written critique of how socialist ideals are corrupted by powerful people, how the uneducated masses are taken advantage of, and how the dictator or communist leaders turn into capitalists (just look at China). It's a wonderful example of how effective the allegorical style/format can be, and a well-deserved classic. ...more

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Sep 28, 2015 Anne rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, read-in-2015, classics

The only good pig is a dead pig.

description

Yeah, yeah, everyone claims Orwell wrote this as about the Russian Revolution, Stalin, and the rise of Communism.
Pshttt. Whatever.
You know what I think he was really saying?
Beware the Other White Meat!
Ok, maybe not.

description

Look, I know what you're thinking, That pig looks adorable!, but the next thing you know, that piggy is all grown up and stealing your cookies!

description

And you'll let it steal your cookies because Mr. Pig has convinced you that giving up your cookies ever ...more

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Dec 26, 2016 Claudia Ramírez rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

Those damn PIGS.

I can't even. ...more

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Nov 20, 2008 Manny rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A perfect book. People will still be reading this in a thousand years time, when communism is just a footnote.

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Jun 02, 2008 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: novellas, 20th-century, literature, 1001-book, fiction, political

564. Animal Farm, George Orwell

Animal Farm is an allegorical 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 believe ...more

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Aug 26, 2007 Tessa De Guzman added it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: curious children

Funnily enough, i read this book as a child and thought that it really WAS about animals. I remember thinking, Evil Pigs, I'm glad you're bacon in MY world, and Poor Hardworking Horsies, come live on my farm instead. You can have all the hay and makopa you want (sadly, no apples, tropical climate).

I reread it after education spoiled my natural inclinations for fast and absolute punishment of evildoers and eternal rewards for the good. I do find it pleasantly strange that these animals are symbol ...more

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Nov 10, 2018 Sid rated it it was amazing

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS !
In the start, I thought this book would be from the view point of animals; about how they are treated, how they expect to be treated and how man is cruel towards them.
But but but;
I am amazed at how Orwell criticizes the political maneuvers and totalitarian rule, using animals to explain what humans do. The author beautifully portrays the way a revolution is started to stop what is happening and going full circle comes to the same point i ...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Matthew rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020, favorites, required-reading-high-school, read-more-than-once, classic, completist-book-club

Update after my February 2020 Re-read

A lot has happened in the world since I read this in high school in the mid-1990s. The book is as interesting and powerful as I remember. However, I think having an adult perspective on life, government, laws, taxes, rights, etc. makes this a much more powerful for me now than it was when I was a teenager.

One of the great things about this book, too, is that it is not very long. I think that morality tales with political undertones can be daunting if you kno ...more

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Jan 07, 2018 Mischenko rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

This book is featured on Shabby Sunday @ https://readrantrockandroll.com/2018/...

I read Animal Farm when I was in college and it was one of those reads where you think it’s going to be boring, but it turns out to be a favorite. It’s an allegorical tale representing the Russian Revolution where the characters in the book represent people during this time.

I won’t go into the plot too much, but in a nutshell, this story is about a group of farm animals who rise up against the evil farmer who cares This book is featured on Shabby Sunday @ https://readrantrockandroll.com/2018/...

I read Animal Farm when I was in college and it was one of those reads where you think it’s going to be boring, but it turns out to be a favorite. It’s an allegorical tale representing the Russian Revolution where the characters in the book represent people during this time.

I won’t go into the plot too much, but in a nutshell, this story is about a group of farm animals who rise up against the evil farmer who cares for them. They basically take over the farm by cause of Old Major (Marx/Lenen), the pig all about change. He get’s all the animals together into an uprising against Mr. Jones, the farmer (Tsar Nicholas II). The animal characters then run the farm themselves and develop their own hierarchy being lead by Snowball (Trotsky) and Napoleon (Stalin). In a way, the story reminds me of an Aesop’s Fable because the animal characters in the book have human characteristics and there are morals and messages that are quite obvious. Young readers can read it and they won’t pick up on the meaning–they’ll just think it’s a story about a group of rebellious farm animals against humans, but I believe the message that Orwell wanted to express is that power corrupts. Also that people need to think for themselves, educate yourself and make your own decisions. Don’t let others think for you.

Someone recently asked me who my favorite character was in the book which is a really difficult question to ask, in my opinion. I liked a handful of the characters including Boxer, Snowball, Benjamin, and Clover, but if I had to choose a favorite, it would have to be Snowball. Snowball’s ideas were in the best interests of the animals and he was always fair. He wanted to educate the other animals and make life easier for them. He was intelligent, brave, and stood up for his beliefs which is why he’s my favorite character in the book.

I’m not sure exactly how old my edition of Animal Farm is because no publication date is given, however, Goodreads seems to have this Signet Classic published in 1956. This thin paperback is in great shape for it’s age with clean, crisp pages.

My rating on this one is 5***** ...more

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Dec 22, 2020 Muhtasin Oyshik rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2020, 4-star, fantasy, 001-300-pp, fiction, classics

Animal Farm by George Orwell

The animals of a farm, tired of the continuous abuses of human beings, decide to rebel. And after chasing the owner, they try to create a new order based on an ideological concept of equality. It looks like a fairy tale, but it's not to entertain the little ones. Mainly, Orwell explored a historical fact through this story.

The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was wh
...more

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Sep 22, 2019 Merphy Napier rated it it was amazing

Shelves: adult, classics, five-stars

I did NOT expect to love this like I did. I thought it would be one that I would be happy I read but didn't enjoy. Nope. I loved this book. Not only was the message clear and strong, but put in a disturbing way that'll stick with me. It was entertaining as a story alone but that ending packed a very real punch. Loved it. ...more

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Sep 21, 2015 Ariel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites

I first read this in Grade 11 and decided it was my favourite book. I knew a reread needed to happen right away, but it took me four years to finally get around to it when my boyfriend gifted me this beautiful illustrated edition. Animal Farm is a book I often think about and often quote, and it was a bit nerve-wracking to go back to it to see if it actually lived up to everything I had built it up to be. Thankfully, I'm thrilled to say it did.

In many ways it's a little bit underwhelming the sec ...more

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Jun 25, 2013 Bionic Jean rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sf-speculative, favourites, read-authors-m-p, classics, animals

George Orwell's Animal Farm is undeniably one of the best short novels ever written in the English language. It is a deceptively simple tale, which even older children could read. About an animal uprising, it is written in the style of a fable, and yet it can be read on so many levels. It is clearly both a satire and an allegory, a dystopian tale, and its author George Orwell made no secret of what regime, and which politicians, he was so mercilessly parodying. Yet as with all great novels, it s ...more

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Jan 16, 2014 Ahmad Ebaid rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: أدب, سياسة

"I won't read again to this writer", that was my first impression to "ANIMAL FARM".
George Orwell was recommend to me by his two most famous books:"ANIMAL FARM" and "1984", and I had started reading "ANIMAL FARM" first by chance.
Then I though that Orwell, almost, hadn't have something to talk about in his other book; because he "has summarized up all what is happening in the occupied revolutions".
Later, I knew that "1984" was about Dystopian world that occurs after ANIMAL FARM's world. and Over ...more

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Apr 16, 2017 Sean Barrs rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2-star-reads, modernist-movement

George Orwell leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination. This is a blatant political statement. There’s no reading between the lines in order to ascertain the meaning, it’s all here on the page. After around page twenty it was very obvious how this book would end. History repeats itself and in this case it goes full circle. Nothing changes. And a wise old Donkey was the only one in the piece aware of this. We can presume he has seen it before, though, on a character level he was a bit of an a George Orwell leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination. This is a blatant political statement. There’s no reading between the lines in order to ascertain the meaning, it’s all here on the page. After around page twenty it was very obvious how this book would end. History repeats itself and in this case it goes full circle. Nothing changes. And a wise old Donkey was the only one in the piece aware of this. We can presume he has seen it before, though, on a character level he was a bit of an ass not to tell anybody what was coming. See what I did there? I’m good. I know.

The problem I had with Animal Farm is that I could not engage with it. The characters aren’t really characters. The setting isn’t really a setting. And the plot isn’t really a plot. They are all mere devices, a means for Orwell to blurt out his political statement. The entire book is one big author filibuster, an entire situation and a group of characters created for the simple reason of showing Orwell’s opposition to communism and, more specifically, the Stalin regime. It’s cleverly written, and it is funny at times, but such direct authorial intention took something away from the reading experience. I couldn’t lose myself within the writing.

The pigs were used as an insult to mankind. Their leader Napoleon (aptly named?) slowly distances the pigs from the animals of the revolution. They begin to take on the traits of humans, and after a few chapters they have set themselves up as the thing they originally usurped. They become corrupt and driven by money and profit. They’re above their peers, ultimately, destroying their own aims. By doing this Orwell is calling humans pigs; he is calling post-revolutionaries pigs. For me reading this, this was more of an insult to pigs than humans. Pigs are lovely animals. (Nicer than humans?) The metaphor certainly relies much on the reader’s interpretation of what a pig is.

That’s me just being pedantic and silly, but I guess I just like pigs. And I feel like I’ve read Animal Farm before. I feel like I know this story, and that’s because it is the history of mankind; it is the history of revolution. So, needless to say, Orwell has captured a large sense of this on the page. When it has been read, it is definitely something that cannot be unread. The allegory is pertinent and, in a sense, an almost pessimistic truism, though the inner romantic in me finds such a defeatist attitude, well, defeating.

It’s undoubtedly very intelligent writing, but I just didn’t enjoy it. When I read literature, whether it be poetry, play or novel, I like imagining things; I like coming up with my own interpretation, meaning, or criticisms. With this, Orwell has said it all. I feel like I didn’t need to read it, a plot summary would have given me everything the writing did.

- This is the first book I read on my 2017 reading challenge, I hope I enjoy the others more! ...more

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Jan 03, 2019 Ujjawal Sureka rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, 5-star

Genre: Political Satire
Publication Date: August 1945

Love this book!
This book is satiric and humourous. Orwell has depicted the political and civil issues of early Russia in a beautiful way.
His writing is clever and makes the reader find himself very much engaged with the story and at times sympathetic towards the animals, only to realise that it is an allegory and all this had actually happened to people before and such misuse of power and trust still happen all around the world.

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Apr 29, 2018 Mutasim Billah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

An allegorical parody of Stalinism, Animal Farm is considered to be one of Orwell's more popular works. Heavily inspired by Orwell's experiences during the Spanish Civil War, the novel is about a number of farm animals who revolt against their drunken and irresponsible owners and caretakers, driving them out of the farm and taking care of affairs themselves. The story is based on an ideology called Animalism, a tongue-in-ch ...more

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Dec 13, 2016 Dan Schwent rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016, 2016-books

Under the leadership of the pigs, the animals of Manor Farm overthrow their human owner and go into business for themselves with all animals doing their part. However, some parts involve a lot less work than others and things quickly change...

I somehow managed to dodge this landmine in high school and the ensuing couple decades. However, I had a few conversations about it at work and decided it was time to give it a read.

Animal Farm is a dystopian tale of revolution and the ensuing government. A ...more

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Jun 21, 2018 Manny rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history-and-biography, donalds-are-trumps, well-i-think-its-funny

"They always call the other side ‘the elite’. Why are they elite? I have a much better apartment than they do. I’m smarter than they are. I’m richer than they are. I became president and they didn’t. And I’m representing the greatest, smartest most loyal best people on Earth – the deplorables, remember that?"

- Donald Trump, June 20 2018

"Four legs good, two legs better!"

- George Orwell, Animal Farm, 1945
...more

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Oct 31, 2015 Ginger rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017

Animal Farm is a dystopian tale of revolution and the ensuing government that takes over afterwards. It could easily be a symbolism of most revolutions that occur in history. A new leader comes in and it’s the same as the old leader. Rinse. Repeat.

(Note to self):
Must. Not. Get. Too. Political. With. This. Review.

I absolutely loved this book and the tale of this animal farm should concern anyone that believes in a free-thinking society. All it takes is a revolution, distrust in facts, listening t ...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Lyn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Not as formidable as 1984, this modern day fable, though, bears down hard on socialism and even more on the very aspects of our nature that brings power struggles about.

First published in 1945, this allegorical criticism of Stalinist communism is nonetheless still relevant today as a cautionary satire on totalitarianism in general.

description

...more

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Sep 16, 2017 Fabian rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: top-100

The inherent evil in Teletubbies. The satanic perversion of one extremely Disneyfied utopia. Orwell's super scary fairy tale is actually PERFECT. The tenderness in the animals easily translates to that shared by all mankind for itself. And, oh, so easily do modern political players fill the spots of pigs or dogs.

Basically in "A.F." all the little animals contracted serious rabies simultaneously. Who will survive the plague? A.F.=America, now. The fairy story of SHORT MEMORIES & DUPES.

This is the ...more

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Mar 12, 2012 Gaurav rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopian, favorites, modern-classics

George OrwellI got stunned for a while when I finished Animal Farm-a masterpiece from George Orwell- for the novella depicts our society so perfectly- the role of power, how corrupts those who are apex of a social system and eventually they eliminate their competitors, and it happens with almost every social system, it's like a treatise on our society.

Napolean is not inherently evil, Napoleon's subsequent adoption of nearly all of Mr. Jones' principles and after that the animals treat fellow ani ...more

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May 14, 2015 Carlos rated it really liked it · review of another edition

What a book! It is kind of confusing to read a story about animals who speak and stuff. Many people say that you need to know about the Russian Revolution to be able to read this, but NOPE! This book is full of symbols, clues, methaphors. How can you notice them? Well, just read the story! Why did Orwell choose a pig as a main character, and not a... let's say, butterfly? Or a pigeon? Or a cute dog? Or a rat?
About the story, despite the characters are animals, they behave like humans, they even ...more

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Sep 12, 2019 Reading_ Tam_ Ishly rated it it was amazing

This book didn't read like a 'classic' at all for me. It was so easy to get into. The writing style is simple and amazing. It's short but the story is relevant and weaved in such a way the readers get lots to think and reflect about the working system in a society, especially the political system.

This small book made me think about the class division and the different caste systems that are still relevant today. The political system is seemingly complicated but this book gave me a glimpse of it This book didn't read like a 'classic' at all for me. It was so easy to get into. The writing style is simple and amazing. It's short but the story is relevant and weaved in such a way the readers get lots to think and reflect about the working system in a society, especially the political system.

This small book made me think about the class division and the different caste systems that are still relevant today. The political system is seemingly complicated but this book gave me a glimpse of it in a way how it's being played.
The part which intrigued me the most was the way the common people being manipulated or played with false promises and a better future for them. And that the lives of the ones who rebel or do something different for their betterment ends up not appreciated.
This small book gives a very clear picture how the actual society works; a vivid description on how the heirarchical system works and will continue as long as the general public blindly keeps on believing that others are going to make their lives better by helping them reach and sit on thrones who will detect them on how to work harder so that such people can party better.

The part which hit me the most was when one character who worked their whole lives for everyone else ended up as being forgotten and left to their own devices when weak and old with nothing much left for them in the end.

This book represents well the society we are living in, gives us an idea how the political system works in real and how the rest of us play our roles in the system.

The best part of reading this book is that it makes me think about how I as a person play my role in the society, how important one vote of mine matters and plays a significant role, how I am ultimately responsible for my own efforts in making the surrounding around me improve and how ignorant I am regarding the ways of the society and the political system. It's just not enough to live. Who is going to stand up for us ultimately? It's not them but we ourselves. Let's start by thinking twice about how easily we believe in the words others promise us for our future. Is it them who we are lifting them making them stand on the tip of our heads or us who's going to actually decide for that?

***Highlight:
The animal characters accurately represent the real working system as is at present ...more

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Jan 13, 2018 Peter rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction, classic

Elucidation
An extremely famous and popular book that carries a major political message. Essentially Animal Farm is a parody of communism from the Bolshevik revolution, to the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. Beyond the obvious, we can see that this is a tale as relevant today as it was in the 1940s. After the Romanovs were removed, what actually changed for the average person? This is the incredible foresight George Orwell had when first publishing his book in 1945. We can package a revolutio ...more

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Feb 15, 2017 Trina (Between Chapters) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: standalones, 2017-favorites, dystopian, 2017, adult

I read this in high school and hated it because it terrified me.

It still terrifies me.

Read this.

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Jan 15, 2016 April (Aprilius Maximus) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016, to-reread-and-annotate, classics, favourites

Wow. Everything about this was so clever. I think my mind just exploded.

Around the Year in 52 Books Challenge Notes:
8. A classic with less than 200 pages

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Feb 01, 2008 Samin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I absolutely loved this book. It wasn't boring to me at all. I think Orwell did a great job of symbolizing all the injustice that happens in name of an outside force and how simple minded people who do not educate themselves get taken advantage from, be it West for Soviet Russia, America for Iran or Terrorists for the United states. ...more

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About George Orwell

George Orwell

35,464 followers

Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. His work is marked by keen intelligence and wit, a profound awareness of social injustice, an intense opposition to totalitarianism, a passion for clarity in language, and a belief in democratic socialism.

In addition to his literary career Orwell served as a police officer with the Indian Imperial Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. His work is marked by keen intelligence and wit, a profound awareness of social injustice, an intense opposition to totalitarianism, a passion for clarity in language, and a belief in democratic socialism.

In addition to his literary career Orwell served as a police officer with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma from 1922-1927 and fought with the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1937. Orwell was severely wounded when he was shot through his throat. Later the organization that he had joined when he joined the Republican cause, The Workers Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), was painted by the pro-Soviet Communists as a Trotskyist organization (Trotsky was Joseph Stalin's enemy) and disbanded. Orwell and his wife were accused of "rabid Trotskyism" and tried in absentia in Barcelona, along with other leaders of the POUM, in 1938. However by then they had escaped from Spain and returned to England.

Between 1941 and 1943, Orwell worked on propaganda for the BBC. In 1943, he became literary editor of the Tribune, a weekly left-wing magazine. He was a prolific polemical journalist, article writer, literary critic, reviewer, poet, and writer of fiction, and, considered perhaps the twentieth century's best chronicler of English culture.

Orwell is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (published in 1949) and the satirical novella Animal Farm (1945) — they have together sold more copies than any two books by any other twentieth-century author. His 1938 book Homage to Catalonia, an account of his experiences as a volunteer on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, together with numerous essays on politics, literature, language, and culture, have been widely acclaimed.

Orwell's influence on contemporary culture, popular and political, continues decades after his death. Several of his neologisms, along with the term "Orwellian" — now a byword for any oppressive or manipulative social phenomenon opposed to a free society — have entered the vernacular. ...more

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Trivia About Animal Farm

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Quotes from Animal Farm

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” — 6332 likes

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” — 3036 likes

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