From the Bookshelf of Reading List Completists…

Animal Farm

George Orwell,

Russell Baker (Preface)

Start date: February 1, 2020

Finish date: February 29, 2020

Discussion: Group Reads

Why we're reading this: February 2020 Completist Selection
[close] February 2020 Completist Selection

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 98 topics — 1,581 comments total

Group Reads

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
By Matthew , Assistant List Master · 4 posts · 18 views

last updated Sep 18, 2022 11:34AM

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
By Matthew , Assistant List Master · 7 posts · 22 views

last updated Aug 31, 2022 01:49PM

What Members Thought

Jul 04, 2017 Henry rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I just finished Animal Farm as part of a personal project to re-read outstanding books that I read in high school and college over 50 years ago. I feel that it would be interesting to note any changes in perspective between a teenager and a now senior citizen. As to Animal Farm, it is just as good now as it was then. Of course, at the time I first read this satire/allegory of the Russian Revolution and the rise of the Soviet Union it was at the height of the cold war --Orwell wrote it in 1945 at ...more

37 likes · Like · see review

Jul 16, 2016 Michael Finocchiaro rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: political-satire, classics, fiction

Perhaps just as relevant now under Drumpf as it was when Orwell was spoofing European politics, Animal Farm is one of the greatest pieces of political satire ever written. I have to admit not having cracked it open since high school, but perhaps I need to go back and read this now.

35 likes · Like · see review

Jan 02, 2015 Caroline rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics

GEORGE Orwell’s story is synonymous with revolution. After a speech from Old Major, the wise elderly pig, the animals stage an uprising to erase a future life of servitude under a cruel human leader. The speech highlights the life of misery faced by animals and comes with the bitter realisation they are working for man- the only creature which consumes without producing.

A hierarchical system quickly emerges with the pigs at the top and the other animals beneath them. The animals are liberated f ...more

5 likes · Like · see review