Animal Farm: Centennial Edition

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Lenny's description:

Amazon.com Review:
Since its publication in 1946, George Orwell's fable of a workers' revolution gone wrong has rivaled Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea as the Shortest Serious Novel It's OK to Write a Book Report About. (The latter is three pages longer and less fun to read.) Fueled by Orwell's intense disillusionment with Soviet Communism, Animal Farm is a nearly perfect piece of writing, both an engaging story and an allegory that actually works. When the downtrodden beasts of Manor Farm oust their drunken human master and take over management of the land, all are awash in collectivist zeal. Everyone willingly works overtime, productivity soars, and for one brief, glorious season, every belly is full. The animals' Seven Commandment credo is painted in big white letters on the barn. All animals are equal. No animal shall drink alcohol, wear clothes, sleep in a bed, or kill a fellow four-footed creature. Those that go upon four legs or wings are friends and the two-legged are, by definition, the enemy. Too soon, however, the pigs, who have styled themselves leaders by virtue of their intelligence, succumb to the temptations of privilege and power. "We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of the farm depend on us. Day and night, we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples." While this swinish brotherhood sells out the revolution, cynically editing the Seven Commandments to excuse their violence and greed, the common animals are once again left hungry and exhausted, no better off than in the days when humans ran the farm. Satire Animal Farm may be, but it's a stony reader who remains unmoved when the stalwart workhorse, Boxer, having given his all to his comrades, is sold to the glue factory to buy booze for the pigs. Orwell's view of Communism is bleak indeed, but given the history of the Russian people since 1917, his pessimism has an air of prophecy. --Joyce Thompson

Seller's description:
As ferociously fresh as it was more than a half century ago, this remarkable allegory of a downtrodden society of overworked, mistreated animals, and their quest to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality is one of the most scathing satires ever published. As we witness the rise and bloody fall of the revolutionary animals, we begin to recognize the seeds of totalitarianism in the most idealistic organization; and in our most charismatic leaders, the souls of our cruelest oppressors. With a new forward by Gore Vidal.

Features:

ISBN13: 9780452284241
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Product details:

Item number (ASIN): 0452284244
Author: George Orwell
Creator: Ann Patchett, Foreword
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
ISBN: 0452284244
Manufacturer: Plume
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 128
Package Dimensions: 40 x 540 x 780 (hundredths-inches)
Publication Date: May 6, 2003
Publisher: Plume
Release Date: May 6, 2003
Binding: Paperback

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Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Rating:

- It's All About Boiling a Frog
Orwell shows the incrimental rise of tyrrany among barnyard animals. That's really what is at the heart of this book: the slow methodical creep of ever more constrictive, exploitive, and oppressive laws which transform a free society to a totalitarian dictatorship. Each step is slowly introduced, and introduced to the public in a calm and well-reasoned manner. If done skillfully, no individual step will incite the public to stand up and oppose the overarching plan to enslave them. Joesph Stalin came to power around 1922-26, depending on the criterion applied, but it took him another 10 years to really cement together his ironclad dictatorship. So it is with Napolean the Pig, who becomes the barnyard leader with the slogan "All animals are created equal", and only later quietly adds "...but some animals are more equal than others." The book unfolds in baby steps, slowly constructing a regime no better (indeed far worse) than the one it replaced. Once he removes the Farmer, Napolean purges potential rivals (e.g. the popular and beloved horse), trains a private army of attack dogs answerable only to him, and starts to set himself apart in a seperate and superior class from the other animals by walking upright like the Farmer did

Rating:

- Average. This book was OK, but I wouldn't read it twice.
This book was quite different from George Orwell's 1984 (Max Notes), the only other of Orwell's works that I have read. The allusions to communism are obvious and character development was sacrificed in favour of narrative. As a study of historical narrative, this book is important. As an enjoyable book to read, Animal Farm: A Fairy Story falls short of the mark.

Rating:

- A blazing fast and memorable read
Take something like Charlottes Web and blend it with the Russian Revolution, shake it up a bit and you have Animal Farm. Animal Farm is a satirical look at totalitarianism, complete government control. The animals are sick of the humans controlling them. They are underfed and caged up and just generally mistreated. The animals decide to start a revolution and they successfully drive the humans away. The pigs are known as the intellectuals so they quickly become the leaders of the animals, Napoleon the bore being the one in charge. With the pigs in charge how much will life really improve? Orwell's prose in this book is absolutely flawless. The scenes really jump out of the pages. Right in the beginning Orwell drops quite a large cast of characters for such a quick read but he fleshes them out so perfectly (and succinctly) that you won't become lost. This is a blazing fast read! Orwell doesn't waste a single word. This is a very memorable book. I can't imagine giving it anything less then 5 stars.

Rating:

- Great for those living in communist type of socialism
I come from a country oppressed by a disguised form of socialism. It is instead communism, the old one. I was impressed on how our own reality is pictured so very well in this book. I couldn't finish it, I read it in two afternoons. A classic to give as a gift to someone that doesn't actually grasp the sad reality they live in.

Rating:

- All ism's (Animalism here) eventually encounter the same issues
Animal farm was not part of my high school curriculum, so I happened to read this "A Fairy Story" at a later stage in my life. It's an allegory depicting the Bolshevik revolution using pigs, dogs, horses and other farm animals. The much expected revolution had animals in the beginning saying "Four legs good, two legs bad" and towards the end of the satire the sheep's were bleating "Four legs good, two legs better" and the pigs (the ruling class) were walking on their hind legs. It's the story of a revolution gone bad, the wicked and the scheming taking over and the lot of the ordinary working class staying as is or perhaps even worse. The characters Napoleon and Snowball represent Stalin and Trotsky while Squealer and Minimus represents Stalin's sycophants. It's fairly good; however, I'm not sure why this book is a literary masterpiece though. It's a fairly simple mapping of the main characters of the Russian revolution to farm animals with a decent dose of humor sprinkled here and there. It's popularity (and addition to the school curriculum) could perhaps be attributed to the "Red scare"?