Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - Softcover

Orwell, George

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452277507 ISBN 13: 9780452277502

Publisher: Penguin, 1996

Synopsis

George Orwell's timeless fable--a parable for would-be liberators everywhere, glimpsed through the lens of our own history.

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 foreword by Ann Patchett

About this title

Review

Since its publication in 1946, George Orwell's fable of a workers' revolution gone wrong has been recognized as a classic of modern political satire. Fuelled 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

Review

"Animal Farm remains our great satire on the darker face of modern history." -Malcolm Bradbury

"As lucid as glass and quite as sharp...[Animal Farm] has the double meaning, the sharp edge, and the lucidity of Swift." -Atlantic Monthly

"A wise, compassionate, and illuminating fable for our times." -New York Times

"Orwell has worked out his theme with a simplicity, a wit, and a dryness that are close to La Fontaine and Gay, and has written in a prose so plain and spare, so admirably proportioned to his purpose, that Animal Farm even seems very creditable if we compare it with Voltaire and Swift." -Edmund Wilson, The New Yorker

"Orwell's satire here is amply broad, cleverly conceived, and delightfully written." -San Francisco Chronicle

"The book for everyone and Everyman, its brightness undimmed after fifty years." -Ruth Rendell

With an Introduction by Julian Symons

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0452277507
• ISBN 13: 9780452277502
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144