Animal Farm
First published 1945 · English · 140 pages
- Novels
- Dystopia
- Fantasy
- Young adult
This short satirical fable is set on an English farm where the animals, tired of being badly treated by their human owner, rise up and drive him out. They set up their own society, guided by a set of shared principles and led by the clever pigs. At first life seems fairer and full of hope, but gradually some animals begin to claim more power than others. Orwell uses the farmyard to examine how revolutions can lose their ideals, and how language and slogans can be bent to serve those in charge. It is a clear, funny and troubling book, often read in schools and by adults alike.
Quotes
To exchange one orthodoxy for another is not necessarily an advance. The enemy is the gramophone mind, whether or not one agrees with the record that is being played at the moment.
The vote was taken at once, and it was agreed by an overwhelming majority that rats were comrades. There were only four dissentients, the three dogs and the cat, who was afterwards discovered to have voted on both sides.
Comrade," said Snowball, "those ribbons that you are so devoted to are the badge of slavery. Can you not understand that liberty is worth more than ribbons?
In our country — it is not the same in all countries: it was not so in republican France, and it is not so in the USA today — it is the liberals who fear liberty and the intellectuals who want to do dirt on the intellect: it is to draw attention to that fact that I have written this preface.