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Animal Farm (Signet Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: George Orwell
Creator: Russell Baker
Publisher: Signet Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $9.99
Buy Used: $1.50
You Save: $8.49 (85%)
New (75) Used (141) Collectible (18) from $1.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  1149 reviews
Sales Rank: 642
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Edition: 50th Anniversary
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 176
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.1 x 0.5
ISBN: 0451526341
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780451526342
ASIN: 0451526341
Publication Date: April 1, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
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
Product Description
Orwell's brilliant 1946 satire, chronicling a revolution staged by the animals on Mr. Jones's farm.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1144 more reviews...
 Animalism! Yes? August 21, 2008
How did I not receive this book as required reading back in high school? Well now that I've picked it up, I realize that I would have enjoyed it then as much as I did now. This thinly veiled (perhaps obvious) critique on the government at the time in Russia provokes many questions on the legitimacy of any government and the inability for communism to operate effectively. The animals band together to overthrow the evil "human" to form their own government - animalism, where all animals are created equal. This belief is reinforced in the seven commandments of animalism. However, corruption and power struggles quickly impede on the central tenets of animalism.
This story reads like an extended Aesop's Fable with messages much more poignant than "slow and steady wins the race" adding a biting satiric wit to it all. This is altogether a facinating allegory to the way Soviet Russia was; yet, it still remains unbelievably revelant in today's society. After all, "All animals are equal (but some animals are more equal than others)."
Timely reading because the world is still not free August 18, 2008
Better (?) than a horror movie because it's real. Monarchy, revolution, communism, state capitalism. Sound familiar? Check the Olympics.
Animal Farm catches you off guard with the animal characters, sucks you in and keeps the plot fast. History of the Soviet revolution in an hour of entertainment. But it quickly ceases being entertaining, and becomes very realistic. Ride up the roller coaster of genuine hope that communism could work, and then down into the depths of war and murder. Finally, settle into a gray, hopeless dictatorship that lasted 70 years for the USSR, but repeats itself in other countries today. If you want the power of irony, this is about as powerful as it gets: these animals do kill each other (if not their own species). Pigs! Sounds like ... people.
 Brilliant Allegory Lacking In Positive Vision August 11, 2008
Although I think Orwell accomplished what he intended in Animal Farm (a tight, crisp, seemingly flawless allegory of the horrors of pre-Soviet and Soviet Russia and the dangers of Stalinist totalitarianism), I still only give the book three stars, because I WANT MORE!
I want a book that does more than just criticize a system. I want a book that offers a vision for something greater. Although they say Orwell was a socialist, I feel this book risks leaving the reader to default into thinking that a capitalist system like the modern one is the best, because "it works." No wonder this book is assigned en masse to public high school students in America - or was, at least, when I was in high school in the 1980s. Yuck!
I don't like this book because it's utterly depressing: it offers no hope. It's just an endless spiral into misery. I want a vision of a society that is beautiful, that isn't destructive, where hope and healing are real, where exploitation is not the byword of the day.
My answer: I see our hope in healing our childhood traumas, working out our ancient rage and our ancient fantasies that our traumatizing parents will rescue us. If the masses of humanity work out these inner demons then capitalism crumbles, totalitarianism is rendered irrelevant, war becomes moot - and beauty can rise to the surface.
Perhaps The Easiest Read For The Most To Be Gained June 21, 2008
The story is well described in the other reviews, especially in the first one above from the professional reviewer, but I do find it necessary to point out a few observations:
First: George Orwell is a literary genius. There's a reason why he graces the cover of the book: Don't Weep for Me, America: How Democracy in America Became the Prince (While We Slept). If you liked "Animal Farm", "1984" is going to knock you into another thought paradigm.
Secondly, and more important: Whether you read about "Animal Farm" from the professional reviewers, Cliff Notes, or in the introduction to the book itself, there is one self-imposed "limitation" that stays consistent throughout, and that is the sovereign state Orwell has in mind when he wrote "Animal Farm" (or "1984" for that matter)is the Soviet Union. While this may be true, the bigger and more relevant point is getting missed. This bigger and more relevant point is that for ANY sovereign nation, when there is a change of power in its governance (for its betterment), it is ALWAYS the case, I repeat, it is ALWAYS the case that the new governance will gradually become the same as the one it replaced. Look no further than the United States of America. The 1776 rebels overthrew the British tyrant, King George III, mostly due to oppressive business practices, taxes and lack of representation. And look where we are today, in 2008! Corporations rule. Taxes, which we already fought one war over, are exorbitant, and Congress is simply a millionaires club representing the wealthy.
How do we know that George Orwell saw this happening? Because he worked in the BBC and the BBC was spewing the SAME propaganda that the Soviet Union was using. How do we know this? Because writer Martin Esslin worked at the BBC at the same time as Orwell and he wrote that this was the case! For further reference, see my review of the book: U.S. Television News and Cold War Propaganda, 1947-1960 (Cambridge Studies in the History of Mass Communication).
So the point, as is the point with ALL my reviews is this: Become a CRITICAL THINKER!
Animal Farm-Book June 16, 2008
The book was in great condition and was promptly delivered. I highly recommend using you guys again.
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