Animal Farm: A Fairy Story

by George Orwell

Book Overview

75th Anniversary Edition--Includes a New Introduction by T a Obreht

George Orwell's timeless and timely allegorical novel--a scathing satire on a downtrodden society's blind march towards totalitarianism.

SOON TO BE A NETFLIX FILM

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452284244
• ISBN13: 9780452284241
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: Berkley Books
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.1"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

The book is in horrible condition. Pages folded and it looks like sweat is on the back. I'm not sure

Havent read it yet.

Poor condition

This is not about the book content, but the book condition. It was listed as "good" condition, but the book I received was not even "acceptable."

Must read

I found the book to be refreshing and pretty on the nose for being written so long ago. The only thing I dislike is how short it is. This is one of those classic must read books.

“Very good” condition as described, but in fact nearly ruined

Terrible shape for “very good.” Item was not as described.

very good

liked the book, although the edition i ordered is not what was sent

A commentary on soviet political history, for babies

One of the dumbest books I've ever read. A Trot writes Barney for western political intellectuals in the 40s

Tragic, but still a great allegory.

This story really shows how revolutions can fail. The ending is tragic and it leaves you thinking about how an attempt at Utopia invariably ends badly. Excellent read, recommended for anyone interested in history, politics or fiction.

Enjoyed the book itself but...

I hadn't actually heard about the book until recently, however enjoyed 1984 and wanted to see what else Orwell had to offer. Really enjoyed the telling of the novel, HOWEVER, the copy of the novel I received was FULL of notes and writings that took away or blocked out paragraphs of the entire page.

What do you mean by good quality?

The whole book is full of marker, graffiti and note.

Great book!!

Read this many years ago and bought it for my grandkids for their edification. Thanks!!

Rebelion en la granja

Este libro debe ser mandatorio para todos los estudiantes de bachillerato (preparatoria) es relacionado lo que esta pasando el Dia de hoy en todos los paises. Me encanto, me hubiera encantado leerlo cuando estaba en la preparatoria y también que mis hijos lo leyeran.

A must read for today's world.

If this book does not open your eyes to today's madness, you are clinically dead.

Animal Farm what a great success

If you didn’t read this in high school, read it now. If you did read it in high school, read it again. It’s powerful and resonates with our current reality. Fear, propoganda, religion. It’s a short but very striking read.

An amazing and quick read

Madatory Reading

Excelente obra sobre que ilustra la Revolucion Rusa

El Sr. Jones no sabe lo que estaba a punto de ocurrir en su granja pero continuaba con su patron de explotacion hasta el dia en que los animales se levantaron para hacer justicia y buscar la igualdad. La trama gira en torno a la manera en la que los animales producen y llevan a cabo esta revolucion. Este es un clasico el cual estuvo prohibido y censurado en muchos lugares. Hoy podemos disfrutar de esta excelente obra de George Orwell. En esta edicion encontrara un prologo nunca antes publicado escrito por el autor, el cual es analizado en su contexto. Excelente obra facil de leer, entretenida y con un potencial historico extraordinario.

The power of words ...

"Animal farm" is to this day one of the best attempts to criticize a totalitarian regime through the means that literature provides: the power of words. George Orwell (1903- 1950) wanted to help others to realize things that for him were evident, and attempted to do so by writing a fable that can easily be read as a satire of the Russian Revolution. Orwell said in an article that "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic Socialism, as I understand it. It seems to me nonsense, in a period like our own, to think that one can avoid writing of such subjects. It is simply a question of which side one takes and what approach one follows". Orwell also pointed out that "Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole". He succeded beyond his wildest expectations, even though at first nobody wanted to publish this work because it was too controversial. The plot of this book is relatively easy to grasp, and I think that is probably one of the reasons why it is so popular. Some animals decide to take over the conduction of a farm, because they believe there is too much injustice, and that they would improve the situation if they had the power to do so. They make a revolution, and end up evicting Mr. Jones, the owner of the farm. From that moment onwards, the farm is called "Animal farm"... The animals establish seven "commandments", that they are supposed to obey at all moments in the new "Animal farm": 1- Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy, 2 - Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend, 3- No animal shall wear clothes, 4 - No animal shall sleep in a bed , 5 -No animal shall drink alcohol, 6 - No animal shall kill another animal , 7- All animals are created equal. At the same time, all commandments can be comprised in a maxim: "Four legs good, two legs bad". Everything seems all right for sometime, and all the animals work together for the success of the revolution, obeying the commandments and striving for a new order of things. However, after a while the pigs begin to think that being part of the animal revolution is not enough: they want to dominate it. After that first realization things take a quick turn for the worse, and we cease to be in the presence of a "wannabe utopical society", having instead to be unwilling witnesses to the birth of a new totalitarian society. At that moment, the pigs even change some of the commandments. For example, the fourth commandment turns into "No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets", and the sixth commandment says "No animal shall kill another animal without cause". Now, the commandments can be reduced to "Four legs good, two legs better". Finally, all the commandments will be replaced with one: "All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others". All in

Simply, the best book I've ever read

I've read Animal Farm 3 times and each time I read it I get something more out of it. My 7th grade teacher made my class read it to illustrate communism. It worked great and showed us how tempting communism is and how easily it can spread. No matter how old you are, I suggest you pick up a copy of this book and read it.

This is a very good political book.

I think Animal Farm is a very good book. I like how this book shows the good intentions and poor results of communism. Communism is described very well in this book. Mick, Grade 8