Animal Farm

Animal Farm
by George Orwell

Animal Farm
List Price: $10.95
Our Price: $6.13
You Save: $4.82 (44%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.21 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: George Orwell
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-09-01
ISBN: 1595404295
Number of pages: 113
Publisher: 1st World Library - Literary Society

Summary of Animal Farm

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the henhouses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes. With the ring of light from his lantern dancing from side to side, he lurched across the yard, kicked off his boots at the back door, drew himself a last glass of beer from the barrel in the scullery, and made his way up to bed, where Mrs. Jones was already snoring. As soon as the light in the bedroom went out there was a stirring and a fluttering all through the farm buildings. Word had gone round during the day that old Major, the prize Middle White boar, had had a strange dream on the previous night and wished to communicate it to the other animals. It had been agreed that they should all meet in the big barn as soon as Mr. Jones was safely out of the way. Old Major (so he was always called, though the name under which he had been exhibited was Willingdon Beauty) was so highly regarded on the farm that everyone was quite ready to lose an hour's sleep in order to hear what he had to say.
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

Classics Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Classics Books
Native son ImageNative son
by Richard Wright
Perennial Library; Published: 1987; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.75
Native Son: And How Bigger Was Born ImageNative Son: And How Bigger Was Born
by Richard Wright
Perennial; Published: 1993-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $60.00
Raphael and the Noble Task ImageRaphael and the Noble Task
by Catherine Salton
Harper; Published: 2000-10-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops: $20.00
Island (Perennial Classics) ImageIsland (Perennial Classics)
by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops: $14.99
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn ImageA Tree Grows in Brooklyn
by Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.86
Price in other shops: $23.99
The Great Divorce CD ImageThe Great Divorce CD
by C. S. Lewis
HarperAudio; Published: 2003-11-25; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.06
Price in other shops: $22.00
Great Expectations ImageGreat Expectations
by Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops: $12.10
This Side of Paradise ImageThis Side of Paradise
by Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops: $6.95
Black Coffee (Poirot) ImageBlack Coffee (Poirot)
by Agatha Christie
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2002-12-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $68.32
Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1960s) ImageSlouching Towards Bethlehem (1960s)
by Joan Didion
Flamingo; Published: 2001-04-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.25
Similar Books and other products
Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck Centennial Edition) ImageOf Mice and Men (Steinbeck Centennial Edition)
by John Steinbeck
Penguin; Published: 2002-01-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.89
Price in other shops: $14.00
1984 (Signet Classics) Image1984 (Signet Classics)
by George Orwell
Penguin Group USA; Signet Classic; Published: 1961-01-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops: $9.99
Practice Makes Perfect Advanced English Grammar for ESL Learners (Practice Makes Perfect Series) ImagePractice Makes Perfect Advanced English Grammar for ESL Learners (Practice Makes Perfect Series)
by Mark Lester
McGraw-Hill; Published: 2010-08-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.85
Price in other shops: $15.00
Brave New World ImageBrave New World
by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2006-10-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.49
Price in other shops: $14.99
Fahrenheit 451 ImageFahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury
Ballantine Books; Published: 2008-04-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.50
Price in other shops: $6.99
Lord of the Flies ImageLord of the Flies
by William Golding
Faber & Faber, Incorporated; Published: 1999; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.75
Animal Farm (Cliffs Notes) ImageAnimal Farm (Cliffs Notes)
by Daniel Moran
Cliffs Notes; Published: 2000-12-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops: $5.99
The Catcher in the Rye ImageThe Catcher in the Rye
by J. D. Salinger
Back Bay Books; Published: 2001-01-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.59
Price in other shops: $13.99
Lord of the Flies ImageLord of the Flies
by William Golding
Perigee Books; Published: 1959-07-27; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.29
Price in other shops: $9.99
Nineteen Eighty-Four ImageNineteen Eighty-Four
by George Orwell
Plume; Published: 2003-05-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.49
Price in other shops: $17.00