Animal Farm
Secker and Warburg , London, England) | |
Media type | Print (hard & paperback) |
---|---|
Pages | 92 |
Awards | Modern Library's 100 Best Novels
NPR: 100 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Hugo Award for Best Short Novel (1946) Prometheus Award – Hall of Fame (2011) |
LC Class | PZ3.O793 An |
Preceded by | Inside the Whale and Other Essays |
Followed by | Nineteen Eighty-Four |
Animal Farm is a
According to Orwell, Animal Farm reflects events leading up to the
The original title was Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, but US publishers dropped the subtitle when it was published in 1946, and only one of the translations during Orwell's lifetime, the
Orwell wrote the book between November 1943 and February 1944, when the United Kingdom was in its wartime alliance with the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany, and the British intelligentsia held Stalin in high esteem, a phenomenon Orwell hated.[b] The manuscript was initially rejected by several British and American publishers,[9] including one of Orwell's own, Victor Gollancz, which delayed its publication. It became a great commercial success when it did appear, as international relations and public opinion were transformed as the wartime alliance gave way to the Cold War.[10]
Plot summary
The animal populace of the poorly run Manor Farm near
Napoleon enacts changes to the governance structure of the farm, replacing meetings with a committee of pigs who will run the farm. Through a young porker named Squealer, Napoleon claims credit for the idea of building the windmill, claiming that Snowball was only trying to win animals to his side. The animals work harder with the promise of easier lives with the windmill. When the animals find the windmill collapsed after a violent storm, Napoleon and Squealer persuade the animals that Snowball is trying to sabotage their project, and begin to purge the farm of animals accused by Napoleon of consorting with his old rival. When some animals recall the Battle of the Cowshed, Napoleon (who was nowhere to be found during the battle) gradually smears Snowball to the point of saying he is a collaborator of Mr. Jones, even dismissing the fact that Snowball was given an award of courage, while falsely representing himself as the main hero of the battle. "Beasts of England" is replaced with "Animal Farm", while an anthem glorifying Napoleon, who is presumably adopting the lifestyle of a man ("Comrade Napoleon"), is composed and sung. Napoleon then conducts a second purge, during which many animals who are alleged to be helping Snowball in plots are executed by Napoleon's dogs, which troubles the rest of the animals. Despite their hardships, the animals are easily placated by Napoleon's retort that they are better off than they were under Mr. Jones, as well as by the sheep's continual bleating of "four legs good, two legs bad".
Mr. Frederick, a neighbouring farmer, attacks the farm, using
Years pass, the windmill is rebuilt and another windmill is constructed, which makes the farm a good amount of income. However, the ideals that Snowball discussed, including stalls with electric lighting, heating, and running water, are forgotten, with Napoleon advocating that the happiest animals live simple lives. Snowball has been forgotten, alongside Boxer, with "the exception of the few who knew him". Many of the animals who participated in the rebellion are dead or old. Mr. Jones is also now known to be dead, having "died in an inebriates' home in another part of the country". The pigs start to resemble humans, as they walk upright, carry whips, drink alcohol, and wear clothes. The Seven Commandments are abridged to just one phrase: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". The maxim "Four legs good, two legs bad" is similarly changed to "Four legs good, two legs better". Other changes include the Hoof and Horn flag being replaced with a plain green banner and Old Major's skull, which was previously put on display, being reburied.
Napoleon holds a dinner party for the pigs and local farmers, with whom he celebrates a new alliance. He abolishes the practice of the revolutionary traditions and restores the name "The Manor Farm". The men and pigs start playing cards, flattering and praising each other while cheating at the game. Both Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington, one of the farmers, play the ace of spades at the same time and both sides begin fighting loudly over who cheated first. When the animals outside look at the pigs and men, they can no longer distinguish between the two.
Characters
Pigs
- showing. He is an allegorical combination of Karl Marx, one of the creators of communism, and Vladimir Lenin, the communist leader of the Russian Revolution and the early Soviet nation, in that he draws up the principles of the revolution. His skull being put on revered public display recalls Lenin, whose embalmed body was left in indefinite repose.[16]By the end of the book, the skull is reburied.
- Napoleon – "A large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar, the only Berkshire on the farm, not much of a talker, but with a reputation for getting his own way".[17] An allegory of Joseph Stalin,[16] Napoleon is the leader of Animal Farm.
- Snowball – Napoleon's rival and original head of the farm after Jones's overthrow. His life parallels that of Leon Trotsky,[16] although there is no reference to Snowball having been murdered (as Trotsky was); he may also combine some elements from Lenin.[18][c]
- Squealer – A small, white, fat porker who serves as Napoleon's second-in-command and minister of propaganda, is a collective portrait of the Soviet nomenklatura and journalists, such as of the national daily Pravda (The Truth), able to justify every twist and turn in Stalin's policy.[16]
- Minimus – A poetic pig who writes the second national anthem of Animal Farm after the singing of "Beasts of England" is banned; later he composes a poem "Comrade Napoleon". Literary theorist John Rodden compares him to the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky,[19] who eulogized Lenin and the Soviet Union, although Mayakovsky neither wrote anthems nor praised Stalin in his poems.
- The piglets – Hinted to be the children of Napoleon and are the first generation of animals subjugated to his idea of animal inequality.
- The young pigs – Four pigs who complain about Napoleon's takeover of the farm but are quickly silenced and later executed, the first animals killed in Napoleon's farm purge. Probably based on the Great Purge of Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, Nikolai Bukharin, and Alexei Rykov.
- Pinkeye – A minor pig who is mentioned only once; he is the taste-tester that samples Napoleon's food to make sure it is not poisoned, in response to rumours about an assassination attempt on Napoleon.
Humans
- Tsar Nicholas II,[20] who was forced to abdicate following the February Revolution of 1917 and was murdered, along with the rest of his family, by the Bolshevikson 17 July 1918. The animals revolt after Jones goes on a drinking binge, returns hungover the following day and neglects them completely. Jones is married, but his wife plays no active role in the book. She seems to live with her husband's drunkenness, going to bed while he stays up drinking until late into the night. In her only other appearance, she hastily throws a few things into a travel bag and flees when she sees that the animals are revolting. Towards the end of the book, Napoleon's "favourite sow" wears her old Sunday dress.
- Mr. Frederick – The tough owner of Pinchfield Farm, a small but well-kept neighbouring farm, who briefly allies with Napoleon.cockfighting. Napoleon allies with Frederick to sell surplus timber that Pilkington also sought, but is enraged to learn Frederick paid him in counterfeit money. Shortly after the swindling, Frederick and his men invade Animal Farm, killing many animals and destroying the windmill. The brief alliance and subsequent invasion may allude to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and Operation Barbarossa.[23][25][26]
- Mr. Pilkington – The easy-going but crafty and well-to-do owner of Foxwood Farm, a large neighbouring farm overgrown with weeds. Pilkington is wealthier than Frederick and owns more land, but his farm needs care as opposed to Frederick's smaller but more efficiently run farm. Although on bad terms with Frederick, Pilkington is also concerned about the animal revolution that deposed Jones and is worried that this could also happen to him.
- Mr. Whymper – A man hired by Napoleon to act as the liaison between Animal Farm and human society. At first, he acquires necessities that cannot be produced on the farm, such as dog biscuits and paraffin wax, but later he procures luxuries like alcohol for the pigs.
Equines
- Boxer – A loyal, kind, dedicated, extremely strong, hard-working, and respectable cart-horse, although quite naive and gullible.[27] Boxer does a large share of the physical labour on the farm. He is shown to hold the belief that "Napoleon is always right." At one point, he challenged Squealer's statement that Snowball was always against the welfare of the farm, earning him an attack from Napoleon's dogs. But Boxer's immense strength repels the attack, worrying the pigs that their authority can be challenged. Boxer has been compared to Alexey Stakhanov, a diligent and enthusiastic role model of the Stakhanovite movement.[28] He has been described as "faithful and strong";[29] he believes any problem can be solved if he works harder.[30] When Boxer is injured, Napoleon sells him to a local knacker to buy himself whisky, and Squealer gives a moving account, falsifying the circumstances of Boxer's death.
- Mollie – A self-centred, self-indulgent, and vain young white mare who quickly leaves for another farm after the revolution, like those who left Russia after the fall of the Tsar.[31] She is only once mentioned again.
- Clover – A gentle, caring mare, who shows concern, especially for Boxer, who often pushes himself too hard. Clover can read all the letters of the alphabet, but cannot "put words together".
- Benjamin – A donkey, one of the oldest, wisest animals on the farm, and one of the few who can read properly. He is sceptical, temperamental and cynical: his most frequent remark is, "Life will go on as it has always gone on – that is, badly". Academic Morris Dickstein has suggested there is "a touch of Orwell himself in this creature's timeless scepticism"[32] and indeed, friends called Orwell "Donkey George", "after his grumbling donkey Benjamin, in Animal Farm".[33] Benjamin manages to evade the purges and survive despite the threat he potentially poses given his knowledge, his age, and his equivocal, albeit apolitical, positions.
Other animals
- Muriel – A goat who is another of the oldest, wisest animals on the farm and friends with all of the animals on the farm. Similar to Benjamin, Muriel is one of the few animals on the farm who is not a pig but can read. She survives, as does Benjamin, by eschewing politics.
- The puppies – Offspring of Jessie and Bluebell, the puppies were taken away at birth by Napoleon and raised by him to serve as his powerful security force.
- Moses – The Raven, "Mr. Jones's especial pet, was a spy and a tale-bearer, but he was also a clever talker".established religion as "the black raven of priestcraft – promising pie in the sky when you die, and faithfully serving whoever happens to be in power". His preaching to the animals heartens them, and Napoleon allows Moses to reside at the farm "with an allowance of a gill of beer daily", akin to how Stalin brought back the Russian Orthodox Church during the Second World War.[32]
- The sheep – They are not given individual names or personalities. They show limited understanding of Animalism and the political atmosphere of the farm, yet nonetheless, they are the voice of blind conformitypropagandist) trains the sheep to alter their slogan to "four legs good, two legs better", which they dutifully do.
- The hens – Unnamed. The hens are promised at the start of the revolution that they will get to keep their eggs, which are stolen from them under Mr. Jones. However, their eggs are soon taken from them under the premise of buying goods from outside Animal Farm. The hens are among the first to rebel, albeit unsuccessfully, against Napoleon. They are brutally suppressed through starvation.
- The cows – Unnamed. The cows are enticed into the revolution by promises that their milk will not be stolen but can be used to raise their calves. Their milk is then stolen by the pigs, who learn to milk them. The milk is stirred into the pigs' mash every day, while the other animals are denied such luxuries.
- The cat – Unnamed and never seen to carry out any work. The cat is absent for long periods and is forgiven because her excuses are so convincing and she "purred so affectionately that it was impossible not to believe in her good intentions".[36] She has no interest in the politics of the farm, and the only time she is recorded as having participated in an election, she is found to have actually "voted on both sides". [37]
- The ducks – Unnamed.
- The roosters – One arranges to wake Boxer early, and a black one acts as a trumpeter for Napoleon.
- The geese – Unnamed. One gander commits suicide by eating nightshade berries.
- The rats — Unnamed. Classed among the wild animals, unsuccessful attempts were made to civilise them and teach them the principles of Animalism.
Genre and style
George Orwell's Animal Farm is an example of a political satire and an allegory that was intended to have a "wider application", according to Orwell himself, in terms of its relevance.[38] Stylistically, the work shares many similarities with some of Orwell's other works, most notably Nineteen Eighty-Four, as both have been considered works of Swiftian satire.[39] Furthermore, these two prominent works seem to suggest Orwell's bleak view of the future for humanity; he seems to stress the potential/current threat of dystopias similar to those in Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.[40] In these kinds of works, Orwell distinctly references the disarray and traumatic conditions of Europe following the Second World War.[41] Orwell's style and writing philosophy as a whole were very concerned with the pursuit of truth in writing.[42]
Orwell was committed to communicating straightforwardly, given the way that he felt words were commonly used in politics to deceive and confuse. For this reason, he is careful, in Animal Farm, to make sure the narrator speaks in an unbiased and uncomplicated fashion.[42] The difference is seen in the way that the animals speak and interact, as the general moral animals seem to speak their minds clearly, while the wicked animals on the farm, such as Napoleon, twist language in such a way that it meets their insidious desires. This style reflects Orwell's proximity to the issues facing Europe at the time and his determination to comment critically on Stalin's Soviet Russia.[42]
Background
Origin and writing
Just as Nineteen Eighty-Four would be inspired by Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, Animal Farm also had its influences: "In 1937, the year in which Orwell said he first thought of Animal Farm, Gollancz's Left Book Club published both The Road to Wigan Pier and a left-wing children's book, The Adventures of the Little Pig and Other Stories by F. Le Gros and Ida Clark."[43]
George Orwell wrote the manuscript between November 1943 and February 1944
Immediately before writing the book, Orwell quit the BBC. He was also upset about a booklet for propagandists the Ministry of Information had put out. The booklet included instructions on how to quell ideological fears of the Soviet Union, such as directions to claim that the Red Terror was a figment of Nazi imagination.[48]
In the preface, Orwell described the source of the idea of setting the book on a farm:[46]
I saw a little boy, perhaps ten years old, driving a huge carthorse along a narrow path, whipping it whenever it tried to turn. It struck me that if only such animals became aware of their strength we should have no power over them, and that men exploit animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the proletariat.
In 1944, the manuscript was almost lost when a German V-1 flying bomb destroyed his London home. Orwell spent hours sifting through the rubble to find the pages intact.[49]
Publication
Publishing
Orwell initially encountered difficulty getting the manuscript published, largely due to fears that the book might upset the alliance between Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Four publishers refused to publish Animal Farm, yet one had initially accepted the work but declined it after consulting the
During the
The publisher Jonathan Cape, who had initially accepted Animal Farm, subsequently rejected the book after an official at the British Ministry of Information warned him off[53] – although the civil servant who it is assumed gave the order was later found to be a Soviet spy.[54] Writing to Leonard Moore, a partner in the literary agency of Christy & Moore, publisher Jonathan Cape explained that the decision had been taken on the advice of a senior official in the Ministry of Information. Such flagrant anti-Soviet bias was unacceptable, and the choice of pigs as the dominant class was thought to be especially offensive. It may reasonably be assumed that the "important official" was a man named Peter Smollett, who was later unmasked as a Soviet agent.[55] Orwell was suspicious of Smollett/Smolka, and he would be one of the names Orwell included in his list of Crypto-Communists and Fellow-Travellers sent to the Information Research Department in 1949. The publisher wrote to Orwell, saying:[53]
If the fable were addressed generally to dictators and dictatorships at large then publication would be all right, but the fable does follow, as I see now, so completely the progress of the Russian Soviets and their two dictators [Lenin and Stalin], that it can apply only to Russia, to the exclusion of the other dictatorships.
Another thing: it would be less offensive if the predominant caste in the fable were not pigs. I think the choice of pigs as the ruling caste will no doubt give offence to many people, and particularly to anyone who is a bit touchy, as undoubtedly the Russians are.
In October 1945, Orwell wrote to Frederic Warburg expressing interest in pursuing the possibility that the political cartoonist David Low might illustrate Animal Farm. Low had written a letter saying that he had had "a good time with Animal Farm – an excellent bit of satire – it would illustrate perfectly". Nothing came of this, and a trial issue produced by Secker & Warburg in 1956 illustrated by John Driver was abandoned. The Folio Society published an edition in 1984 illustrated by Quentin Blake and an edition illustrated by the cartoonist Ralph Steadman was published by Secker & Warburg in 1995 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the first edition of Animal Farm.[57][58]
Preface
Orwell originally wrote a preface complaining about British self-censorship and how the British people were suppressing criticism of the USSR, their World War II ally:
The sinister fact about literary censorship in England is that it is largely voluntary ... Things are kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervenes but because of a general tacit agreement that "it wouldn't do" to mention that particular fact.
Although the first edition allowed space for the preface in the author's proof, it was not included, and the page numbers had to be renumbered at the last minute.[50] As of June 2009, most editions of the book have not included it.[59]
In 1972, Ian Angus found the original typescript titled "The Freedom of the Press", and Bernard Crick published it, together with his introduction, in The Times Literary Supplement on 15 September 1972 as "How the essay came to be written".[50] Orwell's essay criticised British self-censorship by the press, specifically the suppression of unflattering descriptions of Stalin and the Soviet government.[50] The same essay also appeared in the Italian 1976 edition of Animal Farm with another introduction by Crick, claiming to be the first edition with the preface. Other publishers were still declining to publish it.[clarification needed]
Reception
Contemporary reviews of the work were not universally positive. Writing in the American The New Republic magazine, George Soule expressed his disappointment in the book, writing that it "puzzled and saddened me. It seemed on the whole dull. The allegory turned out to be a creaking machine for saying in a clumsy way things that have been said better directly". Soule believed that the animals were not consistent enough with their real-world inspirations, and said, "It seems to me that the failure of this book (commercially it is already assured of tremendous success) arises from the fact that the satire deals not with something the author has experienced, but rather with stereotyped ideas about a country which he probably does not know very well".[60]
Between 1952 and 1957, the CIA, in an operation codenamed Aedinosaur, sent millions of balloons carrying copies of the novel into Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, whose air forces tried to shoot the balloons down.[47]
Time magazine chose Animal Farm as one of the 100 best English-language novels (1923 to 2005);
Popular reading in schools, Animal Farm was ranked the UK's favourite book from school in a 2016 poll.[63]
Animal Farm has also faced an array of challenges in school settings around the US.[64] The following are examples of this controversy that has existed around Orwell's work:
- The John Birch Society in Wisconsin challenged the reading of Animal Farm in 1965 because of its reference to the masses revolting.[64][65]
- New York State English Council's Committee on Defense Against Censorship found that in 1968, Animal Farm had been widely deemed a "problem book".[64]
- A censorship survey conducted in DeKalb County, Georgia, relating to the years 1979–1982, revealed that many schools had attempted to limit access to Animal Farm due to its "political theories".[64]
- A superintendent in Bay County, Florida, banned Animal Farm at the middle school and high school levels in 1987.[64]
- The Board quickly brought back the book, however, after receiving complaints of the ban as "unconstitutional".[64]
- Animal Farm was removed from the Stonington, Connecticut school district curriculum in 2017.[66]
Animal Farm has also faced similar forms of resistance in other countries.[64] The ALA also mentions the way that the book was prevented from being featured at the International Book Fair in Moscow, Russia, in 1977 and banned from schools in the United Arab Emirates for references to practices or actions that defy Arab or Islamic beliefs, such as pigs or alcohol.[64]
In the same manner, Animal Farm has also faced relatively recent issues in China. In 2018, the government decided to censor all online posts about or referring to Animal Farm.[67] However, the book itself, as of 2019, remains sold in stores. Amy Hawkins and Jeffrey Wasserstrom of The Atlantic stated in 2019 that the book is widely available in mainland China for several reasons: censors believe the general public is unlikely to read a highbrow book, because the elites who do read books feel connected to the ruling party anyway, and because the Communist Party sees being too aggressive in blocking cultural products as a liability. The authors stated: "It was – and remains – as easy to buy 1984 and Animal Farm in Shenzhen or Shanghai as it is in London or Los Angeles".[68] An enhanced version of the book, launched in India in 2017, was widely praised for capturing the author's intent, by republishing the proposed preface of the First Edition and the preface he wrote for the Ukrainian edition.[69]
Analysis
Animalism
Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer adapt Old Major's ideas into "a complete system of thought", which they formally name Animalism, an allegoric reference to Communism, not to be confused with the philosophy of Animalism. Soon after, Napoleon and Squealer partake in activities associated with the humans (drinking alcohol, sleeping in beds, trading), which were explicitly prohibited by the Seven Commandments. Squealer is employed to alter the Seven Commandments to account for this humanisation, an allusion to the Soviet government's revising of history to exercise control of the people's beliefs about themselves and their society.[70]
The original commandments are:
- Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
- Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
- No animal shall wear clothes.
- No animal shall sleep in a bed.
- No animal shall drink alcohol.
- No animal shall kill any other animal.
- All animals are equal.
These commandments are also distilled into the maxim "Four legs good, two legs bad!" which is primarily used by the sheep on the farm, often to disrupt discussions and disagreements between animals on the nature of Animalism.
Later, Napoleon and his pigs secretly revise some commandments to clear themselves of accusations of law-breaking. The changed commandments are as follows, with the changes bolded:
- No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.
- No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.
- No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.
- All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
Eventually, these are replaced with the maxims, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others", and "Four legs good, two legs better" as the pigs become more anthropomorphic. This is an ironic twist to the original purpose of the Seven Commandments, which was supposed to keep order within Animal Farm by uniting the animals together against the humans and preventing animals from following the humans' evil habits. Through the revision of the commandments, Orwell demonstrates how simply political dogma can be turned into malleable propaganda.[71]
Significance and allegory
Orwell biographer Jeffrey Meyers has written, "virtually every detail has political significance in this allegory".[72] Orwell himself wrote in 1946, "Of course I intended it primarily as a satire on the Russian revolution ... [and] that kind of revolution (violent conspiratorial revolution, led by unconsciously power-hungry people) can only lead to a change of masters [–] revolutions only effect a radical improvement when the masses are alert".[73] In a preface for a 1947 Ukrainian edition, he stated, "for the past ten years I have been convinced that the destruction of the Soviet myth was essential if we wanted a revival of the socialist movement. On my return from Spain [in 1937] I thought of exposing the Soviet myth in a story that could be easily understood by almost anyone and which could be easily translated into other languages".[74]
The revolt of the animals against Farmer Jones is Orwell's analogy with the
Other connections that writers have suggested illustrate Orwell's telescoping of Russian history from 1917 to 1943,
The book's close, with the pigs and men in a kind of rapprochement, reflected Orwell's view of the 1943 Tehran Conference[h] that seemed to display the establishment of "the best possible relations between the USSR and the West" – but in reality were destined, as Orwell presciently predicted, to continue to unravel.[81] The disagreement between the allies and the start of the Cold War is suggested when Napoleon and Pilkington, both suspicious, each "played an ace of spades simultaneously".[77]
Similarly, the music in the novel, starting with "Beasts of England" and the later anthems, parallels "The Internationale" and its adoption and repudiation by the Soviet authorities as the anthem of the USSR in the 1920s and 1930s.[82]
According to Masha Gessen, the metamorphosis of the eighth commandment ("some animals are more equal") was likely inspired by similar change of a party line which declared all Soviet people equal: the Russian nation and language suddenly became "first among equals" in official CPSU publications in 1936–1937.[83]
Adaptations
Stage productions
A theatrical version, with music by Richard Peaslee and lyrics by Adrian Mitchell, was staged at the National Theatre London on 25 April 1984, directed by Peter Hall. It toured nine cities in 1985.[84]
A solo version, adapted and performed by Guy Masterson, premiered at the Traverse Theatre Edinburgh in January 1995 and has toured worldwide since.[85][86]
In 2021, during pandemic restrictions, the National Youth Theatre toured a stage version of Animal Farm; this run included outdoor performances on a farm at Soulton Hall.[87]
A new adaptation written and directed by Robert Icke, designed by Bunny Christie with puppetry designed and directed by Toby Olié opened at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in January 2022 before touring the UK.[88]
The Russian composer Alexander Raskatov has written an opera based on the book. Its premiere took place on 4 March 2023 in Amsterdam as part of Dutch National Opera's 2022/2023 season.[89]
Films
Animal Farm has been adapted to film twice. Both differ from the novel and have been accused of taking significant liberties, including sanitising some aspects.[citation needed]
- Animal Farm (1999) is a live-action TV version that shows Napoleon's regime collapsing in on itself, with the farm having new human owners, reflecting the collapse of Soviet communism.[citation needed]
Andy Serkis is directing an upcoming animated film adaptation.[92]
Radio dramatisations
A BBC radio version, produced by Rayner Heppenstall, was broadcast in January 1947. Orwell listened to the production at his home in Canonbury Square, London, with Hugh Gordon Porteous, amongst others. Orwell later wrote to Heppenstall that Porteous, "who had not read the book, grasped what was happening after a few minutes".[93]
A further radio production, again using Orwell's dramatisation of the book, was broadcast in January 2013 on BBC Radio 4. Tamsin Greig narrated, and the cast included Nicky Henson as Napoleon, Toby Jones as the propagandist Squealer, and Ralph Ineson as Boxer.[94]
Comic strip
In 1950, Norman Pett and his writing partner Don Freeman were secretly hired by the Information Research Department, a secret department of the Foreign Office, to adapt Animal Farm into a comic strip. This comic was not published in the United Kingdom but ran in Brazilian and Burmese newspapers.[95]
Video game
Developer Nerial released a game based on the book in December 2020, entitled Orwell's Animal Farm, for Windows, macOS, iOS and Android.
See also
- Information Research Department
- Authoritarian personality
- History of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (1917–1927)
- History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953)
- Ideocracy
- New class
- Anthems in Animal Farm
- Animals, an album based on Animal Farm
Books
- Gulliver's Travels was a favourite book of Orwell's. Swift reverses the role of horses and human beings in the fourth book. Orwell brought to Animal Farm "a dose of Swiftian misanthropy, looking ahead to a time 'when the human race had finally been overthrown."[76]
- Nobel laureate Władysław Reymontwith a theme similar to Animal Farm.
- White Acre vs. Black Acre, published in 1856 and written by William M. Burwell, is a satirical novel that features allegories for slavery in the United States[96] similar to Animal Farm's portrayal of Soviet history.
- George Orwell's own dystopian novel about totalitarianism.
References
Explanatory notes
- ^ Orwell, writing in his review of Franz Borkenau's The Spanish Cockpit in Time and Tide, 31 July 1937, and "Spilling the Spanish Beans", New English Weekly, 29 July 1937
- Bradbury, Malcolm, Introduction
- ^ According to Christopher Hitchens, "the persons of Lenin and Trotsky are combined into one [i.e., Snowball], or, it might even be ... to say, there is no Lenin at all."[18]
- ^ Orwell 1976 p. 25 La libertà di stampa
- Struve, Gleb. Telling the Russians, written for the Russian journal New Russian Wind, reprinted in Remembering Orwell
- ^ A Note on the Text, Peter Davison, Animal Farm, Penguin edition 1989
- ^ In the Preface to Animal Farm Orwell noted, however, "although various episodes are taken from the actual history of the Russian Revolution, they are dealt with schematically and their chronological order is changed."
- ^ Preface to the Ukrainian edition of Animal Farm, reprinted in Orwell:Collected Works, It Is What I Think
Citations
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- ^ Bynum 2012.
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- ^ Gcse English Literature.
- ^ Orwell 2014, p. 23.
- ^ Bowker 2013, p. 235.
- ^ a b c Davison 2000.
- ^ Orwell 2014, p. 10.
- ^ Animal Farm: Sixty.
- ^ Dickstein 2007, p. 134.
- ^ a b Grossman & Lacayo 2005.
- ^ a b Modern Library 1998.
- ^ "The Big Read". BBC. April 2003. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
- ^ The Hugo Awards 1996.
- ^ a b "Great Books of the Western World as Free eBooks". Prodigal no more. 5 March 2019 – via WordPress.
- ^ a b c d Rodden 1999, pp. 5ff.
- ^ Orwell 1979, p. 15, chapter II.
- ^ a b Hitchens 2008, pp. 186ff.
- ^ Rodden 1999, p. 11.
- ^ Fall of Mister.
- ^ Sparknotes " Literature.
- ^ Scheming Frederick how.
- ^ a b c Meyers 1975, p. 141.
- ^ Bloom 2009.
- ^ a b c Firchow 2008, p. 102.
- ^ a b c Davison 1996, p. 161.
- ^ a b "Animal Farm". Films on Demand. 2014.
- ^ Rodden 1999, p. 12.
- ^ Sutherland 2005, pp. 17–19.
- ^ Roper 1977, pp. 11–63.
- ^ "Animal Farm Characters". SparkNotes. 2007. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
- ^ a b c Dickstein 2007, p. 141.
- ^ Orwell 2006, p. 236.
- ^ Orwell 2009, p. 35.
- ^ Meyers 1975, p. 122.
- ^ Orwell 2009, p. 52.
- ^ Orwell 2009, p. 25.
- S2CID 143828269.
- ^ Crick, Bernard (31 December 1983). "The real message of '1984': Orwell's Classic Re-assessed". Financial Times.
- ^ rosariomario (10 April 2011). "George Orwell: Dystopian Novel – 1984 – Animal Farm". Spazio personale di mario aperto a tutti 24 ore su. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
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- ^ "Bloom's Modern Critical Views, George Orwell, Updated Edition", edited and with an introduction by, Harold Bloom; Chelsea House; 2007:168.
- ^ Orwell 2009.
- ^ George, Orwell (March 1947). "Preface to the Ukrainian Edition of Animal Farm". The Orwell Foundation. Archived from the original on 16 April 2021. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
- ^ a b Orwell 1947.
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Further reading
- Bott, George (1968) [1958]. Selected Writings. London, Melbourne, Toronto, Singapore, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Nairobi, Auckland, Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books. ISBN 978-0-435-13675-8.
- Menchhofer, Robert W. (1990). Animal Farm. Lorenz Educational Press. ISBN 978-0787780616.
- O'Neill, Terry, Readings on Animal Farm (1998), Greenhaven Press. ISBN 1565106512.
External links
- Animal Farm at Faded Page (Canada)
- Animal Farm at Project Gutenberg Australia
- Animal Farm Book Notes from Literapedia Archived 7 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- Excerpts from Orwell's letters to his agent concerning Animal Farm
- Literary Journal review
- Orwell's original preface to the book Archived 30 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- Animal Farm Revisited by John Molyneux, International Socialism, 44 (1989)
- Animal Farm at the British Library
- Animal Farm (1954)