George Orwell, Animal Farm Review

Good Points
A classic.

Bad Points
With any sort of social commentary, the danger is that the author compounds the issue of how people can be misled.

General Comments
I doubt anyone really needs a write up of Orwell's most cherished work. You'd expect to see it on many people's top 10 list in terms of that profound effect it has on so many readers. There are many things to praise about it:



Firstly, Animal Farm is a wonderfully rich fable, and how the animals are given very human characteristics is a peerless achievement by the author.



The story works on its own, but the sub-text (that of the corruptive forces that plague socialism) is so transparent, that it is no wonder this is the seminal text at schools across the planet for introducing the concept of hidden meaning.



Importantly, the whole thing veritably races towards the harrowing conclusion at breakneck speed, and you're probably done in one sitting, or at least faster than most other novels you'd pick up.



I fancy Orwell knew this one would get the juices flowing. It just sets the reader up to comment about the subject matter; I've never seen a book debated with more gusto than Animal Farm, because it brings out of us the very core of the human condition, and not just the obvious political overtones.



A casual dip into other works would find quotes, references or homage paid to Orwell at almost every turn. No other work quite matches it in that regard. Probably the most enduring aspect of which (though by no means Orwell's idea exclusively) is the term 'Sheep' to depict unthinking, indifferent masses. It's Sheep we're up against, said the Housemartins, decades later. Still, the same basic issue, the same metaphorical notion.



Personally, I'd have to consider the Pigs themselves as probably the most brutally powerful analogy of the book. The transformation is so vivid and, dare I accept Orwell's politics so readily, appropriate. I don't know whether the view was entirely based on the USSR exclusively, perhaps it was merely meant as a literary rebuttal to Das Kapital. I doubt we'll ever know. But either way, it worked.



As millions of English students would attest, this is definitely one of your top 10 books to read before you die, and it fully deserves its popular billing as a classic.