Animal farm

Why should animals work so hard and allow humans to reap all the benefits? The animals rebel, chase the people off the farm, and set up a new society. A clever fable, this is also a bleak picture of a totalitarian society.

Ostensibly a simple fairy tale, this little parable is actually a biting satire on the Russian Revolution. The story begins on a quiet English farm whose dissolute human master (representing the tsar) mistreats his farm animals so badly that they eventually go against him and set up a new order under the leadership of two brilliant pigs (i.e., Stalin and Trotsky). As in the history of the Soviet Union, their workers' paradise is steadily perverted until the animal farm becomes an even more oppressive state than its predecessor. This book's combination of superficially lightweight subject matter and a deadly serious underlying theme calls for a dexterous narration, and Richard Matthews provides it. Animal Farm should be in every public and school library.-Kent Rasmussen, Thousand Oaks, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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. Excerpted from Animal Farm by George Orwell All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.