|
Animal Farm (平装)
by George Orwell, Russell Baker
| Category:
Fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 108.00
MSL price:
¥ 98.00
[ Shop incentives ]
|
| Stock:
In Stock |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Thought-provoking and a sheer delight to read, this classic of political satire is one of the best allegorical novels we ever know. |
| If you want us to help you with the right titles you're looking for, or to make reading recommendations based on your needs, please contact our consultants. |
|
| |
AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 9 items |
|
|
Stevie (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
Animal Farm by George Orwell is about animals that defeat their dictator-like owner, but there perfect paradise is soon threaened by another evil. The animals are strugglin durning and after the defeat, but as soon as things were getting better they fell apart in a long slow manner. The pigs in this book are very controling and think that all the animals should follow in their footsteps. George Orwell wants you to feel bad for the animals even after the defeat of Mr. Jones. He wrote this book in third person so that you see what is happening all around not just from one animals mouth. When the pigs run the farm just like Mr. Jones only a few of the other animals notice just like the horses and a few of the other animals. The Metophor to this book would be, don't turn into something that you didn't like in the first place.
If you like a story with a good moral, excitement and a book you can't put down that this book is for you. |
|
|
Relic (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
Animal farm is required reading for anyone who professes to know anything about the economy or politics or human nature in general. If you can read this book - which is very short indeed - then you too can learn what is wrong with our society. There is nothing else that needs to be said. The amount of wisdom packed into this fable cannot be overstated. See how a group of barnyard animals struggle to prevent their oppression from the Humans, with the aim of building a more utopian society where they may live in harmony. It all sounds so simple - but like most dreams of finding the ultimate reward, things get complicated. Read this story to see what happens when animals are left in charge of running a government. Then look at your own leaders and compare. |
|
|
Hui Tan (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
In Animal Farm, Orwell applies personification throughout the entire novella and shows the idea of Utopia. The animals aspire after a perfect farm where they could rule themselves and their work would be guerdoned rather than be given more tasks. The perfect farm is a flawless society where everyone is joyful and cooperated. Orwell ingeniously contextualizes the twice conversion of Manor Farm to imply the inauguration of Animal Farm and its downfall. Manor Farm was managed by Mr. Jones, who is a drunkard. Animals endure in an extremely terrible condition. Old Major, as the sainted initiator, deems that the farm without human is the solution of all the problems. He assembles the animals and tells them, "All the habits of Man are evil", such as living in a house, sleeping in a bed, drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, touching money and engaging in trade. Then, they're getting preparation for the rebellion. However, the rebellion comes much earlier than they've ever expected. With desperation of Mr. Jones' deviltry, the animals can't suffer from the hunger of scarce of food and indignation of Mr. Jones' inhumanity any more. Eventually, they succeed and they are about to build a Utopia among the animals. Regrettably, the Mollie, who is a mare, defies working so hard and becomes the first one to leave the farm because she can't adapt the life style of Utopia. "Mollie...was no good at getting up in the mornings, and had a way of leaving work early on the ground that there was a stone in her hoof." Mollie is still concerned about the luxuries like eating sugar and wearing ribbons. However, she's told that the luxuries are the symbol of slave and are abolished in the Utopia. With disappointment of the new Utopia and the beguiling of sugar, Mollie finally leaves from the farm. This incident illustrates that Utopia is not as perfect as it seems, the system of Utopia is not able to please everyone such as Mollie. Similarly, the cat is not willing to volunteer, "when there was work to be done the cat cold never be found". The cat tries to goldbrick and when she's found she always has excellent excuses because she thinks she's never starved in the Utopia. Thus, this Utopia, which is in an effort of being perfect, results in the indolence of those like the cat, who never pains but wants to gain. It's the corruption of the Utopia since either human or animal, has an instinct of selfishness. In some extent, beings usually may need some impetus to contribute.
In Animal Farm, the pigs, who are considered as the cleverest animal in the farm, particularly Napoleon, who represents a totalitarian, has strong leadership, but he goes to depravity because of abusing power. At the very beginning of the story, Napoleon claims that the animals should not have maintained any habit of human and constitutes Seven Commandments to unify the Animal Form. However, it doesn't last for a long time, there's some discontent within the farm since the pigs drink milk and eat apple, which other animals can't regale on. The more ridiculousness is the pigs' chicanery, which they assert "We are brainworkers. The whole management and organization of this farm depend on us". What they explain seems to drop a hint of their superiority, which is the violation of Utopia, among the animals. Moreover, they profess that they dislike the milk and apples, as other animals do, but they drink milk and eat apples because they preserve on their health, and "Milk and apples (this has been proved by Scientist,) contain substance absolutely necessary of well-being to a pig". From here, we could have an insight that the pigs like other beings, have instinct of selfishness, and when might is seized in one's hand, the Utopia must go to its perdition, instead of the rebirth of Totalitarianism. By bloting out the scandal of incident, the pig Squealer, who's the propagator of Napoleon, threatens the other animals with some deceit since Squealer learns the vulnerability of the other animals that they're afraid of the returning of Mr. Jones. |
|
|
Danny (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
Recently, I read George Orwell's famous novel, Animal Farm. I was amazed at how much I liked reading it. Orwell has an uncanny ability to present a seemingly simple, entertaining story, and embed in it with deep philosophical and political issues. I have read two other works by Orwell, Shooting an Elephant and 1984, both of which possess the same type of political allegory that is demonstrated in Animal Farm. The use of allegory in Orwell's story about an animal uprising in a typical British farm serves to enlighten the reader about common political issues in society. When Animal Farm was first sold, some shop owners mistakenly place the novel in the children's section due to the simplicity and "fictional" nature of the book. In actuality, the novel was written as a political allegory concerning old Stalinist Russia.
Although the novel parallels perfectly with the Soviet Union's history, many social and political commonalities can be seen between the pigs and dogs and the governments of many modern countries. In the beginning of the story, all of the animals take over the farm and establish a society in which all of the animals are essentially equal. Each animal pledges to do equal amounts of work and do his/her part in creating a better life for themselves. Much like the theories of this politics of commonalities, the plan seems perfect, but as always, there are animals that strive to manipulate the system and gain more power than the other animals. In the initial stages of the creation of the new farm, the animals write the rules which they pledge to follow on a wall. As time progresses and the pigs want to gain power, they alter the rules slightly so that they will coincide with what the pigs desire. For example, the initial fifth commandment of the animals read "No animal shall drink alcohol," but after the pigs taste alcohol and decide that they like it, they alter the text so that it reads "No animal shall drink alcohol to excess." The other animals feel like something is different about the rules but the pigs convince them that the rule has always been written that way. Much like in 1984, the leaders (pigs) brainwash the other animals into forgetting about the true history so that it will not contradict what they say during the present. This element of Animal Farm instills a sense of doubt in the reader that maybe the history that has been taught to him during his entire lifetime is simply a biased or cleverly fabricated story created by the corrupt leaders of the past.
The most alarming twist of Orwell's novel is when the pigs decided to change the fundamental teachings of Major that four legs are bad, and two legs are good to the exact opposite. Although pigs walking on their hind legs might seem humorous on the surface, it is a quite disturbing example of how the beliefs of someone can be completely altered by corrupt people who desire power and strive to achieve their own personal goals rather than the goals of the community.
The fundamental purpose of Orwell's writings is to present politically and socially important issues disguised in well written stories to raise questions about our society and government. Raising such questions is sometimes harder to do when speaking about those issues directly. The use of literature to speak about important issues is very effective in that the reader can let his guard down while reading a work and see for himself the important issues presented in the work without having other people directly saying the same thing. In presenting the issues in symbolic or metaphorical ways, the impact will be greater and the viewpoints will be more highly understood. |
|
|
Zinta Aistars (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
It wasn't my first stay on the farm. I'd read Orwell as a girl, one with ethnic roots reaching back to the Baltic States (Latvia) then occupied by the Soviet Union, and so having grown up on stories of human cruelty and betrayal, of human nature gone corrupt when faced with the seduction of power - all of that rather than the common, soothing fairy tale. For that reason, I surely understood it on a deeper level than most of my peers. I was fifteen the first of many times I visited the Soviet Union. And even though I had been born in the then freedom of the United States, I understood well enough that what I was witnessing was the essence of evil.
George Orwell was a socialist. With leanings towards Trotsky, perhaps an idealism that would be tested by the ugly reality of human nature, he did not stand where I stood in terms of ideology. I leaned more towards a laissez faire capitalism, a system never tested on this planet to this very day, but that did not detract from my enthusiasm for Animal Farm. On this barnyard, we saw eye to eye and snout to snout.
Animal Farm is a story as if written for a child, and yet, not. Its language is simple. But the adult aware of history and politics, of the ways of government out of control, fully recognizes the parallels Orwell intended with the Russian Revolution. His animal characters had human counterparts. Marx, Trotsky, Lenin, Stalin, all find their form here among pigs become men, or is it men become pigs. Guard dogs mimic KGB, hard working horses (Boxer) mimic the hardworking proletarians, tragically deluded. A farm of abused and overworked animals, often slaughtered when they have passed their prime as work animals, revolt against the farmer - mankind - surely the epitome of cruel animal. Alas, given such power as to run the farm themselves, the animals quickly shift into social classes delineated by power. Pigs rule, and with their rule comes privilege. To sustain privilege, the pigs change laws to their convenience and pleasure. The basic tenet of "All animals are equal" becomes "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others."
Orwell wrote about the Russian Revolution. And well he should, because it can be argued that the cruelty of that government has as yet not been fully understood by the "free world" even today. Yet the power and timelessness of this tale is that it can be applied to all governments when not held firmly within their checks and balances - and frightening parallels can be witnessed in the current administration of the United States. I reread the book today with growing dis-ease. With all of our talk of superiority, our Patriot Acts and our eavesdropping, our acts of aggression and our collective amnesia surrounding the Geneva Act, there but for the grace of God go we... |
|
|
An American reader, USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
Animal Farm is a timeless classic, published in 1946. The book was motivated by the author's disillusionment with Starlinist Soviet Union. I first read the book in my secondary school days over thirty years ago. I have re-read it several times at various intervals since then and I enjoy reading it all the time. In fact, as I grew older and wiser, my understanding and appreciation of the seriousness of the message behind the story became deeper.
The book is a fable about how animals successfully rebelled against human oppression. The animals of Manor farm overthrew the often drunken farmer and established self-determination. All the newly liberated animals were filled with joy and jubilation as well as optimism and they managed to organize themselves very effectively and worked very hard to produce a bumper harvest in their first year of self-rule.
The animals came up with seven commandments to ensure that all animals adhere to a high moral and ethical standard in conformity with the egalitarian principles of fraternity, equality and justice for all. These seven commandments were: any creature that walks on two legs is an enemy; whatever moves on four legs or has wings is a friend; animals are forbidden to wear clothes, sleep in a bed, drink alcohol or kill other animals. All animals are equal.
Soon afterwards, things started going seriously wrong. Social classes started to emerge with pigs at the top of the social ladder. Then conditions at the farm started to deteriorate until they grew worse off than before the revolution.
This is a very entertaining book with a very serious message. The book shows the terrible life that people in the Soviet Union had to endure, with terrible abuses, corrupt ruling elite which did not account to anyone but itself, and that such a set up ultimately ends in failure when people say enough is enough.
|
|
|
Magii (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
In short: A book about animals living on a farm who can talk, and overthrow the farm owner because they view man as evil. They form a government where all animals are equal but soon after pigs take a leadership role. The animals under the pigs are completely naive and oblivious as the constitution of the government is pejoratively changed and stricter and stricter rules are enforced. As years pass, the pigs become more and more like humans and, by the end, pig and man are indistinguishable if not worse. |
|
|
Natham Rohm (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
I lived in DC for a few years. I couldn't help but think of this book when I watched the mess we call our government. We live in a bazaar world where things that are important are ignored, and things that don't matter matter. |
|
|
Cheryl Stallard (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
George Orwell's classic, Animal Farm is not exactly your "happily ever after story" but instead it's more like "Ha, that's what you get story!" This book is an easy read yet so addictive that a young teen up to a well-read adult will enjoy this story. It reveals that there will always be greed and betrayal in the animal kingdom whether you are human or a pig. I recommend this book for anyone who is looking for a story with a different pace. Just be prepared, you never know who or "what" you can trust!!! |
|
|
|
1 Total 1 pages 9 items |
|
|
|
|
|
|
