Other editions of book NLLB: ANIMAL FARM

George Orwell's classic satire of the Russian Revolution has become an intimate part of our contemporary culture, with its treatment of democratic, fascist, and socialist ideals through an animal fable. When the animals of Mr. Jones's Manor Farm revolt against their human rulers, they establish the democratic Animal Farm under the credo, "All Animals Are Created Equal". Out of their cleverness, the pigs, Napoleon, Squealer, and Snowball, emerge as leaders of the new community. In a development of insidious familiarity, the pigs begin to assume ever greater amounts of power, while other animals, especially the faithful horse Boxer, assume more of the work. The climax of the story is the brutal betrayal of Boxer, when totalitarian rule is reestablished with the bloodstained postscript to the founding slogan: "But Some Animals Are More Equal than Others".

"It is the history of a revolution that went wrong—and of the excellent excuses that were forthcoming at every step for the perversion of the original doctrine." So wrote George Orwell in the original blurb for the first edition of Animal Farm in 1945. His simple and tragic fable describes what happens when the animals drive out Mr. Jones, the farmer, and attempt to run the Manor Farm themselves. Animal Farm has become a world-famous classic of English prose, and is a strong political allegory with parallels to the old Soviet regime. Reader Simon Callow is a British actor with a firmly-established reputation for impeccable performance on-stage, on-screen, and on audiobook.

Having got rid of their human master, the animals of Manor Farm look forward to a life of freedom and plenty. But as a clever, ruthless elite among them takes control, the other animals find themselves hopelessly ensnared in the old ways. Orwell's chilling story of the betrayal of idealism through tyranny and corruption, is as fresh and relevant today as when it was first published in 1945.