An allegorical fable set on an English farm at an unspecified time; written in four months ending in February 1944 and published in August 1945.
by George Orwell
Synopsis
The animals on Mr. Jones's farm, fed up with a life of servitude, instigate a rebellion and expel their master. Over time, however, the ideals of the revolution erode and are eventually discarded altogether because of the clever manipulation of the pigs, who ultimately assume their place alongside Man as two-legged tyrants.
The Novel in Focus
Events in History at the Time of the Novel
Eric Arthur Blair was born in Motihari, India, on June 25, 1903, to English parents. He adopted the pseudonym George Orwell in 1933 when he published his first book, Down and Out in Paris and London. A decade later, in 1943, the politically minded Orwell, distressed by the British support enjoyed by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, began writing Animal Farm to illustrate the way in which revolutions can turn into tyrannies.
For More Information
James, Mertice M., ed. Book Review Digest. Vol. 42. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1947.
Lenin, V. I. State and Revolution. 1917. Reprint. New York: International, 1943.
Orwell, George. Animal Farm: A Fairy Story. 1945. Reprint. New York: Penguin, 1987.
Sheldon, Michael. Orwell: The Authorized Biography. New York: Harper Collins, 1991.
Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1959.
Smyer, Richard I. Animal Farm: Pastoralism and Politics. Boston: Twayne, 1988.
Tucker, Robert C, ed. The Marx-Engels Reader. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1978.
Volkogonov, Dmitrii. Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy. Edited and translated by Harold Shukman. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1991.
Literature and Its Times © 1997 Joyce Moss and George Wilson © 2007 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
