Read complete books and articles on: Animal Farm

Orwell, George - pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair, 1903–50, British novelist and essayist, b. Bengal, India. He is best remembered for his scathingly satirical and frighteningly political novels, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. After attending Eton, he served (1922–27) with the Indian imperial police in Burma (now Myanmar). He returned to Europe in 1927, living penuriously in Paris and later in London. In 1936 he fought with the Republicans in the Spanish civil war and was seriously wounded. His writings—particularly such early works as Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), Burmese Days (1934), The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), and Homage to Catalonia (1938)—are highly autobiographical.

A socialist, Orwell was a keen critic of imperialism, fascism, Stalinism, and capitalism. His works are concerned with the sociopolitical conditions of his time, notably with the problem of human freedom. Animal Farm (1946) is a witty, satirical fable about the failure of Soviet-style Communism, and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) is a prophetic novel describing the dehumanization of humanity in a mechanistic, totalitarian world. Orwell's other novels include A Clergyman's Daughter (1935), Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936), and Coming Up for Air (1940). The master of a superbly lucid prose style, Orwell wrote many literary essays, which some critics find superior to his novels. His volumes of essays include Dickens, Dali and Others (1946), Shooting an Elephant (1950), and the Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell (4 vol., 1968, repr. 2000).

See biographies by B. Crick (1980), M. Shelden (1991), J. Meyers (2000), G. Bowker (2003), and D. J. Taylor (2003); studies by J. Meyers, ed. (1975), R. Williams (1981), L. Hunter (1984), A. Coppard and B. Crick, ed. (1985), R. Alok (1989), J. Rodden (1989, repr. 2002), and C. Hitchens (2002).

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11 of the Best Books and Articles on: Animal Farm

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Understanding Animal Farm: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents » Read Now
by John Rodden. 226 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

Animal Farm is a political allegory of the history of the USSR written in the form of a fable. Its stinging moral warning against the abuse of power is forcefully demonstrated in this casebook through a wide variety of historical, political, and literary documents that are directly applicable to the...
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Animal Farm is a political allegory of the history of the USSR written in the form of a fable. Its stinging moral warning against the abuse of power is forcefully demonstrated in this casebook through a wide variety of historical, political, and literary documents that are directly applicable to the novel. Included are passages from the Soviet press; excerpts from personal memoirs and correspondence; original translations from Russian and East German sources that show the meaning of Animal Farm for those nations' readers; and historical and political sources on Marxism, the Russian Revolution, the Cold War, and Glasnost. Many of these documents have not been available in print before.
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2.

George Orwell's Animal Farm (literary criticism) » Read Now
by Harold Bloom. 143 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

'Animal Farm' is the most famous by far of all twentieth-century political allegories, and its account of a group of barnyard animals who revolt against their vicious human master and the submit to a tyranny erected by their own kind can fairly be said to have become a universal drama for our time.
3.

Animal Farm: Sixty Years on Robert Pearce Gives a Historian's-Eye View of George Orwell's Classic Novel, in History Today » Read Now
by Robert Pearce. 7 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
4.

Student Companion to George Orwell (Chap. 8 "All Animals Are Equal, but. . .: Animal Farm") » Read Now
by Mitzi M. Brunsdale. 180 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

Written with students and general readers in mind, this volume examines George Orwell's powerful fictional writing, as well as his provocative documentaries and essays. Students will gain an appreciation for the many levels of meaning in the allegorical Animal Farm and the startlingly prescient...
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Written with students and general readers in mind, this volume examines George Orwell's powerful fictional writing, as well as his provocative documentaries and essays. Students will gain an appreciation for the many levels of meaning in the allegorical Animal Farm and the startlingly prescient 1984. Brunsdale does a masterful job of showing how personal and world events came together in Orwell's writing. A carefully drawn biographical chapter examines the development of Orwell's worldview from his impressionable student days to his later years as he struggled with his health, his political identity, and his literary career. The literary heritage chapter traces Orwell's influence as a truth-teller and reviews the literary influences that inspired Orwell to experiment and continually refine his writing style. Individual chapters provide in-depth but accessible analysis of each major work of fiction and nonfiction including the often-anthologized essay "Shooting an Elephant" and Orwell's first full-length publication Down and Out in Paris and in London. In addition to plot and character development, considerable attention is given to the historical contexts and the thematic concerns of social injustice that drove Orwell to devote his life to his writing.
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5.

Classic Cult Fiction: A Companion to Popular Cult Literature (Discussion of Animal Farm begins on p. 10) » Read Now
by Thomas Reed Whissen. 324 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

Classic Cult Fiction is a history, analysis, and reference guide to books that have become "bibles" to generations of Europeans and Americans over the past 200 years--books like The Catcher in the Rye. Fearlessly taking on "canon formation," Whissen identifies the top 50 classic cult books, first...
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Classic Cult Fiction is a history, analysis, and reference guide to books that have become "bibles" to generations of Europeans and Americans over the past 200 years--books like The Catcher in the Rye. Fearlessly taking on "canon formation," Whissen identifies the top 50 classic cult books, first presenting an informed and witty interpretation of the phenomenon and its characteristics with examples from different cultures and periods. The individual works are each discussed relative to time and place, impact, and audience psychology and analyzed in terms of common cult attributes. A chronological listing of cult fiction adds a number of titles not chosen for the top 50.
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6.

Dystopian Literature: A Theory and Research Guide ("George Orwell: Animal Farm (1946)" begins on p. 206) » Read Now
by M. Keith Booker. 412 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

Dystopian literature is a potent vehicle for criticizing existing social conditions or political systems, and for warning against the potential negative consequences of utopian thought. This reference is a guide to dystopian theory and literature. It discusses the work of key theorists and...
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Dystopian literature is a potent vehicle for criticizing existing social conditions or political systems, and for warning against the potential negative consequences of utopian thought. This reference is a guide to dystopian theory and literature. It discusses the work of key theorists and summarizes several important utopian works to provide a background. The rest of the book summarizes and analyzes numerous dystopian novels, plays, and films.
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7.

George Orwell: The Critical Heritage (Includes discussion of Animal Farm in multiple chapters) » Read Now
by Jeffrey Meyers. 392 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

This set comprises 40 volumes covering nineteenth and twentieth century European and American authors. These volumes will be available as a complete set, mini boxed sets (by theme) or as individual volumes. This second set compliments the first 68 volume set of Critical Heritage published by Routledge in October 1995.
8.

The Orwell Mystique: A Study in Male Ideology (Chap. Seven "Political Fiction and Patriarchal Fantasy") » Read Now
by Daphne Patai. 334 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library
9.

The Economics of Animal Farm, in Southern Economic Journal » Read Now
by William A. Hamlen Jr. 16 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...The Economics of Animal Farm. by William A. Hamlen Jr...uses George Orwells fictional story Animal Farm to make a comparison between Orwells...in George Orwells fictional...
10.

Essays on Politics and Literature (Chap. Twelve "Animal Farm for Schools") » Read Now
by Bernard Crick. 259 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...Nineteen Eighty-Four As Satire 133 Twelve Animal Farm For Schools 166 Thirteen Orwell and English...a great ladys entourage, more like a naughty domestic animal, a...
11.

Not All Books Are Created Equal: Orwell & His Animals at Fifty, in Commonweal » Read Now
by Katharine Byrne. 3 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...1903-50) had a hard time getting Animal Farm into print. He finished it in 1944...since the 1950s, you probably read Animal Farm, a story of the revolt of Farmer...Joness...