Animal Farm

by George Orwell, Nick Bullard (Adapter)

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Animal Farm, a Level 3 Reader, is A2 in the CEFR framework. The text is made up of sentences with up to three clauses, introducing first conditional, past continuous and present perfect simple for general experience. It is well supported by illustrations, which appear on most pages.


Animal Farm tells the story of a rebellion and how it goes wrong. The animals' lives on the farm are terrible - there is not enough food, the work is hard and animals are dying. One day, the animals kick out the farmer and start to run the farm. But things are not better for most of the animals. Life for them is the same as before.

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Genres: Classics, Fiction, Dystopia, School, Audiobook, Novels, Literature

80 pages, Paperback

Published May 14, 2020

About the author

Eric Arthur Blair was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to all totalitarianism (both fascism and stalinism), and support of democratic socialism.

Orwell is best known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), although his works also encompass literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in the industrial north of England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture.

Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"—describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices—is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink", and "thoughtcrime". In 2008, The Times named Orwell the second-greatest British writer since 1945.

Reviews

[Gabriel Tamaș · Rating 5 out of 5]

No review is needed for this. My only woe is people (or pigs) who still didnt understand the message of this whole novel.
But, as the Donkey, Benjamin, i won't comment any further. Some creatures may never understand the meanings of cautionary tales.

One thing is certain, we're not all equal.

[Morgan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Never read this book before. It was not required reading when I went to school.

Originally published in 1945 could just as well have been written in today. Nothing in the way the world works has changed one whit!

Pigs (very apt) take over the farm from the human farmer because the farmer is a drunken lout and they think they can run it better and the animals will all be equal and free. (Where have we heard that before?)

“Besides in those days they had been slaves and now they were free and that made all the difference…” (Pg.75-Chapter IX) The reader will know that they are as much slaves now as they were before.

“No creature called any other creature “Master”. All animals were equal.” (Pg.88-Chapter X) The reader will know this is not so and never will be.

They lost me the moment the Lead Pig (Napoleon) starts to deal with a human (Mr. Whymper) (Pg.44-Chapter VI)

The book is about greed (of course) and racism and the stupidity of men/animals who choose to believe every nonsensical thing they are told.

I know this is a ‘classic’ and it is ‘satire’ but I hated the book. I believe Orwell’s intent was to prove:

“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. (Lord Acton, a British historian of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries).

Pigs or humans – all the same.

Maybe I just don't get satire.

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember reading this in high school and it making a huge impact on me. Some of the ideas i thought the world might be about(in part)mixed with teenage natural issues with control was validated in this short read. I was glad that it added some humorous momments to help break up the seriousness of the message. Each character and the development of the story portrays a timeless classic.
If only we all used our powers for good. RIP snowball/ Boxer

[Parnian.K · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s hard to believe this book was written before the 1979 Revolution! :)

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a scary book, especially when you can recognise so much of the book in alot of curent goverments around the world.

[shenyi c · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haven’t read such disturbing book in quite a while and made me thought a lot about contemporary politics.

[Dario Boen · Rating 5 out of 5]

ik had gehoord dat dit gewoon een lange analogie was, ma amai de graad van details en metier da hier verwerkt in zit is impressionant. Goated

[Vic · Rating 1 out of 5]

simplemente odio a george orwell menos mal que está muerto porque menuda peste a p* desprende este señor en absolutamente todo lo que escribe

[Marlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es fühlt sich schwer an dieses Buch zu bewerten - unmöglich weniger als fünf Sterne herzugeben, obwohl ich Kritik durchaus verstehen und sehen kann.

Bis zum Ende wollte ich, dass es gut ausgeht - dass die Tiere nochmal den Mut fassen und Napoleon (was für ein Name schon) stürzen - aber es ist ja der Punkt des Buches, dass sie das nicht tun.

[daniela · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 zvaigznes; pofig, staigāšu četrrāpus

[Alexander Erdal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Burde jeg heller lese pensum? Absolutt. Men her er vi no. Likte den veldig godt! Har mer sansen for engelsken i denne enn Oz-boken jeg leste igår. Orwell skriver veldig morsomt og liksom handlingsdrivende. På en måte tar den jo opp litt samme tematikken som 1984 syns jeg, men på en satirisk måte. Anbefaler å lese den!

[Kaat Verleye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read. Needed a final classic to end my bol.com reading challenge and finished with this one. It was a good little read with interesting thoughts circulating my brain now.

[Mouna · Rating 4 out of 5]

▪︎كتاب روائي 51
▪︎كتاب رقمي 36
▪︎اللغة الإنجليزية 1




George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a story of dreams betrayed.
What begins as a revolution for freedom and equality soon turns into another form of tyranny.

At first, the animals believe in justice: “all animals are equal .”
But little by little, power corrupts. Pigs grow fat while others starve. Boxer, the hardest worker, is sacrificed. And in the end, the promise of equality is twisted into its cruel opposite:

👉 “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

It’s a chilling reminder that revolutions can become the very thing they fought against, and that freedom without awareness is always at risk.

⭐ A timeless fable, short in length but immense in truth.

[Eve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly better than I expected when I started reading the book. George Orwell did a great job showing how corruption and manipulation ends up everywhere. There will always be someone thirsty for power making the rest the victims, brainwashed in forgetting everything they knew before, as we could see when every initial rule slowly changed for the benefit of those animals believed "superior". The ending was quite clever comparing the humans to pigs

"No questions, now, what happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again:but already it was impossible to say which was which"

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read 1984 many years ago, I didnt expect Animal Farm to be as humorous as it is. The beginning section is quite funny, and the whole book is very entertaining to read. The darker part, is also not too brutal. All in all a good read.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ese final de 10

[ꕤ lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

so I think we can agree that communism is Bad

[Aadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

George Orwell had a particular gift for noticing the more wicked ways of man. Reading this largely subsequent to 1984, his foresight or depth of understanding in the difference between ideals and reality, naivety and malice, pure souls and warped ones, is nothing short of awe.

The accuracy with which he was able to predict facist-communist-even traces of capitalist and socialist regimes and societies leaves me stunned. Reading autobiographies of life under such systems, tragic and recent, and then reading works written nearly a century prior to such events but with identical phenomenon is incredible. As an example of this, Orwell wrote Animal Farm before DPRK was founded, and 70 years later, it's being run identical to his writings.

Looking forward to more of his reads, Orwell is fast reaching the reality of sharing the status of my favourite author with Hesse.

[Marshall Chapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Orwell is a master of innuendo packed fiction. I read this in grade 9 English class but it didn’t really interest me at the time. I picked it back up 10 years later and it was totally different for me - it’s impossible not to read Animal Farm without the Russian Revolution in mind…”All animals are equal but some are more equal with others.” The oppressive class is destroyed and then replaced with a new oppressive class. An absolute masterpiece innuendo.

[Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 🌟

[Amelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again: but already it was impossible to say which was which."

[Céline Michel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ik weet niet goed wat ik aan dit boek kan toevoegen als review maar het is wel een heel goed boek en hedendaags nog steeds super relevant.

[Sarah Manera · Rating 4 out of 5]

slander tout le monde sait que les chiens c'est des good boys en vrai (la meuf qui a pas compris genre)

[Emma Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a must read for every reader out there. Such a great book with an important message.
I can’t stop thinking about a sentence in the beginning of the book which said «The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth.” And I think a lot of people could learn a lot from that

[Janny Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Animal Farm by George Orwell is a clever approach to explain communism.

The story is about farm animals who take over their farm, hoping to create a fair and equal society. But over time, the pigs begin to corrupt and manipulate the system to gain more power and deceive the other animals.

It shows that even a great idea can fail if it falls in the wrong hands. A short and easy read. This book feels like a combination of non-fiction and fiction. I give it a 5 star.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

[Maja · Rating 3 out of 5]

I absolutely adore the way Orwell makes such clear references to his and our political situations without making it that's obvious as to negate the effect it has on the reader. Despite being a very short book it did break my heart at one point and I will recommend it to anyone who is interested in reading it.

[Marco Stiehl · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a great book.
Simple and easy to read but with a very powerful message.
Thanks for the recommendation @AliceDelgado

[Sonia S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A contemporary satire that depicts the reality of many countries' political systems today.

[Carolin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Das Buch wurde schon so oft rezensiert, da kann man eigentlich nichts neues mehr zu sagen, aber ich hätte echt nicht gedacht, dass ich am Ende so heulen muss.

[Alicee (semi-active) · Rating 5 out of 5]

No review needed.