Animal Farm

For other uses, see Animal Farm (disambiguation).

Animal Farm

1st US edition cover
Author	Eric Blair A.K.A. George Orwell, his pen name
Language	English
Genre	Satire
Publisher	Secker and Warburg (London)
Publication date	17 August 1945
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages	112 pp (UK paperback edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0-452-28424-4 (present)

Animal Farm is a novella by George Orwell, and is the most famous satirical allegory of Soviet totalitarianism. Published in 1945, the book reflects events leading up to and during the Stalin era before World War II. Orwell, a democratic socialist, and a member of the Independent Labour Party for many years, was a critic of Joseph Stalin, and was suspicious of Moscow-directed Stalinism after his experiences with the NKVD during the Spanish Civil War.

The book was chosen by Time Magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels (1923 to 2005), was number 31 on the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels and won a Retrospective Hugo in 1996.

Overview

The short novel is an allegory in which animals play the roles of the Bolshevik revolutionaries and overthrow and oust the human owners of the farm, setting it up as a commune in which, at first, all animals are equal; however, class and status disparities soon emerge between the different animal species. The novel describes how a society's ideologies can be manipulated and twisted by those in positions of social and political power, including how a utopian society is made impossible by the corrupting nature of the very power necessary to create it.

Characters and their possible real-life counterparts

The events and characters in Animal Farm satirise Stalinism, authoritarian government and human stupidity generally;; Snowball is Trotsky and the head pig Napoleon is Stalin. Orwell refers to the latter in his 17 March 1945 letter to the publisher:

...when the windmill is blown up, I wrote, "all the animals including Napoleon flung themselves on their faces." I would like to alter it to "all the animals except Napoleon". If that has been printed it's not worth bothering about, but I just thought the alteration would be fair to J.S. (Joseph Stalin), as he did stay in Moscow during the German advance.

The dogs are also important characters in this novel that enabled Orwell to discover and express more of what had happened in Russia. The other characters have their parallels in the real world, but care should be taken with these comparisons, as Orwell's intent was not always explicit and they often simply represent generalised concepts.

Pigs

Old Major is the inspiration which fuels the Revolution and the book. According to one interpretation, he could be based upon both Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. As a socialist, George Orwell may have agreed with much of Marx, and even respected aspects of Lenin. According to this interpretation, the satire in Animal Farm is not of Marxism, or of Lenin's revolution, but of the corruption that occurred later. However, according to Christopher Hitchens, in the book "the aims and principles of the Russian Revolution are given face-value credit throughout; this is a revolution betrayed, not a revolution that is monstrous from its inception." Though Old Major is presented positively, Orwell does slip in some flaws, such as his admission that he has largely been free of the abuse the rest of the animals have had to suffer. Old Major introduces the animals to the song Beasts of England.

Napoleon, a Berkshire boar, is the main tyrant and villain of Animal Farm and is based upon Joseph Stalin. Napoleon begins to gradually build up his power, using puppies he took from mother dogs Jessie and Bluebell, which he raises to be vicious dogs as his secret police. After driving Snowball off the farm, Napoleon usurps full power, using false propaganda from Squealer and threats and intimidation from the dogs to keep the other animals in line. Among other things, he gradually changes the Commandments to allow himself privileges such as eating at a table and to justify his dictatorial rule. By the end of the book, Napoleon and his fellow pigs have learned to walk upright and started to behave similarly to the humans against whom they originally revolted. (In the French version of Animal Farm, Napoleon is called César, the French spelling of Caesar.)

Snowball is Napoleon's rival. He is an allusion to Leon Trotsky. He wins over most animals, but is driven out of the farm in the end by Napoleon. Snowball genuinely works for the good of the farm and devises plans to help the animals achieve their vision of an egalitarian utopia, but Napoleon and his dogs chase him from the farm, and Napoleon spreads rumours to make him seem evil and corrupt and that he had secretly sabotaged the animals' efforts to improve the farm. In his biography of Orwell, Bernard Crick suggests that Snowball was as much inspired by POUM leader Andrés Nin as by Trotsky. Nin was a similarly adept orator and also fell victim to the Communist purges of the Left during the Spanish Civil War.

Squealer, a small fat porker, serves as Napoleon's right hand pig and minister of propaganda. Inspired by Vyacheslav Molotov and the Soviet paper Pravda, Squealer manipulates the language to excuse, justify, and extol all of Napoleon's actions. He represents all the propaganda Stalin used to justify his own heinous acts. In all of his work, George Orwell made it a point to show how politicians used language. Squealer limits debate by complicating it and he confuses and disorients, making claims that the pigs need the extra luxury they are taking in order to function properly, for example. However, when questions persist, he usually uses the threat of the return of Mr Jones, the former owner of the farm, to justify the pigs' privileges. Squealer uses statistics to convince the animals that life is getting better and better. Most of the animals have only dim memories of life before the revolution; therefore, they are convinced.

Minimus is a poetic pig who writes the second and third national anthems of Animal Farm after the singing of "Beasts of England" is banned. He represents admirers of Stalin both inside and outside the USSR such as Maxim Gorky. As Minimus composed the replacement of "Beasts of England", he may equate to the three main composers of the National Anthem of the Soviet Union which replaced The Internationale – Gabriel El-Registan, Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov, and Sergey Mikhalkov.

The Piglets are hinted to be the children of Napoleon (albeit not truly noted in the novel) and are the first generation of animals actually subjugated to his idea of animal inequality.

The Rebel Pigs are four pigs who complain about Napoleon's takeover of the farm but are quickly silenced and later executed. This is based on the Great Purge during Stalin's regime. The closest parallels to the Rebel Pigs may be Nikolai Bukharin, Alexei Rykov, Grigory Zinoviev, and Lev Kamenev.

Humans

Mr Jones represents Nicholas II of Russia, the deposed Czar, who had been facing severe financial difficulties in the days leading up to the 1917 Revolution. The character is also a nod toward Louis XVI. There are several implications that he represents an autocratic but ineffective capitalist, incapable of running the farm and looking after the animals properly. Jones is a very heavy drinker and the animals revolt against him after he drinks so much that he does not feed or take care of them. Ironically, Napoleon himself becomes almost obsessed with drinking and eventually changes the commandments to suit his needs. Toward the end of the book, the pigs become the mirror image of Jones, though they thirst for more power than ever before.

Mr Frederick is the tough owner of Pinchfield, a well-kept neighbouring farm. He represents Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in general.

Mr Pilkington is the easy-going but crafty owner of Foxwood, a neighbouring farm overgrown with weeds, as described in the book. He represents the western powers, such as the United Kingdom and the United States. The card game at the very end of the novel is a metaphor for the Tehran Conference, where the parties flatter each other, all the while cheating at the game. This last scene is ironical because all the Pigs are civil and kind to the humans, defying all for which they had fought. This happened at the Tehran Conference: the Soviet Union formed an alliance with the United States and the United Kingdom, capitalist countries that the Soviet Union had fought in the early years of the revolution. At the end of the novel, both Napoleon and Pilkington draw the Ace of Spades (which in most games, is the highest-ranking card) at the same time and begin fighting loudly, symbolising the beginning of tension between the U.S. and Soviet superpowers.

'Mr Whymper' is a man hired by Napoleon to represent Animal Farm in human society. He is loosely based on Western intellectuals such as George Bernard Shaw and, especially, Lincoln Steffens, who visited the U.S.S.R. in 1919.

Horses

There are three main horse characters: Clover & Boxer and Mollie the mare.

Boxer is one of the main characters. He is the tragic avatar of the working class, or proletariat: loyal, kind, dedicated, and physically the strongest animal on the farm, but naïve and slow. His ignorance and blind trust towards his leaders leads to his death and their profit. In particular, his heroic physical work represents the Stakhanovite movement. His maxim of "I will work harder" is reminiscent of Jurgis Rudkus from the Upton Sinclair novel The Jungle. His second maxim, "Napoleon is always right" is an example of the propaganda used by Squealer to control the animals. It was not adopted until later in the book. Boxer's work ethic is often praised by the pigs, and he is set as a prime example to the other animals. When Boxer is injured, and can no longer work, Napoleon sends him off to the knacker's and deceives the other animals, saying that Boxer died peacefully in the hospital. When the animals cannot work, Napoleon tosses them aside, for they mean nothing to him.

Clover is Boxer's mother and a fellow draft horse. She helps and cares for Boxer when he splits his hoof. She blames herself for forgetting the original Seven Commandments when Squealer had actually revised them. Clover is compassionate, as is shown when she protects the baby ducklings during Major's speech; albeit made out to be somewhat vain in the opening of the novel by the narrator, who remarks that she never "recovered" her figure after giving birth to her fourth foal. She is also upset when animals are executed by the dogs, and is held in great respect by three younger horses who ultimately replace Boxer.

Mollie is a self-centred and vain white mare who likes wearing ribbons in her mane, eating sugar cubes (which represent luxury) and being pampered and groomed by humans. She represents upper-class people, the bourgeoisie and nobility who fled to the West after the Russian Revolution and effectively dominated the Russian diaspora. Accordingly, she quickly leaves for another farm and is only once mentioned again.

Other animals

Benjamin is a wise old donkey that shows slight emotion and is one of the longest surviving of the Manor Farm animals; he is alive to the very last scene of the book. The animals often ask him about his lack of expression but he always answers with: 'Donkeys live a long life. None of you have ever seen a dead donkey.' Benjamin can also read as well as any pig, but rarely displays his ability. He is a dedicated friend to Boxer and is sorely upset when Boxer is taken away. Benjamin has known about the pigs' wrongdoing the entire time, though he says nothing to the other animals. He represents the cynics in society. It has also been speculated that Benjamin could also represent the role of Jews in society, although this is unlikely since so many of the early supporters of the Russian Revolution were Jews. Another possibility is that Benjamin is an allegory for intellectuals who have the wisdom to stay clear of the purges. Yet another possiblity is that Benjamin is an allegory of the author himself.

Muriel is a wise, old goat who is friends with all the animals on the farm. She, like Benjamin and Snowball, is one of the few animals on the farm who can read (with some difficulty, she has to spell the words out first) which helps Clover know that the Seven Commandments have been surreptitiously changed throughout the story. She possibly represents the same category as Benjamin. The only difference is that she dies at the end of the book due to age.

The Puppies, who were raised by Napoleon to be his security force may be a reference to the fact that a major factor in Stalin's rise to power was his appointment as General Secretary of the Communist Party by Lenin in 1922, in which role he used his powers of appointment, promotion and demotion to pack the party quietly with his own supporters. He did this so effectively that Lenin's Testament eventually called for Stalin's removal from this post. Lenin's request was ignored by the leading members of the Politburo - most notably Trotsky, represented in the novel by Snowball. The puppies represent Stalin's secret police.

Moses the raven is an old bird that occasionally visits the farm with tales of Sugarcandy Mountain, where he says animals go when they die, but only if they work hard. He represents religion, specifically the Russian Orthodox Church, which is banned when the pigs come to power. He leaves after the rebellion, for all animals are supposed to be equal, and religion is not part of equality, but returns later in the novel because he convinces the animals to work harder. Nobody does anything to harm Moses, due to the fact that all animals (and Moses being an animal) are equal. In the end, he is one of few animals to remember the rebellion, along with Clover, Benjamin, and the pigs.

The Sheep represented the masses, manipulated to support Stalin in spite of his treachery.

The Rats may have represented some of the nomadic people in the far north of the USSR.

The Hens may have represented the Kulaks as they destroy their eggs rather than hand them over to Napoleon, just as during collectivisation some Kulaks destroyed machinery or killed their livestock.

The Cat represents laziness (for she, along with Mollie, did not do any work on the farm) and possibly racism (for she is the only one who says the rats are enemies).

Significance

The allegory that the book employs allows for reader interpretation on a number of levels:

George Orwell wrote the book following his experiences during the Spanish Civil War, which are described in another of his books, Homage to Catalonia. He intended it to be a strong condemnation of what he saw as the Stalinist corruption of the original socialist ideals. For the preface of a Ukrainian edition he prepared in 1947, Orwell described what gave him the idea of setting the book on a farm:

...I saw a little boy, perhaps ten years old, driving a huge carthorse along a narrow path, whipping it whenever it tried to turn. It struck me that if only such animals became aware of their strength we should have no power over them, and that men exploit animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the proletariat.

This Ukrainian edition was an early propaganda use of the book. It was printed to be distributed among the Soviet citizens of Ukraine who were some of the many millions of displaced persons throughout Europe at the end of the Second World War. The American occupation forces considered the edition to be propaganda printed on illegal presses, and handed 1,500 confiscated copies of Animal Farm over to the Soviet authorities. The politics in the book also affected the UK, with Orwell reporting that Ernest Bevin was "terrified". that it may cause embarrassment if published before the 1945 general election.

In recent years, the book has been used to compare new movements that overthrow heads of a corrupt and undemocratic government or organisation, only eventually to become corrupt and oppressive themselves as they succumb to the trappings of power and begin using violent and dictatorial methods to keep it. Such analogies have been used for many former African colonies such as Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, whose succeeding African-born rulers were accused of being as corrupt as, or worse than, the European colonists they supplanted.

The book also clearly ponders whether a focus of power in one person is healthy for a society. The book leaves the ending slightly ambiguous in this regard.

Allusions to history, geography and current science

• The refusal of the Humans to refer to Animal Farm by its new name (still calling it Manor Farm) may be indicative of the diplomatic limbo in which the Soviets existed following their early history.
• Mr Jones' last-ditch effort to retake the farm (The Battle of the Cowshed) is analogous to the Russian Civil War in which the western capitalist governments sent soldiers to try to remove the Bolsheviks from power.
• The Battle of the Cowshed is fought with similar tactics to the Battle of Cowpens in the American Revolution.
• When Napoleon and Snowball argue about how Animal Farm should be ruled, Napoleon favors acquiring weapons to defend the farm while Snowball favors getting other farms (countries) to rebel. This is similar to Stalin wanting "Socialism in one country" and Trotsky's theory of "Permanent Revolution..
• Squealer constantly changing the commandments on Napoleon's orders may refer to the constant line of adjustments to the Communist theory by the people in power. In addition, his lies to animals about past events they cannot remember refers to the revision of history texts to glorify Stalin during his regime.
• After Old Major dies, his skull is placed on display on a tree stump. Similarly, Lenin's embalmed body was put on display in Lenin's Tomb in Red Square, where it remains. It should also be noted that the tomb of Karl Marx is adorned by an extremely large bust of his likeness, which lends more credibility to Old Major being a closer reference to Karl Marx than to Lenin. Marx's tomb is located in Highgate Cemetery, London. However Old Major's skull is eventually buried by Napoleon, unlike Lenin.

Version of Horn and Hoof Flag, based on hammer and sickle.

• The flag of Animal Farm consists of a green field with a hoof and a horn. According to the book, the green represents the fields of England, with the hoof and horn being an analogy to the hammer and sickle. It also bears resemblance to the Communist Russia flag.
• When Napoleon steals Snowball’s idea for a windmill, the windmill can be considered a symbol of the Soviet Five-Year Plans, a concept developed by Trotsky and adopted by Stalin, who, after banning Trotsky from the Soviet Union, claimed them to be his idea. The failure of the windmill to generate the expected comforts and subsequent search for saboteurs is probably a reference to accusations and a show trial against British engineers who were working on electrification projects in the USSR.
• Moses the raven leaving the farm for a while and then returning is similar to the Russian Orthodox Church going underground and then being brought back to give the workers hope.
• Boxer's motto, "Napoleon is always right" is synonymous with Il Duce ha sempre ragione ("Mussolini is always right"), a chant used to hail Benito Mussolini during his rule of Italy from 1922 to 1943.
• During the rise of Napoleon, he ordered the collection of all the hens' eggs. In an act of defiance, the hens destroyed their eggs rather than give them to Napoleon. During Stalin's collectivisation period in the early 1930s, many Ukrainian peasants burned their crops and farms rather than handing them over to the government.
• Napoleon's mass executions, of which many were unfair for the alleged crimes, is similar to Stalin executing his political enemies for various crimes after they were tortured and forced to falsify confessions.
• Napoleon replaces the farm anthem "Beasts of England" with an inane composition by the pig poet Minimus ("Animal Farm, Animal Farm / Never through me / Shall thou come to harm"). In 1943, Stalin replaced the old national anthem "The Internationale" with "the Hymn of the Soviet Union." The old Internationale glorified the revolution and "the people". The original version of the Hymn of the Soviet Union glorified Stalin so heavily that after his death in 1953 entire sections of the anthem had to be replaced or removed. Orwell could have also been referring to Napoleon Bonaparte's banning of the French national hymn, La Marseillaise in 1799.
• Napoleon works with Mr Frederick, who eventually betrays Animal Farm and destroys the windmill. Though Animal Farm repels the human attack, many animals are wounded and killed. This is similar to Stalin’s Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany in 1939, which was later betrayed in 1941 when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. Though the Soviet Union won the war, victory came at a tremendous price of roughly 8.5-15 million Soviet soldiers (unconfirmed) and many civilians, resulting in an estimated 20 million dead, as well as the utter destruction of the Western Soviet Union and its prized collective farms that Stalin had created in the 1930s. The demolition of the windmill and the battle that ensued there could also be a reference to the Battle of Stalingrad. The selling of the farm's excess timber supply could represent the offering of raw materials to the United States in exchange for weapons of war under the Lend-Lease or could be the Stalin-Hitler treaty.
• Napoleon changing Animal Farm back to Manor Farm echoes the Red Army’s name change from the "Workers' and Peasants' Red Army" to the "Soviet Army" to appear as a more appealing and professional organization rather than an army of the common people.
• The dogs may be an allegory to the NKVD (KGB), the elite police force who ruled by terror under Stalin's hand.
• The character of Boxer could be an allusion to the financial state of Russia at the time of publication.
• The term "four legs good, two legs bad" could be symbolic for the simplification of the April Theses, for workers to understand it better.
• Napoleon once creates and awards himself with the Order of the Green Banner, a reference to the Soviet Union's Order of the Red Banner.
• Napoleon receives titles such as Father of all animals, and Terror of humankind. This is a reference to Stalin's many grandiloquent titles.
• "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". A proclamation by the pigs that control the government. The sentence is a comment on the hypocrisy of governments that proclaim the absolute equality of their citizens but give power and privileges to a small elite.

British censorship and suppressed preface

During World War II it became apparent to Orwell that anti-Russian literature was not something which most major publishing houses would touch — including his regular publisher Gollancz. One publisher he sought rejected his book on the grounds of government advice — although the assumed civil servant who gave the order was later found to be a Soviet spy.

Orwell originally wrote a preface which complains about British government suppression of his book, self-imposed British self-censorship and how the British people were suppressing criticism of the USSR, their World War II ally. "The sinister fact about literary censorship in England is that it is largely voluntary. ... [Things are] kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervened but because of a general tacit agreement that 'it wouldn't do' to mention that particular fact." Somewhat ironically, the preface itself was censored and is not published with most editions of the book.

Controversies

• The estate of Orwell declared itself "hostile" to the publication of Snowball's Chance, a 2002 parody of Animal Farm by U.S. author John Reed.

Cultural references

Main article: Animal Farm in popular culture

References to the novella are frequent in other works of popular culture, particularly in popular music and television series.

Adaptations

• 1954 animated film — The book was the basis of an animated feature film in 1954 (the UK's first full-length animated movie), directed by John Halas and Joy Batchelor and quietly commissioned by the American CIA. This version softened the theme of the story slightly by reducing the role of Moses, the character representing religion. It also added an epilogue where the other animals successfully revolt against the pigs immediately after the novel's iconic concluding imagery is depicted.
• 1996 stage adaptation — Popular stage adaptation by renowned British theatre director and playwright Ian Wooldridge. "Ian Wooldridge's adaptation makes the text as engagingly relevant as ever", London Evening Standard. Originally performed in 1996 by Newcastle Playhouse and first published in 2003 by Nick Hern Books, London. The production has seen recent performances in 2003 by The Wild Rice Theatre Company at The Jubilee Hall, Raffles Hotel, Singapore, on 2004 by Northern Stage at the Courtyard Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse and in 2006 by Eglesfield Players at the Queen's College, Oxford.
• 1999 live-action film — A live action film directed by John Stephenson, with voices by Kelsey Grammer as Snowball, Patrick Stewart as Napoleon, and Ian Holm as Squealer. Despite a few differences (such as completely different songs), the plot generally resembles that of the book. In the film, Jessie, one of the dogs, is now the main character, protagonist, and narrator. The film also diverges from the book with an additional epilogue in which Jessie the dog and several animals escape and return years later to a post-Napoleon era Animal Farm. This update could be seen as an analogy to the fall of the Soviet Union, or it may be an effort to create a 'happy ending' that would be more audience-friendly.

Editions

• ISBN 0-451-51679-6 (paperback, 1956, Signet Classic)
• ISBN 0-582-02173-1 (paper text, 1989)
• ISBN 0-15-107255-8 (hardcover, 1990)
• ISBN 0-582-06010-9 (paper text, 1991)
• ISBN 0-679-42039-8 (hardcover, 1993)
• ISBN 0-606-00102-6 (prebound, 1996)
• ISBN 0-15-100217-7 (hardcover, 1996, Anniversary Edition)
• ISBN 0-452-27750-7 (paperback, 1996, Anniversary Edition)
• ISBN 0-451-52634-1 (mass market paperback, 1996, Anniversary Edition)
• ISBN 0-582-53008-3 (1996)
• ISBN 1-56000-520-3 (cloth text, 1998, Large Type Edition)
• ISBN 0-7910-4774-1 (hardcover, 1999)
• ISBN 0-451-52536-1 (paperback, 1999)
• ISBN 0-7641-0819-0 (paperback, 1999)
• ISBN 0-8220-7009-X (e-book, 1999)
• ISBN 0-7587-7843-0 (hardcover, 2002)
• ISBN 0-15-101026-9 (hardcover, 2003, with Nineteen Eighty-Four)
• ISBN 0-452-28424-4 (paperback, 2003, Centennial Edition)
• ISBN 0-8488-0120-2 (hardcover)
• ISBN 0-03-055434-9 (hardcover) Animal Farm with Connections
• ISBN 0-395-79677-6 (hardcover) Animal Farm & Related Readings, 1997

See also

• Snowball's Chance, a send-up of Animal Farm by John Reed
• Bunt, published in 1924, is a book with a theme similar to Animal Farm by Władysław Reymont.

Citations

• Bailey83221 (2006-05-12). "Animal Farm suppression". LiveJournal.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Bott, George (1968) [1958]. Selected Writings. London, Melbourne, Toronto, Singapore, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Nairobi, Auckland, Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books. pp. 13–14, 23. ISBN 0-4351-3675-5.
• Dag, Christopher (2004-12-19). "George Orwell: The Freedom of the Press". orwell.ru. Archived from the original on 2005-03-06. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
• Davison, Peter (2000). "George Orwell: Animal Farm: A Fairy Story -- 'A Note on the Text'". England: Penguin Books. Archived from the original on 2006-12-12.
• doollee.com. "Wooldridge Ian - playwright". Retrieved 2008-07-31.
• Grossman, Lev (2005). "The Complete List / TIME Magazine - ALL-TIME 100 Novels". TIME magazine. Retrieved 2008-08-31. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Christian Lowe (editor) (2006-03-10). "Defense Tech: CIA, Movie Producer". Retrieved 2008-07-31. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
• Moran, Daniel. Critical Essays - Animal Farm and the Russian Revolution. CliffsNotes. p. 39. Retrieved 2008-08-31.
• Orwell, George (March 1947). "Preface to the Ukrainian Edition of Animal Farm".
• Smith, Dinitia (2002-11-25). "A Pig Returns to the Farm, Thumbing His Snout at Orwell". Arts. Retrieved 2008-07-31. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Strausbaugh, John. "Return to Animal Farm". NEWS & COLUMNS. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
• Taylor, David John (2003). Orwell: The Life. H. Holt. p. 197. ISBN 0-8050-7473-2. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• telegraph.co.uk (2002-11-27). "Kill the beavers!". Opinion. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
• Warren, Marcus (2002-11-26). "Animal Farm parody 'exploits Orwell'". telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2007-08-14. Retrieved 2008-07-31. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Woolridge, Ian. "Ian Wooldridge - Animal Farm". Retrieved 2008-07-31.

External links

• Excerpts from Orwell's letters to his agent concerning Animal Farm
• Animal Farm By George Orwell - Free eBook in PDF format.
• Chalk Farm, the setting for Manor Farm in Willingdon, Eastbourne.
• Entire text as scanned pages online
• Animal Farm Book Notes from Literapedia
• Learning Activities