This book was read for the Banned Books Week Mini-Challenge.
First you should know I’m the furthest thing from a history buff. I find history boring and in general prefer to look to the future. It is because of this that I have no idea who Stalin or Trotsky are.
To me this book was pretty much nothing more than an interesting tale about animals who take the farm from the humans and run it themselves. If it was written just like this, it would be an awesome book. However it was written as a satire (is that the right word?) on what was happening at the time. It was written in 1943 but Orwell could not find a publisher who was willing to publish it till 1946.
After finishing the book, although I still didn’t know the history behind the novel, I could understand what parts of the book represented what in history. This version has a Preface and an Introduction, both of which I could barely get through and really have almost no idea what they said. However I did catch the part about those people who had a blind eye towards what was really happening and allowed it to go on. It is amazing what the animals will believe when persuaded to believe it.
I’m glad I read this book and I think others should take the time to read this too. I do want to read up on the history a little, just enough to get the jist of what happened and to appreciate the novel more.