'Animal Farm' by George Orwell

Book Review

Is society always run in the best interests of its citizens? Can overarching dogmas - such as Communism - deliver the kind of utopia claimed for it? These are just a couple of the important questions addressed by this fascinating novel. 

Orwell's 'Animal Farm' was written in the 1940s, in an era of disillusionment and uncertainty. Many had hoped that Communism - as envisaged by writers such as Karl Marx - would rid the world of its inequalities, such as poverty and ignorance. Part of the Russian dictator Stalin's legacy was the dismantling of this dream.  

The novel charts a revolution by farm animals tired of working for a tyrannical and unfair farmer. The book's events mimic the Russian revolution by Lenin and his Bolsheviks in 1917. At the farm, the pigs - who are the cleverest of the animals - establish themselves as the new leaders. They use lies and manipulation to remain in power, and to exploit those below them.  

Orwell is describing how the Communist dream in Russia quickly began to sour, as those at the helm of Stalin's new government quickly became corrupt - just like the leaders they had overthrown in the name of revolution. 

'Animal Farm' remains an excellent account, set in allegory, of the Russian Revolution and the Communist experiment of the early twentieth century. Its warning, of the dangers in naivety and second-hand thinking are as relevant now, as they were then.