Animal Farm - by George Orwell
Published:
Animal Farm - by George Orwell
Read: 2017-11-20
Recommend: 8/10
The story is very intriguing. The author has very good writing. Now I know the English translation of 不明觉厉 is “completely intelligible but very impressive.”
Notes
Here are some text that I highlighted in the book:
The Seven Commandments are abridged to just one phrase: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. The maxim “Four legs good, two legs bad” is similarly changed to “Four legs good, two legs better”.
‘primarily a satire on the Russian Revolution’ it was intended to have a wider application. That kind of revolution, which he defined as ‘violent conspiratorial revolution, led by unconsciously power-hungry people’,
forced to work to the last atom of our strength;
No, comrades, a thousand times no!
Why, work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race!
The singing of this song threw the animals into the wildest excitement.
then, after a few preliminary tries, the whole farm burst out into ‘Beasts of England’ in tremendous unison. The cows lowed it, the dogs whined it, the sheep bleated it, the horses whinnied it, the ducks quacked it.
Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare.
Now if there was one thing that the animals were completely certain of, it was that they did not want Jones back.
At heart, each of them was secretly wondering whether he could not somehow turn Jones’s misfortune to his own advantage.
These two disagreed at every point where disagreement was possible.
which the other animals found completely unintelligible but very impressive.
indeed they always found themselves in agreement with the one who was speaking at the moment.
‘Napoleon is always right,’
they accepted his explanation without further questions.
We have removed the sheets from the farmhouse beds, and sleep between blankets. And very comfortable beds they are too! But not more comfortable than we need, I can tell you, comrades, with all the brainwork we have to do nowadays. You would not rob us of our repose, would you, comrades? You would not have us too tired to carry out our duties? Surely none of you wishes to see Jones back?’
and we will build all through the winter, rain or shine.
Starvation seemed to stare them in the face.
showed their side teeth.
how he attempted—fortunately without success—to get us
it was a little difficult to see how this fitted in with his being on Jones’s side.
with a hard effort managed to formulate his thoughts.
‘That was part of the arrangement!’
sent shivers down all the animals’ spines. They all cowered silently in their places, seeming to know in advance that some terrible thing was about to happen.
he was with difficulty got onto his feet,
ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.
‘gentlemen, I give you a toast: To the prosperity of Animal Farm!’
Nothing could be further from the truth!
Fill your glasses to the brim. Gentlemen, here is my toast: To the prosperity of The Manor Farm!’
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.
In this country intellectual cowardice is the worst enemy a writer or journalist has to face, and that fact does not seem to me to have had the discussion it deserves.
Any serious criticism of the Soviet régime, any disclosure of facts which the Soviet government would prefer to keep hidden, is next door to unprintable.
Hardly anyone will print an attack on Stalin, but it is quite safe to attack Churchill, at any rate in books and periodicals.
the British press has in almost all cases sided with the faction favoured by the Russians and libelled the opposing faction,
denigration will not attack it on political grounds but on literary ones.
After all, acres of rubbish are printed daily and no one bothers.
The English intelligentsia, or most of them, will object to this book because it traduces their Leader and (as they see it) does harm to the cause of progress.
every opinion, however unpopular—however foolish, even—entitled to a hearing? Put it in that form and nearly any English intellectual will feel that he ought to say ‘Yes’. But give it a concrete shape, and ask, ‘How about an attack on Stalin? Is that entitled to a hearing?’, and the answer more often than not will be ‘No’.
The same principle is contained in the famous words of Voltaire: ‘I detest what you say; I will defend to the death your right to say it.’