"Animal Farm" by George Orwell

[Guest]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZldlyeR8DU

Animal Farm is a dystopian novella in the form of an allegory by George Orwell. Published in England on 17 August 1945, the book reflects events leading up to and during the Stalin era before World War II. Orwell, a democratic socialist[1] 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. In a letter to Yvonne Davet, Orwell described Animal Farm as his novel "contre Stalin".[2]

The original title was Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, but A Fairy Story was dropped by the US publishers for its 1946 publication. Of all the translations during Orwell's lifetime, only Telugu kept the original title. Other variations in the title include: A Satire and A Contemporary Satire.[2] Orwell suggested for the French translation the title Union des r?publiques socialistes animales, recalling the French name of the Soviet Union, Union des r?publiques socialistes sovi?tiques, and which abbreviates URSA, which means "bear" in Latin.[2]

Time Magazine chose the book as one of the 100 best English-language novels (1923 to 2005);[3] it also places at number 31 on the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels. It won a Retrospective Hugo Award in 1996 and is also included in the Great Books of the Western World.