Animal Farm by George OrwellMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
First things first. If a genie appeared from a bottle and gave me one wish it would be this: that the introductions to classic novels would stop GIVING THE STORY AWAY BEFORE I'VE EVEN STARTED! Sheesh, it never fails. It's like the publishers assume that the reader could not possibly be reading the book for pleasure, and for the first time. Death to the writers of these spoiler intros, I say.
Now then. This novella, or "fairy tale" as Orwell has dubbed it, was meant to pillory the Soviet Union, or so I read in the cursed introduction. But really, it couldn't be more apt reading today, for westerners. Not since the Gilded Age have all men been equal "but some more equal than others." In this age of Trumpian black-is-white, day-is-night BS being ladled out to people working harder and longer for less and less, Animal Farm could not be more timely, even though it was written in the 1940's. Just skip the freaking introduction! Recommended.
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I have to agree with you concerning the spoiler laden introductions; the lit-crit ones that read like an undergrad thesis are particularly annoying. I read Animal Farm back in high school, but unlike a lot of assigned reading back then, the story has stayed with me. Orwell has never been needed more. Great review as always.
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