The book's fame preceded it. And hence my surprise at finding it a short story. A hundred pages or so. I was amazed at the concept of such a small story being so famous. Not that I was naive enough to reject the thought of short stories being famous, but I had fancied Orwell to be a novelist, much due to having seen the motion picture based on his book "1984", which , I will add in parentheses, was an utter disappointment.
George Orwell was famous for his anti-imperialist views. And in "Animal Farm" he seems to be mocking the socialist system. Or rather, any system in general. The story takes to a fantasy where animals organise a revolution against the human masters, or at least plan to. A revolt breaks out in a particular farm. The animals drive out their masters and run the farm by themselves. But of course, where there is a system, there are hierarchies. The story beautifully associates the various animal characters with the variety of people we meet every day. There are the leaders, the propagandists, the intelligentsia, the labour, etc.
The symbolism is shockingly real. One never feels out of context while reading the story. The way Orwell has described the human psychology (rather, the mass psychology) is worthy of many appraises, as it has already had. George Orwell delivers a smack on the faces of all the socio-political systems with a panache and mockery that is rarely as complete.
The concept was very entertaining; the story amusing. But I did not find his style of writing anything special. I do intend to read "1984" sometime in the future. But George Orwell is not as yet close to being on my list of authors who compel you to pick another book of theirs as soon as you put one down.
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