Don’t ask me why this appears on the list but it does. Surely it belongs as polemic or some such.

So everyone must know that this is an allegory of the events in Russia under the Soviet Union, right? There’s not much to say there really. Good intentions gone really fucking awry.

So impressions – I was a bit bored at first but then the horrible harshness of the regime change crept up on me. I think it was when Boxer was taken away by the knacker that you feel unsettled in the pit of your stomach.

The propaganda element was really quite clever, the subtle changing of the commandments, the slow and inexorable move of the pigs to appropriate the former human actions and lifestyle. And all the show-trial-esque admitting to colluding with the enemy. Shudder

As @Psythor said to me as I was finishing it – it’s a tale about power more than anything. You can kind of see parallels in the modern world (which is more even more creepy).

Only 100 pages and it’s a fairly straight forward read. I feel really creeped out, which I suppose is the point. So well done, Orwell.