Animal Farm by George OrwellMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
As I read the various characters' speeches, I was thinking of essay questions. "Read Major's speech and identify the theories of the great economic thinkers"; obviously Marx, but also Ricardo, Spencer et al. This Everyman's version contains a useful chronology outlining Orwell's life, and at each point, what was happening in literary circles and world events. Two of Orwell's (Blair's) prefaces were included as appendices. It would have been helpful to have access to (or, rather, noticed) such useful thoughts from the author in high school, but I suppose that such information would have been lost in my inexperience. The introduction by Julian Symons is concise but helpful, and now, of course, I must read Sir Bernard Crick's George Orwell: A Life.
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