George Orwell’s classic Animal Farm turns 60 today.
I picked Animal Farm up off my parents’ book shelves in the living room when I was 10 or so. I don’t remember ever being told I couldn’t read things off their shelves, but I believe this marked the first occasion where I availed myself of the option. (It wasn’t until after my freshman year English class at Conn when three of us shared a copy of a tale of Giants in the Earth that I discovered my mother’s college copy on the shelf. Come to think of it, maybe I should read it now, since I’m pretty sure I didn’t have time to finish it before I wrote the paper.)
I’m sure I wasn’t expecting an allegory when I started and I’m sure I missed much of the undercurrent of the book (not being up on facism or socialist ideals in the fourth grade), but I do know that I understood a certain amount of the intended message. And I remember having a conversation with Dad about it while we were doing dishes one night (although I don’t recall what we talked about — 1984, perhaps, given that it would have been around that time?).
So, if you haven’t read it, do. From what I remember, it features pigs — of all sorts.
And if you have read it, feel free to do what I’m going to do at some point — see if you can track down the 1999 live-action made-for-tv movie voiced by Patrick Stewart, Kelsey Grammar, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Ian Holm (of LOTR fame), among others.