Animal Farm - Engels

• Animal Farm


  A Fairy Story
• Table of Contents


  • CHAPTER I
  • CHAPTER II
  • CHAPTER III
  • CHAPTER IV
  • CHAPTER V
  • CHAPTER VI
  • CHAPTER VII
  • CHAPTER VIII
  • CHAPTER IX
  • CHAPTER X
• Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the popholes
• Word had gone round during the day that old Major, the prize Middle White boar, had had a strange dream on the previous night and wished to communicate it to the other animals
• It had been agreed that they should all meet in the big barn as soon as Mr. Jones was safely out of the way
• Old Major was so highly regarded on the farm that everyone was quite ready to lose an hour's sleep in order to hear what he had to say
• Old Major


  • Twelve years old
  • Lately grown rather stout
  • Majestic-looking pig
  • Wise and benevolent appearance
  • Tushes had never been cut
• Animals that arrived at the meeting

  • Three dogs (Bluebell, Jessie, and Pincher)
  • Pigs
  • Hens
  • Pigeons
  • Sheep
  • Cows
  • Two cart-horses (Boxer and Clover)
  • Muriel the white goat
  • Benjamin the donkey
• Boxer


  • Enormous beast, nearly eighteen hands high
  • As strong as any two ordinary horses put together
  • Not of first-rate intelligence
  • Universally respected for his steadiness of character and tremendous powers of work
• Benjamin


  • Oldest animal on the farm
  • Worst tempered
  • Seldom talked
  • Usually made cynical remarks
  • Never laughed
• A brood of ducklings, which had lost their mother, filed into the barn, cheeping feebly and wandering from side to side to find some place where they would not be trodden on
• Clover made a sort of wall round them with her great foreleg, and the ducklings nestled down inside it and promptly fell asleep
• Mollie

  • Foolish, pretty white mare who drew Mr. Jones's trap
  • Came mincing daintily in, chewing at a lump of sugar
  • Took a place near the front and began flirting her white mane, hoping to draw attention to the red ribbons it was plaited with
• The cat looked round, as usual, for the warmest place, and finally squeezed herself in between Boxer and Clover; there she purred contentedly throughout Major's speech without listening to a word of what he was saying
• All the animals were now present except Moses, the tame raven, who slept on a perch behind the back door
• Major: 'Comrades, you have heard already about the strange dream that I had last night. But I will come to the dream later. I have something else to say first. I do not think, comrades, that I shall be with you for many months longer, and before I die, I feel it my duty to pass on to you such wisdom as I have acquired.'
• Major said that the nature of the animals' lives is miserable, laborious, and short
• Major said that no animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old, and that no animal in England is free
• Major said that the life of an animal is misery and slavery, and that this is not simply part of the order of nature
• Major said that the soil of England is fertile, its climate is good, and it is capable of affording food in abundance to an enormously greater number of animals than now inhabit it
• Major said that the reason the animals continue in their miserable condition is because nearly the whole of the produce of their labour is stolen from them by human beings
• Major said that man is the only real enemy the animals have, and that if man is removed from the scene, the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever
• Major said that man is the only creature that consumes without producing, and that he sets the animals to work and gives them back only the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, keeping the rest for himself
• Major said that the animals' labour tills the soil and their dung fertilises it, but that there is not one of them that owns more than his bare skin
• Major said that the animals' produce, such as milk, eggs, and foals, is all taken by the humans and that the animals are not even allowed to reach their natural lifespan
• Major said that all the evils of the animals' lives spring from the tyranny of human beings, and that if man is gotten rid of, the animals could become rich and free almost overnight
• Major: 'Why, work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race! That is my message to you, comrades: Rebellion!'
• Major said that the animals must have perfect unity and comradeship in the struggle against man, and that all men are enemies while all animals are comrades
• The vote was taken and it was agreed by an overwhelming majority that rats were comrades
• Major said that the animals must not come to resemble man even after they have conquered him, and that no animal must ever tyrannise over his own kind
• Major sang the song "Beasts of England" which threw the animals into the wildest excitement, and they sang it right through five times in succession
• Unfortunately, the uproar awoke Mr. Jones, who sprang out of bed and let fly a charge of number 6 shot into the darkness, causing the meeting to break up hurriedly
• Three nights later old Major died peacefully in his sleep, and his body was buried at the foot of the orchard
• During the next three months there was much secret activity as the more intelligent animals prepared for the Rebellion predicted by Major
• Mr. Jones seized the gun and let fly a charge of number 6 shot into the darkness
• The pellets buried themselves in the wall of the barn and the meeting broke up hurriedly
• Everyone fled to his own sleeping-place
• The birds jumped on to their perches, the animals settled down in the straw, and the whole farm was asleep in a moment
• Three nights later old Major died peacefully in his sleep
• His body was buried at the foot of the orchard