Animal Farm

Animal Farm
George Orwell

Table of Contents
Animal Farm
.......................................................................................................................................................1 George Orwell
..........................................................................................................................................1 I
................................................................................................................................................................1 II
...............................................................................................................................................................5 III
..............................................................................................................................................................9 IV
...........................................................................................................................................................12 V
.............................................................................................................................................................14 VI
...........................................................................................................................................................18 VII
..........................................................................................................................................................22 VIII
.........................................................................................................................................................27 IX
...........................................................................................................................................................33 X
.............................................................................................................................................................38 Animal Farm
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Animal Farm
George OrwellI
· II
· III
· IV
· V
· VI
· VII
· VIII
· IX
· X
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Etext by Roderick da Rat
I
MR. JONES, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to
shut the popholes. With the ring of light from his lantern dancing from side to side, he lurched across the
yard, kicked off his boots at the back door, drew himself a last glass of beer from the barrel in the scullery,
and made his way up to bed, where Mrs. Jones was already snoring.
As soon as the light in the bedroom went out there was a stirring and a fluttering all through the farm
buildings. 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 (so he was
always called, though the name under which he had been exhibited was Willingdon Beauty) 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.
At one end of the big barn, on a sort of raised platform, Major was already ensconced on his bed of straw,
under a lantern which hung from a beam. He was twelve years old and had lately grown rather stout, but he
was still a majestic-looking pig, with a wise and benevolent appearance in spite of the fact that his tushes had
never been cut. Before long the other animals began to arrive and make themselves comfortable after their
different fashions. First came the three dogs, Bluebell, Jessie, and Pincher, and then the pigs, who settled
down in the straw immediately in front of the platform. The hens perched themselves on the window-sills,
the pigeons fluttered up to the rafters, the sheep and cows lay down behind the pigs and began to chew the
cud. The two cart-horses, Boxer and Clover, came in together, walking very slowly and setting down their
vast hairy hoofs with great care lest there should be some small animal concealed in the straw. Clover was a
stout motherly mare approaching middle life, who had never quite got her figure back after her fourth foal.
Boxer was an enormous beast, nearly eighteen hands high, and as strong as any two ordinary horses put
together. A white stripe down his nose gave him a somewhat stupid appearance, and in fact he was not of
first-rate intelligence, but he was universally respected for his steadiness of character and tremendous powers
of work. After the horses came Muriel, the white goat, and Benjamin, the donkey. Benjamin was the oldest
animal on the farm, and the worst tempered. He seldom talked, and when he did, it was usually to make some
cynical remark-for instance, he would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he
would sooner have had no tail and no flies. Alone among the animals on the farm he never laughed. If asked
why, he would say that he saw nothing to laugh at. Nevertheless, without openly admitting it, he was devoted
to Boxer; the two of them usually spent their Sundays together in the small paddock beyond the orchard,
Animal Farm 1

grazing side by side and never speaking.
The two horses had just lain down when 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