I remember how surprised I was when someone suggested to me that Orwell's novel was an allegory for the Russian Revolution. This is very far-fetched. For instance, don’t you think it’s a stretch to say that Napoleon, who is a talking pig, represents Stalin, who is a human man with a mustache? And how can Boxer’s death be just a symbol for the Stakhanovite movement, when the issue of sending horses away to be killed and have their parts rendered for human consumption is already so important? This is an actual, literal depiction of cruelty to horses—not a symbol.

In fact, this book is really all about farms. The themes in this book can be applied easily to all farms, and especially those with animals. Additionally, there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of farms, while the Russian Revolution only happened once, a long time ago. So even if it was once an allegory, it probably isn’t anymore. Allegory or not, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes pigs but doesn’t like people or horses.