This is one of my favourite novels; English literature has always been a passion of mine and Orwell fits very well into this.

The beauty of this book is the way (as in 1984) that Orwell combines good story writing with history/politics - it works on multiple levels and because of the former trait it does not matter if the second is understood. I first read this book when I was seven (with my mum; might be a little hard for seven year olds to read completely on their own) and thoroughly enjoyed it and, of course, i did not understand the political and historical links.

The subtext does however add a level of thought for those who are looking for it in their literature. In my opinion, Orwell does this equally as well as Dickens, Chaucer and other members of the so-called Canon of Literature.

Of course, one may criticise Orwell for using historical events to base his novel around; it could be argued that less thought had to go into the storyline as it was already written, so to speak. I, however, would dispute this - Orwell has to remain close enough to his basis so it is recogniseable in the story and yet far enough away so as Animal Farm can still be considered a 'story'.

Highly recommended.