Tired of suffering abuse, the animals on Jones's farm decide to rebel against their masters. After driving out the owner, they establish a new order based on equality. However, a new class of bureaucrats soon emerges among them—the pigs—who, with cunning, greed, and arrogance, impose themselves on the rest of the animals. Conceived as a scathing satire of Stalinism, the universal nature of its message makes this novel an extraordinary analysis of the corruption that power breeds, a furious diatribe against totalitarianism, and a clear-sighted examination of the manipulations that historical truth undergoes during times of political transformation.
