我生平第一本英文小說，George Orwell 的 Animal Farm (1945)。那時 (1968)，似乎有梁實秋先生的翻譯本《百獸圖》，不過，省立台中圖書館有原文書，就"不知不覺"讀完它。當時，我不會在意翻譯本之比較，而是「得魚忘筌」。
幾十年之後，我的朋友Peter去讀學士後法律課程，課程中，老師要大家討論書中的聰明豬與百獸的約定，算的上農場的「憲法」嗎？
2011年讀George Orwell 書信，他希望將此處改一處，為”眾牲都大驚失色，惟拿破侖處之泰然…….”…..因為史達林 (J.S.) 當時沒離開莫斯科…….
2014.9.24
今日是香港學生舉行為期一周的罷課活動的第二天，學生們坐在香港政府附近的區域聆聽有關民主和公民社會的演講。
在香港嶺南大學教授歷史的David Lloyd Smith做了有關喬治•奧威爾(George Orwell)的演講并將香港的民主發展比作朝鮮，朝鮮有正式的普選，但只有經過政府審查的人才能參選。
現年21歲、就讀香港科技大學(Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)商業專業的學生Christine Tong說，有關喬治•奧威爾的演講引起了她的共鳴。她說，香港政府就好比《動物莊園》(Animal Farm)裡的豬，利用自己的權力來壓制其他動物，違背自己的原則。
另一場關於莫罕達斯•甘地(Mohandas Gandhi)和公民抗命的演講也吸引了學生以及其他一些佩戴黃絲帶、支持“佔中”運動的人。
Animal Farm was the first animated film made by the British film industry in 1954. But what nobody realised at the time, least of all the producers, was that the film was financed by the CIA as part of the Cold War effort...
Listen to The Film Programme: http://bbc.in/1wOW7MU
Listen to The Film Programme: http://bbc.in/1wOW7MU
1945
When Animal Farm was published in 1945, its British author George Orwell (a pseudonym for Eric Arthur Blair) had already waited a year and a half to see his manuscript in print. Because the book criticized the Soviet Union, one of England's allies in World War II, publication was delayed until the war ended. It was an immediate success as the first edition sold out in a month, nine foreign editions had appeared by the next year, and the American Book-of-the-Month Club edition sold more than a half-million copies. Although Orwell was an experienced columnist and essayist as well as the author of nine published books, nothing could have prepared him for the success of this short novel, so brief he had considered self-publishing it as a pamphlet. The novel brought together important themes — politics, truth, and class conflict — that had concerned Orwell for much of his life. Using allegory — the weapon used by political satirists of the past, including Voltaire and Swift — Orwell made his political statement in a twentieth-century fable that could be read as an entertaining story about animals or, on a deeper level, a savage attack on the misuse of political power. While Orwell wrote Animal Farm as a pointed criticism of Stalinist Russia, reviews of the book on the fiftieth-anniversary of its publication declared its message to be still relevant. In a play on the famous line from the book, "Some animals are more equal than others," an Economist reviewer wrote, "Some classics are more equal than others," and as proof he noted that Animal Farm has never been out of
print since it was first published and continues to sell well year after year.