Chapter 1 - Animal Farm

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.

The words ran:

Beasts of England, beasts of Ireland,
Beasts of every land and clime,
Hearken to my joyful tidings
Of the golden future time.

At the last moment
Mollie, the foolish, pretty white mare who drew Mr. Jones's trap, came
mincing daintily in, chewing at a lump of sugar.

Clover
made a sort of wall round them with her great foreleg, and the ducklings
nestled down inside it and promptly fell asleep.

And then, after a
few preliminary tries, the whole farm burst out into 'Beasts of England' in
tremendous unison.

She took a place near the
front and began flirting her white mane, hoping to draw attention to the
red ribbons it was plaited with.

Let us face it:
our lives are miserable, laborious, and short.

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.

Let us face it:
our lives are miserable, laborious, and short.

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.

"Man is the only creature that consumes without producing.

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.

Never listen when they tell you that Man and the
animals have a common interest, that the prosperity of the one is the
prosperity of the others.

I merely repeat, remember always your duty of
enmity towards Man and all his ways.

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.

In return for your four confinements and all your labour in the
fields, what have you ever had except your bare rations and a stall?

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, grazing side by side and never speaking.

We are born, we are given
just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us
who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength;
and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are
slaughtered with hideous cruelty.

"And remember, comrades, your resolution must never falter.