Animal Farm: GCSE 9-1 set text student edition (Collins Classroom Classics)

Lovely quality item with fast delivery.

Great introduction. Excellent value.

Perfect for teaching

This copy of Animal Farm was not ordered with the intended purpose in mind - I'm no longer a GCSE student, and this was not one of my school's chosen texts for the exam. However, it's important for me to note it's uses for that context too, I feel.This copy of Animal Farm is very compact, and comes with a handy section at the start explaining common themes and contexts. At the back is a glossary, which helps with words that may be unfamiliar to a modern reader. Both of these I imagine would be highly appreciated for a student doing their revision. I've bumped it down a star thought because, in a person study context, I think it's useful for books to have annotation space - with this being affordable and compact, the words are very tiny, and very jammed onto the page. You definitely need postits to write notes in this copy.As for why I got this? I enjoyed reading Animal Farm at school. This copy was a nice way of adding it to my personal collection, and I liked it's minimalist cover.

George Orwell's allegorical novella about communism and Stalinism is a classic of English literature and a must-read. I picked this up because I had not read it while I was at school (mine was a Shakespeare, Chaucer and modern English curriculum) so while I knew parts of the story from where it has permeated modern society and cultural references, the plot itself was new to me. I found the whole thing gripping - the more so because I actually studied the Russian revolution and Stalin's Russia at school so understood a lot of the references - and I enjoyed Orwell's crisp, sardonic style. This is a school edition produced for those studying the text for GCSE but really, anyone who wants to read it can do so.

Rather more a novella than a novel, Animal Farm is still relevant today, some 80 years after its publication - and its content and interpretation could still create political disputes. That is all I will say on the actual text since this is a well-known story and is certainly one that people should read in their lifetime.The book itself is a typical paperback although, because of its very low print price, the paper is not the best quality and the print is not as bold as it should be. This makes the work difficult to read without a lot of light and concentration - but because it is such a short book, I don't think that would bother too many people.It is neatly laid out with a short introduction and a far-reaching bibliography and glossary - although most of that content would like be covered by teachers in the classroom anyway.I am not marking this book down at all because this Collins series is designed to be budget-friendly for use in the classroom where students will almost always write notes in the margins and underline passages - far better to do this on a cheap book than on an expensive paperback.The text is readable, the story is complete, it is priced low-enough for almost all schools and/or students to buy for study - it is not designed to stand the test of time or to take pride of place on a bookshelf. This is a "work book" and, as such, it does its job perfectly.I only wish books of this price had been available when I was studying for A levels and for my degree!

I found the introduction to the book really excellent. It outlined the background to the book, the political situation around the time it was written and what prompted Orwell to write the book. The explanation to the meanings of many of the phrases used by Orwell, the criticism of language used in the text and how it is interpreted today as well as how it would have been at the time the book was written are all very useful guidance to the student. The book itself is a fascinating insight into Orwell, his thinking around Communism and using the farm animals as a way of explaining the concept and it’s pitfalls.

Obviously Animal Farm is a classic, but I'm here to review this specific edition of it. As a classroom edition, it's a nice low price and it's got some useful additions. At the front of the book, there's a sixteen-page introduction which talks about the context of the work and the politics, plus Orwell's characterisation, setting, structure, etc. There are suggestions for further reading, plus explanations of useful political terms. At the back of the book, there's a thorough glossary where there any unusual or outdated words and phrases are explained. They are arranged by page number so are easy to find, and there's no need for distracting superscript numbers in the text like when footnotes are used.The only drawbacks of this edition that I can see are that the text is a little crushed-together, which means it's not the easiest to read, and the cover and pages are quite flimsy, so I imagine this will get mangled in rucksacks after a while.

Me ha llegado completamente doblado, tanto por delante como por detrás