Animal Farm satire not at all gentle upon a particular State—Soviet Russia? It seems to me that a reviewer should have the courage to identify Napoleon with Stalin, and Snowball with Trotsky, and express an opinion favourable or unfavourable to the author, upon a political ground. In a hundred years time perhaps, "Animal Farm" may be simply a fairy story, today it is a political satire with a good deal of point." "Animal Farm" has been subject to much comment in the decades since these early remarks. The pigs Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer adapt Old Major's ideas into "a complete system of
Animal Farm to Yvonne Davet, Orwell described "Animal Farm" as a satirical tale against Stalin (""""), and in his essay "Why I Write" (1946), wrote that "Animal Farm" was the first book in which he tried, with full consciousness of what he was doing, "to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole". The original title was "Animal Farm: A Fairy Story," but U.S. publishers dropped the subtitle when it was published in 1946, and only one of the translations during Orwell's lifetime kept it. Other titular variations include subtitles like "A Satire" and "A Contemporary Satire". Orwell suggested the title