Animal Farm , written by George Orwell , is a political fable that tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their cruel human master, hoping to create a society where all animals are equal, free, and happy. Inspired by the dream of the wise old pig Old Major, the animals overthrow the farmer Mr. Jones and take control of the farm, renaming it Animal Farm. At first, the animals work together to build an egalitarian community based on the principles of Animalism, summarized in the Seven Commandments painted on the barn wall. However, over time, the pigs—led by the cunning and power-hungry Napoleon—begin to seize control. They gradually assume privileges, manipulate language and truth, and use fear and propaganda to maintain power. Eventually, they become indistinguishable from the humans they once overthrew. This allegory clearly reflects the events of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the rise of Stalinism. The animals represent different social and political groups...

The late Victorian novel was influenced by Darwin's theories of the influence of the natural environment on animals, and by Realism, a new literary and cultural movement, which analyzed the influence of the social environment on man.
Realism was a reaction against the Victorian ideology because of its predilection for poor and degraded social settings and failed characters.
In this period horror and crime novels were written and the best writer of this genre was Robert Louis Stevenson with his masterpiece The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
This novel could be read on two levels:
- as an horror story which owes something to the Gothic novel and Edgar Allan Poe's tales;
- as a meditation on human nature and progress.
Another anti-Victorian writer was Thomas Hardy, who wrote a collection of works called Novels of Character and Environment, the two elements that, he thought, shaped man's destiny.
In contrast with Victorian optimism based on progress, Thomas Hardy adopted the notion of an ïmmanent will", a universal power indifferent to the fate of man.
As the century went on, other novelists followed the general anti-Victorian trend.
This culminated in the disengagement of the Aesthetic Movement with its belief in "Art for Art's sake" - that is, total detachment from social or moral issues.
Fluorished in Europe during the last part of the 19th century, Aestheticism derived from the french writer Théophile Gautier's theory, summed up in his slogan "L'Art pour l'Art".
According to french writer, art is good in it own right, an end in itself.
The leader of this cultural movement is Oscar Wilde and his masterpiece The picture of Dorian Gray.
The philosophy of this novel is the cult of beautiful things and a proclaimed indifference to moral and social issues.
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