1984
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4.3 • 161 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
1984 is a dystopian novel by George Orwell written in 1948, which follows the life of Winston Smith, a low ranking member of ‘the Party’, who is frustrated by the omnipresent eyes of the party, and its ominous ruler Big Brother.
‘Big Brother’ controls every aspect of people’s lives. It has invented the language ‘Newspeak’ in an attempt to completely eliminate political rebellion; created ‘Throughtcrimes’ to stop people even thinking of things considered rebellious. The party controls what people read, speak, say and do with the threat that if they disobey, they will be sent to the dreaded Room 101 as a looming punishment.
Orwell effectively explores the themes of mass media control, government surveillance, totalitarianism and how a dictator can manipulate and control history, thoughts, and lives in such a way that no one can escape it.
Customer Reviews
One of the best
Nineteen Eighty-Four is the best fiction novel I have read so far. The writing is witty and sometimes outright hilarious, with Orwell’s callous descriptions of characters and the book’s setting being incredibly engaging, and his writing style being surprisingly relevant to a contemporary audience.
The book isn’t perfect, however: first, the story is split into 3 Acts; whilst Act 1 is a masterpiece in the world-building, Act 2 follows a romance between plot which quickly becomes tedious to read. Act 3 describes more of the politics behind the book and answers most of the questions the reader still has, but Act 1’s quality is unfortunately never matched. Second, a lot of the criticisms of communism described by Orwell are reused from Animal Farm, which was written 4 years earlier.
Great book
Compare with direction of current governments. Are they using it as a model?