Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four(1949)

Daniel LaginThomas PynchonGeorge Orwell

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The new novel by George Orwell is the major work towards which all his previous writing has pointed. Critics have hailed it as his "most solid, most brilliant" work. Though the story of Nineteen Eighty-Four takes place thirty-five years hence, it is in every sense timely. The scene is London, where there has been no new housing since 1950 and where the city-wide slums are called Victory Mansions. Science has abandoned Man for the State. As every citizen knows only too well, war is peace.

To Winston Smith, a young man who works in the Ministry of Truth (Minitru for short), come two people who transform this life completely. One is Julia, whom he meets after she hands him a slip reading, "I love you." The other is O'Brien, who tells him, "We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness." The way in which Winston is betrayed by the one and, against his own desires and instincts, ultimately betrays the other, makes a story of mounting drama and suspense.

Alternate cover edition can be found here.

Infos

Pages
339
Format
Paperback
Language
English

People Interested
2
People Finished
4

Published By
Plume
Published at
6/8/1949

Originally published at
11/4/1948
Original Language
English

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Reviews

aleks-predator
11 months ago
10
It's a world where anything is possible. I've heard about George Orwell's 1984 many times. However, I decided to read it relatively recently. The work is not an easy one, I would like to note this right away. It is necessary to read this book with proper preparation. This is a difficult work for moral perception, but it is quite easy to read. The paradox. It is quite easy for the reader to immerse himself in the utopian world created by Orwell, but it is quite difficult to get out of it. And this is the book's main trump card. The author writes in such understandable language that the world he presents turns out to be very real in his ideas, and the main characters are constantly on the edge of a precipice, playing cat and mouse with the totalitarian system. The world of "1984" looks quite unreal. It's exaggerated. People live in a society where there are amazing rules and regulations. Reading about them, you involuntarily transfer them to modern real society and realize that such a thing is impossible in principle ... or is it possible? Everyone will answer this question for themselves. Maybe not now, but later. The work is created in such a way that sometimes it seems as if the modern world has spied on some decisions on the pages of the book: the total control that we have available due to the digitalization of society, world ideologies that are somehow similar to what you can read in George Orwell. Orwell's world seems inverted and exaggerated. But in the book, this inversion for the reader seems absolutely normal for the characters of the work. "Freedom is slavery, War is peace, Ignorance is power." The main postulates of the work. Absolutely unrealistic postulates, at first glance. But we must never forget that a familiar life does not become familiar in an instant. Where people find themselves today, the reality and ideology surrounding them have been shaped over the years and decades, and people have been brought up by generations in the way the state needs. That is why citizens take certain postulates for granted, without even thinking that they may be lied to. And the world of "1984" did not become represented in the book overnight. It has been formed for many years due to the large-scale work of the propaganda machine, which imposes a pleasing truth, regardless of the truth. Let everyone draw their own conclusions from this book. Someone will scold her for exaggerating, someone will agree that such a world may well exist, and someone will draw parallels, seeing something real in that Big Brother, even if not in the same guise. Someone quite authoritatively can even prove that we already live in a similar reality, just read between the lines and see the novel from the right angle. George Orwell created a truly epochal work. This is a strong and dynamic novel with its own laws of the world, which you must accept and immerse yourself in the author's fantasy. "1984" does not become a less relevant work over time. It only tells you where to look in order to realize and confirm your guesses about the existing world. 10 out of 10

Different Editions

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Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four

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Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four

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