Paperback, 298 pages
English language
Published Aug. 31, 1963 by Signet.
The year 1984 has come and gone, but George Orwell's prophetic, nightmarish vision in 1949 of the world we were becoming is timelier than ever. 1984 is still the great modern classic of "negative utopia"—a startlingly original and haunting novel that creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing, from the first sentence to the last four words. No one can deny the novel's hold on the imaginations of whole generations, or the power of its admonitions—a power that seems to grow, not lessen, with the passage of time.
Captures how much tyranny, abuse and manipulation can break people till they are no longer themselves.
I've read this book wanting to fully understand the concept "Orwellian". I was always able to conceputualize the idea of "Big Brother" but never really full understood.
This book certainly fufilled that quest for knowledge, and masterfully described a dystopian outome potentially arising from a outbreak of fascism. A perfect example of storytellying using a relatively plausible future arising from the Nazi regime and the rise 20th century authoritarianism.
Simultaneously holds up as a totalitarian dystopia (better than Brave New World, a fitting comparison in some cringe ways), and so entrenched in our cultural understanding that it falls flat today. In line with Orwell's other writing, the focus is on the pressure on people in the upper class to revise their own memory and to brazenly rewrite history as a matter of policy.
Absolutely excellent book, a must read for everyone in my opinion. It does get a little dry at certain parts, but picks right back up. It is entirely worth pushing through.
The book expresses an insanely scary, yet completely plausible future of the world, or more likely certain places. Some places around the world share many similar core values with the world of 1984, which furthermore helps strengthen the fearful possibility. 1984 is a great fusion of non-fiction, history, futurism, and fiction in a dystopian world ruled by people who quite literally want nothing more than power, pure, unadulterated power. They will do anything to get it, and do anything to keep it. This is all done in a fictional world, but sometimes it really feels like you're reading non-fiction, due to how completely possible the world created is. Many values shown in the book, you hear and see about …
Absolutely excellent book, a must read for everyone in my opinion. It does get a little dry at certain parts, but picks right back up. It is entirely worth pushing through.
The book expresses an insanely scary, yet completely plausible future of the world, or more likely certain places. Some places around the world share many similar core values with the world of 1984, which furthermore helps strengthen the fearful possibility. 1984 is a great fusion of non-fiction, history, futurism, and fiction in a dystopian world ruled by people who quite literally want nothing more than power, pure, unadulterated power. They will do anything to get it, and do anything to keep it. This is all done in a fictional world, but sometimes it really feels like you're reading non-fiction, due to how completely possible the world created is. Many values shown in the book, you hear and see about everyday in many aspects, especially politically. Some places in the world share similar structure and values to that of the powerful system in 1984. It strikes fear in the reader due to the relate-ability, and possibilities presented within the world of 1984. Furthermore, despite this book being written in 1949, and feels even more relevant now than ever before.
