1984
G. Orwell's 1984
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nineteen Eighty-Four (also stylised as 1984) is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by
English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final book completed
in his lifetime. Thematically, it centres on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance and repressive
regimentation of people and behaviours within society. Orwell, a democratic socialist, modelled the totalitarian
government in the novel after Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany. More broadly, the novel examines the role of
truth and facts within politics and the ways in which they are manipulated.
The story takes place in an imagined future, the year 1984, when much of the world has fallen victim to perpetual war,
omnipresent government surveillance, historical negationism, and propaganda. Great Britain, known as Airstrip One, has
become a province of the totalitarian superstate Oceania, ruled by the Party, who employ the Thought Police to persecute
individuality and independent thinking. Big Brother, the dictatorial leader of Oceania, enjoys an intense cult
of personality, manufactured by the party's excessive brainwashing techniques. The protagonist, Winston Smith,
is a diligent and skillful rank-and-file worker at the Ministry of Truth and Outer Party member who secretly hates
the Party and dreams of rebellion. He expresses his dissent by writing in a diary and later enters into a forbidden
relationship with his colleague Julia and starts to remember what life was like before the Party came to power.
Nineteen Eighty-Four has become a classic literary example of political and dystopian fiction. It also popularised the
term "Orwellian" as an adjective, with many terms used in the novel entering common usage, including "Big Brother",
"doublethink", "Thought Police", "thoughtcrime", "Newspeak", and "2 + 2 = 5". Parallels have been drawn between the novel's
subject matter and real life instances of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and violations of freedom of expression among
other themes. Time included the novel on its list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005,
and it was placed on the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels list, reaching number 13 on the editors' list and number 6 on
the readers' list. In 2003, it was listed at number eight on The Big Read survey by the BBC.
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The Philosophy
Orwell wrote the book between November 1943 and February 1944, when the United Kingdom was in its wartime alliance
with the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany, and the British intelligentsia held Stalin in high esteem, a phenomenon
Orwell hated. The manuscript was initially rejected by a number of British and American publishers, including
one of Orwell's own, Victor Gollancz, which delayed its publication. It became a great commercial success when it did
appear partly because international relations were transformed as the wartime alliance gave way to the Cold War.
Time magazine chose the book as one of the 100 best English-language novels (1923 to 2005); it also featured at number
31 on the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels, and number 46 on the BBC's The Big Read poll.
It won a Retrospective Hugo Award in 1996 and is included in the Great Books of the Western World
selection.
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