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= Nineteen_Eighty-Four =
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Introduction
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'Nineteen Eighty-Four' (also published as '1984') is a dystopian
speculative fiction novel by the English writer George Orwell. It was
published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and
final completed book. Thematically, it centres on totalitarianism,
mass surveillance and repressive regimentation of people and
behaviours.
The story takes place in a fictional future. The current year is
uncertain, but believed to be 1984. Much of the world is in perpetual
war. Great Britain, now known as Airstrip One, has become a province
of the totalitarian superstate Oceania, which is led by Big Brother, a
dictatorial leader supported by an intense cult of personality
manufactured by the Party's Thought Police. The Party engages in
omnipresent government surveillance and, through the Ministry of
Truth, historical negationism and constant propaganda to persecute
individuality and independent thinking. Orwell described his book as a
"satire", and a display of the "perversions to which a centralised
economy is liable", while also stating he believed "that something
resembling it could arrive". The novel examines the role of truth and
facts within societies and the ways in which they can be manipulated.
Parallels have been drawn between the novel and real-world
totalitarianism, mass surveillance and violations of freedom of
expression, among other themes.
'Nineteen Eighty-Four' has become a classic literary example of
dystopian and political fiction. It popularised "Orwellian" as an
adjective, and many terms used in it have entered common usage,
including "Big Brother", "doublethink", "Thought Police",
"thoughtcrime", "Newspeak" and the expression that "2 + 2 = 5". 'Time'
magazine included it on its list of the 100 best English-language
novels published 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 8 on The Big Read survey by the BBC. It has been adapted across
media, most famously as a film in 1984 starring John Hurt, Suzanna
Hamilton and Richard Burton.
Plot
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As the narrative opens on "April 4th, 1984", a date whose validity is
questioned by the protagonist, the world has been ravaged for decades
by global war, civil conflict and revolution. What was formerly known
as the island of Great Britain is "Airstrip One", a province of
Oceania, one of the three totalitarian super-states that rule the
world. It is ruled by "The Party" under the ideology of "Ingsoc": a
Newspeak shortening of "English Socialism". Also present is the
mysterious leader Big Brother, who has an intense cult of personality.
The Party brutally purges anyone who does not fully conform to their
regime, using the Thought Police and constant surveillance through
telescreens (two-way televisions), cameras and hidden microphones.
Those who fall out of favour with the Party become "unpersons",
disappearing per 'damnatio memoriae' with all evidence of their
existence destroyed.
In London, Winston Smith is a member of the Outer Party, working at
the Ministry of Truth, where he rewrites historical records to conform
to the state's ever-changing version of history. Winston revises past
editions of 'The Times', while the original documents are destroyed
after being dropped into ducts known as memory holes, which lead to an
immense furnace. He secretly opposes the Party's rule and dreams of
rebellion, despite knowing that he is already a "thought-criminal" and
is likely to be caught one day.
While in a prole neighbourhood, he meets Mr Charrington, the owner of
an antiques shop, and buys a diary where he writes criticisms of the
Party and Big Brother. To his dismay, when he visits a prole quarter,
he discovers they have no political consciousness. As he works in the
Ministry of Truth, he observes Julia, a young woman maintaining the
novel-writing machines at the ministry, whom Winston suspects of being
a spy, and develops an intense hatred of her. He vaguely suspects that
O'Brien, a member of the Inner Party and a superior of his, is part of
an enigmatic underground resistance movement known as the Brotherhood,
formed by Big Brother's reviled political rival, Emmanuel Goldstein.
One day, Julia discreetly hands Winston a love note, and the two begin
a secret affair. Julia explains that she also loathes the Party, but
Winston observes that she is politically apathetic and uninterested in
overthrowing the regime. Initially meeting in the country, they later
meet in a rented room above Mr Charrington's shop. During the affair,
Winston remembers the disappearance of his family during the civil war
of the 1950s and his tense relationship with his estranged wife
Katharine. Weeks later, O'Brien invites Winston to his flat, where he
introduces himself as a member of the Brotherhood and sends Winston a
copy of 'The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism' by
Goldstein.
Meanwhile, during the nation's Hate Week, Oceania's enemy suddenly
changes from Eurasia to Eastasia, which goes mostly unnoticed. Winston
is recalled to the Ministry to assist in making the necessary
revisions to the records. Winston and Julia read parts of Goldstein's
book, which explains how the Party maintains power, the true meanings
of its slogans, and the concept of perpetual war. It argues that the
Party can be overthrown if the proles rise against it. However,
Winston never gets the opportunity to read the chapter that explains
why the Party took power and is motivated to maintain it.
Winston and Julia are captured when Mr Charrington is revealed to be
an undercover Thought Police agent, and they are separated and
imprisoned at the Ministry of Love. O'Brien also shows himself to be a
member of the Thought Police and a participant in a false flag
operation that targets political dissidents within the Party. Over
several months, Winston is starved and relentlessly tortured to bring
his beliefs in line with the Party. O'Brien tells Winston that he will
never know whether the Brotherhood actually exists and that
Goldstein's book was written collaboratively by him and other Party
members; furthermore, O'Brien reveals to Winston that the Party sees
power not as a means but as an end, and the ultimate purpose of the
Party is to seek power entirely for its own sake. For the final stage
of re-education, O'Brien takes Winston to Room 101, which contains
each prisoner's worst fear. When confronted with rat torture, Winston
denounces Julia and pledges allegiance to the Party.
Winston is released into public life and continues to frequent the
Chestnut Tree café. He encounters Julia, and both reveal that they
have betrayed each other and are no longer in love. Back in the café,
a news alert celebrates Oceania's supposed massive victory over
Eurasian armies in Africa. Winston finally accepts that he loves Big
Brother.
Epilogue
==========
The novel includes an epilogue, an appendix of around 1,000 words,
titled 'Principles of Newspeak', and written in the voice of the (or
possibly a second) narrator, using counterfactual past-subjunctive
tense. It is referred to in a footnote to the book's seventh
paragraph. Some critics read it as implying the failure of Newspeak to
become dominant and the collapse of The Party some years after the
events of the novel, describing it as a "happy ending".
Orwell wrote to his literary agent in 1949, urging that the appendix
be retained for the American edition.
Main characters
=================
* Winston Smith: the 39-year-old protagonist who is a phlegmatic
everyman harbouring thoughts of rebellion and is curious about the
Party's power and the past before the Revolution.
*Julia: Winston's lover, who publicly espouses Party doctrine as a
member of the fanatical Junior Anti-Sex League. Julia enjoys her small
acts of rebellion and has no interest in giving up her lifestyle.
* O'Brien: an Inner Party official who is secretly a member of the
Thought Police. He poses as a member of the Brotherhood, the
counter-revolutionary resistance, to catch Winston.
*Big Brother and Emmanuel Goldstein never physically appear, but are
important to the plot and have a significant role in the
worldbuilding.
** Big Brother: the leader and figurehead of the Party that rules
Oceania. A deep cult of personality is formed around him. It is not
revealed whether he really exists.
** Emmanuel Goldstein: ostensibly a former leading figure in the Party
who became the counter-revolutionary leader of the Brotherhood, and
author of the book 'The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical
Collectivism'. Goldstein is the symbolic enemy of the state--the
national nemesis who ideologically unites the people of Oceania with
the Party, especially during the Two Minutes Hate and other forms of
fear-mongering. However, O'Brien claims that the book was actually
written by the Party.
Secondary characters
======================
* Aaronson, Jones and Rutherford: former members of the Inner Party
whom Winston vaguely remembers as among the original leaders of the
Revolution, long before he had heard of Big Brother. They confessed to
treasonable conspiracies with foreign powers and were then executed in
the political purges of the 1960s. In between their confessions and
executions, Winston saw them drinking in the Chestnut Tree Café--with
broken noses, suggesting that their confessions had been obtained by
torture. Later, in the course of his editorial work, Winston sees
newspaper evidence contradicting their confessions, but drops it into
a memory hole. Eleven years later, he is confronted with the same
photograph during his interrogation.
* Ampleforth: Winston's one-time Records Department colleague who was
imprisoned for leaving the word "God" in a poem by Rudyard Kipling as
he could not find another rhyme for "rod"; Winston encounters him at
the Ministry of Love. Ampleforth is a dreamer and intellectual who
takes pleasure in his work, and respects poetry and language, traits
which cause him disfavour with the Party.
* Mr Charrington: an undercover officer of the Thought Police
masquerading as a kind and sympathetic antiques dealer among the
proles.
* Katharine Smith: the emotionally indifferent wife whom Winston
"can't get rid of". Despite disliking sexual intercourse, Katharine
married Winston because it was their "duty to the Party". Although she
was a "goodthinkful" ideologue, they separated because the couple
could not conceive children. Divorce is not permitted, but couples who
cannot have children may live separately. For much of the story
Winston lives in vague hope that Katharine may die or could be "got
rid of" so that he may marry Julia. He regrets not having killed her
by pushing her over the edge of a quarry when he had the chance many
years previously.
* The Parsons family:
**Tom Parsons: Winston's naïve neighbour, and an ideal member of the
Outer Party: an uneducated, suggestible man who is utterly loyal to
the Party, and fully believes in its perfect image. He is socially
active and participates in the Party activities for his social class.
He is friendly towards Smith, and despite his political conformity
punishes his bullying son for firing a catapult at Winston. Later, as
a prisoner, Winston sees Parsons imprisoned in the Ministry of Love,
after his young daughter reported him to the Thought Police for
speaking against Big Brother in his sleep. Even this does not dampen
Parsons's belief in the Party--he says he could do "good work" in the
hard labour camps.
** Mrs Parsons: Parsons's wife is a wan and hapless woman who is
intimidated by her own children.
** The Parsons children: a nine-year-old son and seven-year-old
daughter. Both are members of the Spies, a youth organisation that
focuses on indoctrinating children with Party ideals and training them
to report any suspected incidents of unorthodoxy. They represent the
new generation of Oceanian citizens, the model society envisioned by
the Inner Party without memory of life before Big Brother, and without
family ties or emotional sentiment.
* Syme: Winston's colleague at the Ministry of Truth, a lexicographer
involved in compiling a new edition of the Newspeak dictionary.
Although he is enthusiastic about his work and support for the Party,
Winston notes, "He is too intelligent. He sees too clearly and speaks
too plainly." Winston predicts, correctly, that Syme will become an
unperson.
Conception
============
The Orwell Archive at University College London contains undated notes
about ideas that evolved into 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'. The notebooks
have been deemed "unlikely to have been completed later than January
1944", and "there is a strong suspicion that some of the material in
them dates back to the early part of the war".
In one letter from 1948 Orwell claims to have "first thought of [the
book] in 1943", while in another he says he thought of it in 1944 and
cites the Tehran Conference in 1943 as inspiration: "What it is really
meant to do is to discuss the implications of dividing the world up
into 'Zones of Influence' (I thought of it in 1944 as a result of the
Tehran Conference), and in addition to indicate by parodying them the
intellectual implications of totalitarianism". Orwell had toured
Austria in May 1945 and observed manoeuvring he thought would probably
lead to separate Soviet and Allied Zones of Occupation.
In January 1944 the Russian literary historian Gleb Struve introduced
Orwell to Yevgeny Zamyatin's 1924 dystopian novel, 'We'. In his
response Orwell expressed an interest in the genre, and informed
Struve that he had begun writing ideas for one of his own, "that may
get written sooner or later". In 1946 Orwell wrote about the 1931
dystopian novel 'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley in his article
"Freedom and Happiness" for the 'Tribune', and noted similarities to
'We'. By this time Orwell had scored a critical and commercial hit
with his 1945 political satire, 'Animal Farm', which raised his
profile. For a follow-up he decided to produce a dystopian work of his
own.
Writing
=========
In a June 1944 meeting with Fredric Warburg, co-founder of his British
publisher Secker & Warburg, shortly before the release of 'Animal
Farm', Orwell announced that he had written the first 12 pages of his
new novel. As he could then only earn a living from journalism, he
predicted the book would not see a release before 1947. Progress was
slow; by the end of September 1945 Orwell had written some 50 pages.
Orwell became disenchanted with the restrictions and pressures
involved with journalism and grew to detest city life in London. He
suffered from bronchiectasis and a lesion in one lung; the harsh
winter worsened his health.
In May 1946 Orwell arrived on the Scottish island of Jura. He had
wanted to retreat to a Hebridean island for several years; David Astor
recommended he should stay at Barnhill, a remote farmhouse on the
island that his family owned, with no electricity or hot water. Here
Orwell intermittently drafted and finished 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'. His
first stay lasted till October 1946, and during it he made little
progress on the few already completed pages, and for a period of three
months he did not work on it at all. After spending the winter in
London, Orwell returned to Jura; in May 1947 he reported to Warburg
that despite progress being slow and difficult, he was roughly a third
of the way through. He sent his "ghastly mess" of a first-draft
manuscript to London, where Miranda Christen volunteered to type a
clean version. Orwell's health worsened further in September, and he
was confined to his bed with inflammation of the lungs. He lost almost
two stone (28 pounds or 12.7 kg) in weight and had recurring night
sweats, but he decided not to see a doctor and continued writing. On 7
November 1947 he completed the first draft in bed, and subsequently
travelled to East Kilbride near Glasgow for medical treatment at
Hairmyres Hospital, where a specialist confirmed a chronic and
infectious case of tuberculosis.
Orwell was discharged in the summer of 1948, after which he returned
to Jura and produced a full second draft of 'Nineteen Eighty-Four',
which he finished in November. He asked Warburg to have someone come
to Barnhill and retype the manuscript, which was so untidy that the
task was only considered possible if Orwell were present, as only he
could understand it. The previous volunteer had left the country and
no other could be found at short notice, so an impatient Orwell
retyped it himself at a rate of roughly 4,000 words a day during bouts
of fever and bloody coughing fits. On 4 December 1948 Orwell sent the
finished manuscript to Secker & Warburg and left Barnhill for good
in January 1949. He recovered at a sanitarium in the Cotswolds.
Title
=======
Shortly before completion of the second draft, Orwell vacillated
between two titles: 'The Last Man in Europe', an early title, and
'Nineteen Eighty-Four'. Warburg suggested the latter, which he took to
be a more commercially viable choice. There has been a theory -
doubted by Dorian Lynskey (author of a 2019 book about 'Nineteen
Eighty-Four') - that '1984' was chosen simply as an inversion of the
year 1948, the year in which it was being completed. Lynskey says the
idea was "first suggested by Orwell's US publisher", and it was also
mentioned by Christopher Hitchens in his introduction to the 2003
edition of 'Animal Farm and 1984', which also notes that the date was
meant to give "an immediacy and urgency to the menace of totalitarian
rule". However, Lynskey does not believe the inversion theory:
This idea ... seems far too cute for such a serious book. ...
Scholars have raised other possibilities. [His wife] Eileen wrote a
poem for her old school's centenary called 'End of the Century: 1984.'
G. K. Chesterton's 1904 political satire 'The Napoleon of Notting
Hill', which mocks the art of prophecy, opens in 1984. The year is
also a significant date in 'The Iron Heel'. But all of these
connections are exposed as no more than coincidences by the early
drafts of the novel ... First he wrote 1980, then 1982, and only later
1984. The most fateful date in literature was a late amendment.
Publication
=============
In the run up to publication Orwell called the novel "a beastly book"
and expressed some disappointment towards it, thinking it would have
been improved had he not been so ill. This was typical of Orwell, who
had talked down his other books shortly before their release.
Nevertheless, it was enthusiastically received by Secker &
Warburg, who acted quickly; before Orwell had left Jura he rejected
their proposed blurb that portrayed it as "a thriller mixed up with a
love story". He also refused a proposal from the American Book of the
Month Club to release an edition without the appendix and chapter on
Goldstein's book, a decision which Warburg claimed cut off about
£40,000 in sales.
'Nineteen Eighty-Four' was published on 8 June 1949 in Britain; Orwell
predicted earnings of around £500. A first print of 25,575 copies was
followed by a further 5,000 copies in March and August 1950. It had
the most immediate impact in the United States, following its release
there on 13 June 1949 by Harcourt Brace, & Co. An initial print of
20,000 copies was quickly followed by another 10,000 on 1 July, and
again on 7 September. By 1970 over 8 million copies had been sold in
the US, and in 1984 it topped the country's all-time best seller list.
In June 1952 Orwell's widow, Sonia Brownell, sold the sole remaining
manuscript at a charity auction for £50. The draft remains the only
surviving literary manuscript from Orwell, and is held at the John Hay
Library at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, US.
Variant English-language editions
===================================
In the original published UK and US editions of 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'
numerous small variations in the text exist, the US edition altering
Orwell's agreed edit of the text as was typical of publishing
practices of the time in regard to spelling and punctuation, as well
as some small edits and phrasings. While Orwell rejected a proposed
book club edition which would see substantial sections of the book
removed, these minor changes passed somewhat under the radar. Other
more significant revisions and variant texts also exist, however.
In 1984, Peter Davison edited 'Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Facsimile of
the Extant Manuscript', published by Secker and Warburg in Britain and
Harcourt-Brace-Jovanovich in the United States. This reproduced,
page-for-page, Brownell's copy of the original manuscript in
facsimiles, as well as a complete typeset versions of that text,
complete with Orwell's holograph and typewritten pages, and
handwritten amendments and corrections. The book had a preface by
Daniel Segal. It has been reprinted in various international editions
with translated introductions and notes, and reprinted in English in
limited edition formats.
In 1997, Davison produced a definitive text of 'Nineteen Eighty Four'
as part of Secker's 20-volume definitive edition of the 'Complete
Works of George Orwell'. This edition removed errors and reversed
editorial changes in the original editions made without Orwell's
oversight, all based on detailed reference to Orwell's original
manuscript and notes. This text has gone on to be reprinted in various
subsequent paperback editions, including one with an introduction by
the novelist Thomas Pynchon, without obvious note that it is a revised
text, and has been translated as an unexpurgated version of text.
In 2021, Polygon published 'Nineteen Eighty Four: The Jura Edition',
with an introduction by Alex Massie.
Sources for literary motifs
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'Nineteen Eighty-Four' uses themes from life in the Soviet Union and
wartime life in Great Britain as sources for many of its motifs. Some
time at an unspecified date after the first American publication of
the book, the producer Sidney Sheldon wrote to Orwell interested in
adapting the novel to the Broadway stage. Orwell wrote in a letter to
Sheldon (to whom he would sell the US stage rights) that his basic
goal with 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' was imagining the consequences of
Stalinist government ruling British society:
['Nineteen Eighty-Four'] was based chiefly on communism, because that
is the dominant form of totalitarianism, but I was trying chiefly to
imagine what communism would be like if it were firmly rooted in the
English speaking countries, and was no longer a mere extension of the
Russian Foreign Office.
According to Orwell's biographer D. J. Taylor Orwell's 'A Clergyman's
Daughter' (1935) has "essentially the same plot of 'Nineteen
Eighty-Four' ... It's about somebody who is spied upon, and
eavesdropped upon, and oppressed by vast exterior forces they can do
nothing about. It makes an attempt at rebellion and then has to
compromise".
The statement "2 + 2 = 5", used to torment Winston Smith during his
interrogation, was a communist party slogan from the second five-year
plan, which encouraged fulfilment of the five-year plan in four years.
The slogan was seen in electric lights on Moscow house-fronts,
billboards and elsewhere.
The switch of Oceania's allegiance from Eastasia to Eurasia and the
subsequent rewriting of history ("Oceania was at war with Eastasia:
Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia. A large part of the
political literature of five years was now completely obsolete"; ch 9)
is evocative of the Soviet Union's changing relations with Nazi
Germany. The two nations were open and frequently vehement critics of
each other until the signing of the 1939 Treaty of Non-Aggression.
Thereafter, and continuing until the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union
in 1941, no criticism of Germany was allowed in the Soviet press, and
all references to prior party lines stopped--including in the majority
of non-Russian communist parties who tended to follow the Russian
line. Orwell had criticised the Communist Party of Great Britain for
supporting the Treaty in his essays for 'Betrayal of the Left' (1941).
"The Hitler-Stalin pact of August 1939 reversed the Soviet Union's
stated foreign policy. It was too much for many of the
fellow-travellers like Gollancz [Orwell's sometime publisher] who had
put their faith in a strategy of construction Popular Front
governments and the peace bloc between Russia, Britain and France."
The description of Emmanuel Goldstein, with a "small, goatee beard",
evokes the image of Leon Trotsky. The film of Goldstein during the Two
Minutes Hate is described as showing him being transformed into a
bleating sheep. This image was used in a propaganda film during the
Kino-eye period of Soviet film, which showed Trotsky transforming into
a goat. Like Goldstein, Trotsky was a formerly high-ranking party
official who was ostracised and then wrote a book criticising party
rule, 'The Revolution Betrayed', published in 1936.
The omnipresent images of Big Brother, a man described as having a
moustache, bears resemblance to the cult of personality built up
around Joseph Stalin.
The news in Oceania emphasised production figures, just as it did in
the Soviet Union, where record-setting in factories (by "Heroes of
Socialist Labour") was especially glorified. The best known of these
was Alexei Stakhanov, who purportedly set a record for coal mining in
1935.
The tortures of the Ministry of Love evoke the procedures used by the
NKVD in their interrogations, including beatings, deprivation, and
torture through the use of their greatest fear.
The random bombing of Airstrip One is based on the area bombing of
London by Buzz bombs and the V-2 rocket in 1944-1945.
The Thought Police is based on the NKVD, which arrested people for
"anti-Soviet" remarks.
The confessions of the "Thought Criminals" Rutherford, Aaronson and
Jones are based on the show trials of the 1930s, which included
fabricated confessions by the prominent Bolsheviks Nikolai Bukharin,
Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev to the effect that they were being
paid by the Nazi government to undermine the Soviet regime under Leon
Trotsky's direction.
The song "Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree" ("Under the spreading
chestnut tree, I sold you, and you sold me") was based on an old
English song called "Go no more a-rushing" ("Under the spreading
chestnut tree, Where I knelt upon my knee, We were as happy as could
be, 'Neath the spreading chestnut tree."). The song was published as
early as 1891. The song was a popular camp song in the 1920s, sung
with corresponding movements (like touching one's chest when singing
"chest", and touching one's head when singing "nut"). Glenn Miller
recorded the song in 1939.
The "Hates" (Two Minutes Hate and Hate Week) were inspired by the
constant rallies sponsored by party organs throughout the Stalinist
period. These were often short pep-talks given to workers before their
shifts began (Two Minutes Hate), but could also last for days, as in
the annual celebrations of the anniversary of the October Revolution
(Hate Week).
Orwell fictionalised "newspeak", "doublethink" and "Ministry of Truth"
based on both the Soviet press, and British wartime usage, such as
"Miniform". In particular, he adapted Soviet ideological discourse
constructed to ensure that public statements could not be questioned.
Winston Smith's job, "revising history" (and the "unperson" motif) are
based on censorship of images in the Soviet Union, which airbrushed
images of "fallen" people from group photographs and removed
references to them in books and newspapers. In one well-known example,
the second edition of the 'Great Soviet Encyclopedia' had an article
about Lavrentiy Beria. After his fall from power and execution,
subscribers received a letter from the editor instructing them to cut
out and destroy the three-page article on Beria and paste in its place
enclosed replacement pages expanding the adjacent articles on F. W.
Bergholz, the Bering Sea and Bishop Berkeley.
Big Brother's "Orders of the Day" were inspired by Stalin's regular
wartime orders, called by the same name. A small collection of the
more political of these have been published (together with his wartime
speeches) in English as 'On the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet
Union' by Joseph Stalin. Like Big Brother's orders of the day,
Stalin's frequently lauded heroic individuals, like Comrade Ogilvy,
the fictitious hero Winston Smith invented to "rectify" (fabricate) a
Big Brother Order of the day.
The Ingsoc slogan "Our new, happy life", repeated from telescreens,
evokes Stalin's 1935 statement, which became a CPSU slogan, "Life has
become better, Comrades; life has become more cheerful."
In 1940 the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges published "Tlön, Uqbar,
Orbis Tertius", which describes the invention by a "benevolent secret
society" of a world that would seek to remake human language and
reality along human-invented lines. The story concludes with an
appendix describing the success of the project. Borges' story
addresses similar themes of epistemology, language and history to
1984.
During the Second World War Orwell believed British democracy as it
existed before 1939 would not survive; the question being, "Would it
end via Fascist 'coup d'état' from above or via Socialist revolution
from below?" Later he admitted that events proved him wrong: "What
really matters is that I fell into the trap of assuming that 'the war
and the revolution are inseparable'."
In his 1946 essay "Why I Write" Orwell explains that the serious works
he wrote since the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) were "written, directly
or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism".
'Nineteen Eighty-Four' is a cautionary tale about revolution betrayed
by totalitarian defenders previously proposed in 'Homage to Catalonia'
(1938) and 'Animal Farm' (1945), while 'Coming Up for Air' (1939)
celebrates the personal and political freedoms lost in 'Nineteen
Eighty-Four' (1949). The biographer Michael Shelden notes Orwell's
Edwardian childhood at Henley-on-Thames as the golden country; being
bullied at St Cyprian's School as his empathy with victims; his life
in the Indian Imperial Police in Burma and the techniques of violence,
and wartime censorship in the BBC as capricious authority.
Other influences include 'Darkness at Noon' (1940) and 'The Yogi and
the Commissar' (1945) by Arthur Koestler; 'The Iron Heel '(1908) by
Jack London; '1920: Dips into the Near Future' by John A. Hobson;
'Brave New World' (1932) by Aldous Huxley; 'We' (1921) by Yevgeny
Zamyatin which he reviewed in 1946; and 'The Managerial Revolution'
(1940) by James Burnham predicting perpetual war among three
totalitarian superstates. Orwell told the writer Jacintha Buddicom
that he would write a novel stylistically like 'A Modern Utopia'
(1905) by H. G. Wells.
Extrapolating from the Second World War, the novel's pastiche
parallels the politics and rhetoric at war's end--the changed
alliances at the "Cold War's" (1945-91) beginning; the Ministry of
Truth derives from the BBC's overseas service, controlled by the
Ministry of Information during the two World Wars; Room 101 derives
from a conference room at BBC Broadcasting House; the Senate House of
the University of London, containing the Ministry of Information is
the architectural inspiration for the Minitrue; the post-war
decrepitude derives from the socio-political life of the UK and the
US, i.e., the impoverished Britain of 1948 losing its Empire despite
newspaper-reported imperial triumph; and war ally but peace-time foe,
Soviet Russia became Eurasia.
The term "English Socialism" has precedents in Orwell's wartime
writings; in the essay "The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the
English Genius" (1941), he said that "the war and the revolution are
inseparable... the fact that we are at war has turned Socialism from a
textbook word into a realisable policy"--because Britain's
superannuated social class system hindered the war effort and only a
socialist economy would defeat Adolf Hitler. Given the middle class's
grasping this, they too would abide socialist revolution and that only
reactionary Britons would oppose it, thus limiting the force
revolutionaries would need to take power. An English Socialism would
come about which "will never lose touch with the tradition of
compromise and the belief in a law that is above the State. It will
shoot traitors, but it will give them a solemn trial beforehand and
occasionally it will acquit them. It will crush any open revolt
promptly and cruelly, but it will interfere very little with the
spoken and written word."
In the world of 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' "English Socialism" (or
"Ingsoc" in Newspeak) is a totalitarian ideology unlike the English
revolution he foresaw. Comparison of the wartime essay "The Lion and
the Unicorn" with 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' shows that he perceived a Big
Brother regime as a perversion of his cherished socialist ideals and
English Socialism. Thus Oceania is a corruption of the British Empire
he believed would evolve "into a federation of Socialist states, like
a looser and freer version of the Union of Soviet Republics".
Nationalism
=============
'Nineteen Eighty-Four' expands upon the subjects summarised in
Orwell's essay "Notes on Nationalism" about the lack of vocabulary
needed to explain the unrecognised phenomena behind certain political
forces. In 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', the Party's artificial, minimalist
language 'Newspeak' addresses the matter.
* Positive nationalism: For instance, Oceanians' perpetual love for
Big Brother. Orwell argues in the essay that ideologies such as
Neo-Toryism and Celtic nationalism are defined by their obsessive
sense of loyalty to some entity.
* Negative nationalism: For instance, Oceanians' perpetual hatred for
Emmanuel Goldstein. Orwell argues in the essay that ideologies such as
Trotskyism and antisemitism are defined by their obsessive hatred of
some entity.
* Transferred nationalism: For instance, when Oceania's enemy changes,
an orator makes a change mid-sentence, and the crowd instantly
transfers its hatred to the new enemy. Orwell argues that ideologies
such as Stalinism and redirected feelings of racial animus and class
superiority among wealthy intellectuals exemplify this. Transferred
nationalism swiftly redirects emotions from one power unit to another.
In the novel, it happens during Hate Week, a Party rally against the
original enemy. The crowd goes wild and destroys the posters that are
now against their new friend, and many say that they must be the act
of an agent of their new enemy and former friend. Many of the crowd
must have put up the posters before the rally but think that the state
of affairs had always been the case.
O'Brien concludes: "The object of persecution is persecution. The
object of torture is torture. The object of power is power."
Futurology
============
In the novel O'Brien describes the Party's vision of the future:
Censorship
============
One of the most notable themes in 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' is
censorship, especially in the Ministry of Truth, where photographs and
public archives are manipulated to rid them of "unpersons" (people who
have been erased from history by the Party). On the telescreens,
almost all figures of production are grossly exaggerated or simply
fabricated to indicate an ever-growing economy, even during times when
the reality is the opposite. One small example of the endless
censorship is Winston being charged with the task of eliminating a
reference to an unperson in a newspaper article. He also proceeds to
write an article about Comrade Ogilvy, a made-up party member who
allegedly "displayed great heroism by leaping into the sea from a
helicopter so that the dispatches he was carrying would not fall into
enemy hands."
Surveillance
==============
In Oceania the upper and middle classes have very little true privacy.
All of their houses and flats are equipped with two-way telescreens so
that they may be watched or listened to at any time. Similar
telescreens are found at workstations and in public places, along with
hidden microphones. Written correspondence is routinely opened and
read by the government before it is delivered. The Thought Police
employ undercover agents, who pose as normal citizens and report any
person with subversive tendencies. Children are encouraged to report
suspicious persons to the government, and some denounce their parents.
Citizens are controlled, and the smallest sign of rebellion, even
something as small as a suspicious facial expression, can result in
immediate arrest and imprisonment. Thus, citizens are compelled to
obedience.
Poverty and inequality
========================
Almost the entire world lives in poverty; hunger, thirst, disease and
filth are the norms. Ruined cities and towns are common: the
consequence of perpetual wars and extreme economic inefficiency.
Social decay and wrecked buildings surround Winston; aside from the
ministries' headquarters, little of London was rebuilt. Middle-class
citizens and proles consume synthetic foodstuffs and poor-quality
"luxuries" such as oily gin and loosely-packed cigarettes, distributed
under the "Victory" brand, a parody of the low-quality Indian-made
"Victory" cigarettes, which British soldiers commonly smoked during
the Second World War.
Winston describes something as simple as the repair of a broken window
as requiring committee approval that can take several years and so
most of those living in one of the blocks usually do the repairs
themselves (Winston himself is called in by Mrs. Parsons to repair her
blocked sink). All upper-class and middle-class residences include
telescreens that serve both as outlets for propaganda and surveillance
devices that allow the Thought Police to monitor them; they can be
turned down, but the ones in middle-class residences cannot be turned
off.
In contrast to their subordinates, the upper class of Oceanian society
reside in clean and comfortable flats in their own quarters, with
pantries well-stocked with foodstuffs such as wine, real coffee, real
tea, real milk and real sugar, all denied to the general populace.
Winston is astonished that the lifts in O'Brien's building work, the
telescreens can be completely turned off, and O'Brien has an Asian
manservant, Martin. All upper-class citizens are attended to by slaves
captured in the "disputed zone", and "The Book" suggests that many
have their own cars or even helicopters.
However, despite their insulation and overt privileges, the upper
class are still not exempt from the government's brutal restriction of
thought and behaviour, even while lies and propaganda apparently
originate from their own ranks. Instead, the Oceanian government
offers the upper class their "luxuries" in exchange for maintaining
their loyalty to the state; non-conformant upper-class citizens can
still be condemned, tortured, and executed just like any other
individual. "The Book" makes clear that the upper class' living
conditions are only "relatively" comfortable, and would be regarded as
"austere" by those of the pre-revolutionary élite.
The proles live in poverty and are kept sedated with synthetic
entertainment such as pornography, a national lottery whose "big
prizes" are always won by non-existent people, and gin, "which the
proles were not supposed to drink". At the same time, the proles are
freer and less intimidated than the upper classes: they are not
expected to be particularly patriotic and the levels of surveillance
that they are subjected to are very low; they lack telescreens in
their own homes. "The Book" indicates that because the middle class,
not the lower class, traditionally starts revolutions, the model
demands tight control of the middle class, with ambitious Outer-Party
members neutralised via promotion to the Inner Party or
"reintegration" (brainwashing via psychological and physical torture)
by the Ministry of Love, and proles can be allowed intellectual
freedom because they are deemed to lack intellect. Winston nonetheless
believes that "the future belonged to the proles".
The standard of living of the populace is extremely low overall.
Consumer goods are scarce, and those available through official
channels are of low quality; for instance, despite the Party regularly
reporting increased boot production, more than half of the Oceanian
populace goes barefoot. The Party claims that poverty is a necessary
sacrifice for the war effort, and "The Book" confirms that to be
partially correct since the purpose of perpetual war is to consume
surplus industrial production. As "The Book" explains, society is in
fact designed to remain on the brink of starvation, as "In the long
run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty
and ignorance."
Thought monitoring
====================
The Party monitors facial expressions and aims to find out and control
the thoughts of citizens through the "Thought Police" and the
detection and elimination of "thoughtcrime". The Party rejects the
legal principle 'Cogitationis poenam nemo patitur' ("Thought does not
commit a crime").
Critical reception
======================================================================
When it was first published, 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' received critical
acclaim. V. S. Pritchett, reviewing it for the 'New Statesman', wrote:
"I do not think I have ever read a novel more frightening and
depressing; and yet, such are the originality, the suspense, the speed
of writing and withering indignation that it is impossible to put the
book down." P. H. Newby, reviewing 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' for 'The
Listener' magazine, described it as "the most arresting political
novel written by an Englishman since Rex Warner's 'The Aerodrome'."
'Nineteen Eighty-Four' was also praised by Bertrand Russell, E. M.
Forster and Harold Nicolson. On the other hand, Edward Shanks,
reviewing 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' for 'The Sunday Times', was
dismissive, saying 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' "breaks all records for
gloomy vaticination". C. S. Lewis was also critical of the novel,
claiming that the relationship of Julia and Winston, and especially
the Party's view on sex, lacked credibility, and that the setting was
"odious rather than tragic". The historian Isaac Deutscher was far
more critical of Orwell from a Marxist perspective, and characterised
him as a "simple minded anarchist". Deutscher argued that Orwell had
struggled to comprehend the dialectical philosophy of Marxism,
demonstrated personal ambivalence towards other strands of socialism,
and that 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' had been appropriated for the purpose
of anti-communist Cold War propaganda.
Upon its publication many American reviewers interpreted it as a
statement on the socialist policies of the British prime minister,
Clement Attlee, or the policies of Joseph Stalin. Serving as prime
minister from 1945 to 1951, Attlee implemented wide-ranging social
reforms and changes in the British economy following the Second World
War. The American trade union leader Francis A. Hanson wanted to
recommend the book to his members, but was concerned with some of the
reviews it had received, so Orwell wrote a letter to him. In it he
described his novel as a satire, and said:
Throughout its publication history 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' has been
banned and legally challenged as subversive or ideologically
corrupting, like the dystopian novels 'We' (1924) by Yevgeny Zamyatin,
'Brave New World' (1932) by Aldous Huxley, 'Darkness at Noon' (1940)
by Arthur Koestler, 'Kallocain' (1940) by Karin Boye and 'Fahrenheit
451' (1953) by Ray Bradbury.
According to Czesław Miłosz, a defector from Stalinist Poland, the
book also made an impression behind the Iron Curtain. Writing in 'The
Captive Mind', he stated "[a] few have become acquainted with Orwell's
'1984'; because it is both difficult to obtain and dangerous to
possess, it is known only to certain members of the Inner Party.
Orwell fascinates them through his insight into details they know well
... Even those who know Orwell only by hearsay are amazed that a
writer who never lived in Russia should have so keen a perception into
its life." The writer Christopher Hitchens has called this "one of the
greatest compliments that one writer has ever bestowed upon another
... Only one or two years after Orwell's death, in other words, his
book about a secret book circulated only within the Inner Party was
itself a secret book circulated only within the Inner Party."
Adaptations in other media
======================================================================
In the same year as the novel's publishing, a one-hour radio
adaptation featuring David Niven was aired on the NBC radio network as
part of the 'NBC University Theatre' series. The first television
adaptation appeared as part of CBS's 'Studio One' series in September
1953. BBC Television broadcast an adaptation by Nigel Kneale in
December 1954 that was watched by seven million viewers in the UK.
Described as British television's first "watercooler moment" by 'The
Telegraph', the BBC adaptation made a dramatic impact on a fledgling
television audience who were horrified by the graphic depiction of a
totalitarian regime controlling the population, including scenes of
Winston Smith (Peter Cushing) being tormented in Room 101 by rats as
punishment for daring to rebel against totalitarian rule.
The first feature film adaptation, '1984', was released in 1956. A
second feature-length adaptation, 'Nineteen Eighty-Four,' followed in
1984, a reasonably faithful adaptation, which starred John Hurt as
Winston Smith and also featured Richard Burton in his final role. The
story has been adapted several other times to radio, television and
film; other media adaptations include theatre (a musical and a play),
an opera and ballet. The BBC's 2013 Orwell season saw Christopher
Eccleston star as Winston in a BBC Radio 4 adaptation. An audio
dramatisation was released in 2024 to critical acclaim, starring
Andrew Garfield as Winston, Tom Hardy as Big Brother, Cynthia Erivo as
Julia, and Andrew Scott as O'Brien, featuring a score by Matt Bellamy
and Ilan Eshkeri performed by a 60-piece orchestra at Abbey Road
Studios. The 2023 novel 'Julia', written by Sandra Newman, retold the
novel from Julia's perspective. It was published with the permission
of the Orwell estate.
Translations
======================================================================
The novel was banned in the Soviet Union until 1988, when the first
publicly available Russian version in the country, translated by
Vyacheslav Nedoshivin, was published in 'Kodry', a literary journal of
Soviet Moldavia. In 1989 another Russian version, translated by Viktor
Golyshev, was also published. Outside the Soviet Union, the first
Russian version was serialised in the emigre magazine 'Grani' in the
mid-1950s, then published as a book in 1957 in Frankfurt. Another
Russian version, translated by Sergei Tolstoy from a French version,
was published in Rome in 1966. These translations were smuggled into
the Soviet Union and became quite popular among dissidents. Some
underground published translations also appeared in the Soviet Union.
The Soviet philosopher Evald Ilyenkov translated it from German into
Russian.
For the Soviet elite, as early as 1959, according to the order of the
Ideological Department of the Central Committee of the Soviet
Communist Party, the Foreign Literature Publishers secretly issued a
Russian version of the novel, for the senior officers of the Communist
Party.
In the People's Republic of China the first Simplified Chinese
version, translated by Dong Leshan, was serialised in the periodical
'Selected Translations from Foreign Literature' in 1979, for senior
officials and intellectuals deemed politically reliable enough. In
1985 the Chinese version was published by Huacheng Publishing House,
as a restricted publication. It was first available to the general
public in 1988, by the same publisher. Amy Hawkins and Jeffrey
Wasserstrom of 'The Atlantic' stated in 2019 that the book is widely
available in mainland China for several reasons: the general public
largely no longer read books; because the elites who do read books
feel connected to the ruling party anyway; and because the Communist
Party sees being too aggressive in blocking cultural products as a
liability. The authors stated, "It was--and remains--as easy to buy
'1984' and 'Animal Farm' in Shenzhen or Shanghai as it is in London or
Los Angeles." They also stated that "The assumption is not that
Chinese people can't figure out the meaning of '1984', but that the
small number of people who will bother to read it won't pose much of a
threat." The journalist Michael Rank argued that it is only because
the novel is set in London and written by a foreigner that the Chinese
authorities believe it has nothing to do with China.
By 1989 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' had been translated into 65 languages,
more than any other novel in English at that time. The amateur
translator Tsiu Ing-sing's Taiwanese Hokkien translation, which uses
romanisation alongside Chinese characters, was published in 2025.
Cultural impact
======================================================================
The effect of 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' on the English language is
extensive; the concepts of Big Brother, Room 101, the Thought Police,
thoughtcrime, unperson, memory hole (oblivion), doublethink
(simultaneously holding and believing contradictory beliefs) and
Newspeak (ideological language) have become common phrases for
denoting totalitarian authority. Doublespeak and groupthink are both
deliberate elaborations of 'doublethink', and the adjective
"Orwellian" means similar to Orwell's writings, especially 'Nineteen
Eighty-Four'. The practice of ending words with (such as
'mediaspeak') is drawn from the novel. Orwell is perpetually
associated with 1984; in July 1984 an asteroid was discovered by
Antonín Mrkos and named after Orwell.
References to the themes, concepts and plot of 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'
have appeared frequently in other works, especially in popular music
and video entertainment. An example is the worldwide hit reality
television show 'Big Brother', in which a group of people live
together in a large house, isolated from the outside world but
continuously watched by television cameras.
Noam Chomsky adapted Orwell's neologism "unpeople" to describe those
whom the state deems "unfit to enter history" and whom the state
strips of the right to live in order to advance the state's
sovereignty.
In November 2011 the United States federal government argued before
the US Supreme Court that it could continue to use GPS tracking of
individuals without first seeking a warrant. In response, Justice
Stephen Breyer questioned what that means for a democratic society by
referencing 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', stating "If you win this case,
then there is nothing to prevent the police or the government from
monitoring 24 hours a day the public movement of every citizen of the
United States. So if you win, you suddenly produce what sounds like
'1984' ..."
The book touches on the invasion of privacy and ubiquitous
surveillance. From mid-2013 it was publicised that the American
National Security Agency has been secretly monitoring and storing
global internet traffic, including the bulk data collection of email
and phone call data. Sales of 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' increased by up
to seven times within the first week of the 2013 mass surveillance
leaks. The book again topped the Amazon.com sales charts in 2017 after
a controversy involving Kellyanne Conway using the phrase "alternative
facts" to explain discrepancies with the media.
On 5 November 2019 the BBC named 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' on its list of
the 100 most influential novels. In 2020 it was number three on the
list of "Top Check Outs of All Time" by the New York Public Library.
'Nineteen Eighty-Four' entered the public domain on 1 January 2021, 70
years after Orwell's death, in most of the world. It is still under
copyright in the US until 95 years after publication, or 2044.
''Brave New World'' comparisons
======================================================================
In October 1949, after reading 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', Huxley sent a
letter to Orwell in which he argued that it would be more efficient
for rulers to stay in power by the softer touch by allowing citizens
to seek pleasure to control them rather than use brute force. He
wrote:
Whether in actual fact the policy of the boot-on-the-face can go on
indefinitely seems doubtful. My own belief is that the ruling
oligarchy will find less arduous and wasteful ways of governing and of
satisfying its lust for power, and these ways will resemble those
which I described in Brave New World.
...
Within the next generation I believe that the world's rulers will
discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more
efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and
that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by
suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and
kicking them into obedience.
In the decades since the publication of 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', there
have been numerous comparisons to Huxley's 'Brave New World', which
had been published 17 years earlier, in 1932. They are both
predictions of societies dominated by a central government and are
both based on extensions of the trends of their times. However,
members of the ruling class of 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' use brutal
force, torture and harsh mind control to keep individuals in line,
while rulers in 'Brave New World' keep the citizens in line by drugs,
hypnosis, genetic conditioning and pleasurable distractions. Regarding
censorship, in 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' the government tightly controls
information to keep the population in line, but in Huxley's world, so
much information is published that readers are easily distracted and
overlook the information that is relevant.
Elements of both novels can be seen in modern-day societies, with
Huxley's vision being more dominant in the West and Orwell's vision
more prevalent with dictatorships, as is pointed out in essays that
compare the two novels, including Huxley's own 'Brave New World
Revisited'.
Comparisons with later dystopian novels like 'The Handmaid's Tale',
'Virtual Light', 'The Private Eye' and 'The Children of Men' have also
been drawn.
In popular culture
======================================================================
*In 1955 an episode of BBC's 'The Goon Show', '1985', was broadcast,
written by Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes and based on Nigel Kneale's
television adaptation. It was re-recorded about a month later with the
same script but a slightly different cast. '1985' parodies many of the
main scenes in Orwell's novel.
* In 1970 the American rock group Spirit released the song "1984"
based on Orwell's novel.
* In 1973 the ex-Soft Machine bassist Hugh Hopper released an album
called '1984' on the Columbia label (UK), consisting of instrumentals
with Orwellian titles such as "Miniluv", "Minipax", "Minitrue" and so
forth.
* In 1974 David Bowie released the album 'Diamond Dogs', which is
thought to be loosely based on 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'. It includes the
tracks "We Are the Dead", "1984" and "Big Brother". Before the album
was made, Bowie's management (MainMan) had planned for Bowie and
Anthony Ingrassia (MainMan's creative consultant) to co-write and
direct a musical production of Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', but
Orwell's widow refused to give MainMan the rights.
* In 1977 the British rock band the Jam released the album 'This Is
the Modern World', which includes the track "Standards" by Paul
Weller. This track concludes with the lyrics "...and ignorance is
strength, we have God on our side, look, you know what happened to
Winston."
* In 1984 Ridley Scott directed a television commercial, "1984", to
launch Apple's Macintosh computer. The advertisement stated, "1984
won't be like '1984'", suggesting that the Apple Mac would be freedom
from Big Brother, i.e., the IBM PC.
* Rage Against the Machine's 2000 single, "Testify", from their album
'The Battle of Los Angeles', features the use of "The Party" slogan,
"Who controls the past(now), controls the future. Who controls the
present(now), controls the past."
* An episode of 'Doctor Who', "The God Complex", depicts an alien ship
disguised as a hotel containing Room 101-like spaces, and also, like
the novel, quotes the nursery rhyme "Oranges and Lemons".
*Radiohead's 2003 single "2 + 2 = 5", from their album 'Hail to the
Thief', is Orwellian by title and content. Thom Yorke states, "I was
listening to a lot of political programs on BBC Radio 4. I found
myself writing down little nonsense phrases, those Orwellian
euphemisms that [the British and American governments] are so fond of.
They became the background of the record."
* In September 2009 the English rock band Muse released 'The
Resistance', which included songs influenced by 'Nineteen
Eighty-Four'.
*In Marilyn Manson's autobiography 'The Long Hard Road Out of Hell',
he states: "I was thoroughly terrified by the idea of the end of the
world and the Antichrist. So I became obsessed with it... reading
prophetic books like... 1984 by George Orwell..."
* The English band Bastille reference the novel in their song "Back to
the Future", the fifth track on their 2022 album 'Give Me the Future',
in the opening lyrics: "Feels like we danced into a nightmare/We're
living 1984/If doublethink's no longer fiction/We'll dream of Huxley's
Island shores."
* Released in 2004, KAKU P-Model/Susumu Hirasawa's song "Big Brother"
directly references '1984', and the album itself is about a fictional
dystopia in a distant future.
* The Used released a song by the same name, "1984", on their 2020
album 'Heartwork'.
See also
======================================================================
* Closed-circuit television (CCTV)
* Culture of fear
* 'Fahrenheit 451', a similar novel revolving around censorship
* Ideocracy
* List of stories set in a future now in the past
* Mass surveillance
* New World Order (conspiracy theory)
* Scapegoating
* 'V for Vendetta', a similar graphic novel and film
* 'We', a similar novel
* 'Kallocain', a novel that takes place in a similar setting
Further reading
======================================================================
*
* Bloom, Harold, 'George Orwell's' 1984 (2009), Facts on File, Inc.
* Ezio Di Nucci and Stefan Storrie (editors), 1984 'and Philosophy: Is
Resistance Futile?' (2018), Open Court Publishing Company.
* Goldsmith, Jack and Nussbaum, Martha, 'On' Nineteen Eighty-Four':
Orwell and Our Future' (2010), Princeton University Press.
* Hillegas, Mark R. (1967). 'The Future as Nightmare: H. G. Wells and
the Anti-Utopians'. Southern Illinois University Press.
*
*
*
*
* Orwell, George. 1984 (Vietnamese edition), translation by Đặng
Phương-Nghi, French preface by Bertrand Latour .
* Plank, Robert, 'George Orwell's Guide Through Hell: A Psychological
Study of' 1984 (1994), Borgo Pres.
*
*
* Taylor, D. J. 'On' Nineteen Eighty-Four': A Biography' (2019),
Abrams.
*
* Waddell, Nathan (editor), 'The Cambridge Companion to' Nineteen
Eighty-Four (2020), Cambridge University Press.
*
External links
======================================================================
*
* [
http://www.bl.uk/works/nineteen-eighty-four 'Nineteen Eighty-Four']
() at the British Library
* [
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1168091W/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
'Nineteen Eighty-Four'] at the Open Library
*
*
[
https://archive.org/download/TheaterGuildontheAir/Tgoa_53-04-26_ep150-1984.mp3
1953 'Theatre Guild on the Air' radio adaptation] at the Internet
Archive
*
[
http://www.londonfictions.com/george-orwell-nineteen-eighty-four.html
Historian Sarah Wise on the London of 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' on the
London Fictions website]
*
Electronic editions
=====================
*
* [
http://orwell.ru/library/novels/1984/english/ George Orwell--Eric
Arthur Blair]
* [
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt Project Gutenberg
Australia (e-text)]
*
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20090207061037/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/o/orwell/george/o79n/complete.html
HTML and EPUB editions from The University of Adelaide Library]
* [
http://www.samizdat.qc.ca/arts/lit/PDFs/1984_GO.pdf Nineteen
Eighty-Four] (Canadian public domain Ebook - PDF)
License
=========
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Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
