Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #171798 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-03
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Synopsis
A satire on the horrors of totalitarianism, "Nineteen Eighty-Four" is set in a society run by Big Brother where people are made to conform to orthodoxy by the Thought Police. Winston Smith yearns for truth and liberty, but he comes to realize that he cannot outwit the forces at work.

Customer Reviews

Deviates corrected for their own good
In a society that has eliminated many imbalances, surplus goods, and even class struggle, there are bound to be deviates; Winston Smith is one of those. He starts out, due to his inability to doublethink, with thoughtcrime. This is in a society that believes a thought is as real as the deed. Eventually he graduates through a series of misdemeanors to illicit sex and even plans to overthrow the very government that took him in as an orphan.

If he gets caught, he will be sent to the "Ministry of Love" where they have a record of 100% cures for this sort of insanity. They will even forgive his past indiscretions.

Be sure to watch the three different movies made from this book:
1984 (1954) Peter Cushing is Winston Smith
1984 (1956) Edmond O'Brien is Winston Smith
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) John Hurt is Winston Smith

Has the warning came to late?
1984 is George Orwell's frightening view of the (inevitable) future.
In 1984 George Orwell describes a society ruled by a figure (who may or may not exist) called Big Brother. Big Brother (head of a party called ingsoc) is in control of every aspect of life in Oceana (the new name for Britain). Ingsoc is an oppressive regime based on propoganda, war, lies and fear mongering. Ingsoc's maintain's it's control through it's all seeing and all hearing telescreens and it's highly efficient emotion seeking thought police who's mission it is to seek out enemies of big brother.
This book is abnormally good and should be seen as a warning to future generations about totalitarean governments and oppression. With Bush and his regime in power and Britain becoming more and more like a police state, has the warning came to late?

Is this the future?
The introduction to this edition of 1984 proposes that because the year has passed and the world has not turned into Orwell's nightmare the book has lost its edge. On reading the novel this is clearly not the case! This is book is about the potential for the future not about 1984. I first read this book at school some 10 years ago now and on re-reading it becomes apparent that indeed some of Orwell's predicitions have come true in that time, the introduction of the lottery for instance. I highly recommend this book for anyone. It seems pure fantasy but makes you think and wonder. It makes you wonder could it be possible or indeed is it already happening.