ABOUT THE BOOK:
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.[5] 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.
REVIEW BY DANIA: N.A
OTHER INFORMATION:
Nineteen Eighty-Four has 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”. Time included the novel on its list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. It was placed on the Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels list. In 2003, it was listed at number eight on The Big Read survey by the BBC.
TRIGGER WARNINGS:
1. Gaslighting
2. Sexually explicit scenes
3. Torture
4. Violence
