Name: 1984
ISBN: 9780547249643

George Orwell

George Orwell’s 1984 takes on new life with extraordinary relevance and renewed popularity. “Orwell saw, to his credit, that the act of falsifying reality is only secondarily a way of changing perceptions. It is, above all, a way of asserting power.”—The New Yorker In 1984, London is a grim city in the totalitarian state of Oceania where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston Smith is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be. Lionel Trilling said of Orwell’s masterpiece, “1984 is a profound, terrifying, and wholly fascinating book. It is a fantasy of the political future, and like any such fantasy, serves its author as a magnifying device for an examination of the present.” Though the year 1984 now exists in the past, Orwell’s novel remains an urgent call for the individual willing to speak truth to power.

1984

abrildarocha

Evie Sprite

Neesha Balapitiya 

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.

Aina

In a way, the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird.

🍵

Moira

Lucik

Franzi

To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free. when men are different from one another and do not live alone-to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone: From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from e age of Big Brother, from the age of doublethink-greetings!

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past”

Abby

He tried to squeeze out some childhood memory that should tell him whether London had always been quite like this. 

It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. 

…he couldn’t remember: nothing remained of his childhood except a series of bright-lit tableaux, occurring against no background and mostly unintelligible.

It was curious that he seemed not merely to have lost the power of expressing himself, but even to have forgotten what it was that he had originally intended to say. 

In a lucid moment Winston found that he was shouting with the others and kicking his heel violently against the rung of his chair. The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within tirty seconds any pretence was always unnecessary. 

And yet the rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blow lamp.

literally rip your own dick off and bleed out winston you unloveable fuck :

Suddenly, by the sort of violent effort with which one wrenches one's head away from the pillow in a nightmare, Winston succeeded in transferring his hatred from the face on the screen to the dark-haired girl behind him. Vivid, beautiful hallucinations flashed through his mind. He would flog her to death with a rubber truncheon. He would tie her naked to a stake and shoot her full of arrows like Saint Sebastian. He would ravish her and cut her throat at the moment of climax. Better than before, moreover, he realized wby it was that he hated her. He hated her because she was young and pretty and sexless, because he wanted to go to bed with her and would never do so, because round her sweet supple waist, which seemed to ask you to encircle it with your arm, there wAs only the odious scarlet sash, aggressive symbol of chastity. 

1984, published in 1949, is a dystopian and satirical novel. It revolves around Winston Smith, who lives in a nation called Oceania, in a province called Airstrip One, which represents present-day England. This state is controlled by the Party, headed by a mysterious leader who is addressed as Emmanuel Goldstein, also known as the Big Brother. The Party watches every single move that Smith and other citizens make. The nation's language and history is forcefully changed for the benefit of the Party. A new language, Newspeak, is being compulsively implemented to ensure works that have anything to do with political rebellion are omitted. In Oceania, even rebellious thoughts are illegal and are said to be the worst of all crimes. The people are suppressed and any form of individuality is not tolerated, including love and sex. Smith works as a low-ranking member of the Party who alters historical records. He hates the Party and thus buys an illegal diary in which he pens down his thoughts. He meets Julia, a coworker, who seems to been romantically inclined towards him. He however doubts that she is a Party spy who will get him imprisoned for his 'thoughtcrimes'. Her love turns out to be true and they have a covert affair. Smith's hatred for the Party grows day by day and he is convinced that a powerful Party official O'Brien is actually trying to overthrow the present government with the help of a secret group named the Brotherhood. As the story goes on, readers learn the twists and turns that life in Oceania has in store for Smith. He faces terror, betrayal, freedom, and a broken spirit. 1984 is the author's haunting vision of the future. The book has been adapted into television programmes, films, radio broadcasts and plays. In 2003, the book was number 8 on BBC's survey The Big Read. It was 6th and 13th on the reader's and editor's list of Modern Library 100 Best Novels, respectively. In 2005, it was added to the 100 Best English Language Novel from 1923 to 2005 by TIME magazine. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell (1903-1950), was an English author and journalist. His work is marked by keen intelligence and wit, a profound awareness of social injustice, an intense opposition to totalitarianism, a passion for clarity in language, and a belief in democratic socialism. In addition to his literary career Orwell served as a police officer with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma from 1922-1927 and fought with the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1937. He was severely wounded when he was shot through his throat. Orwell and his wife were accused of 'Rabid Trotskyism' and tried in absentia in Barcelona, along with other leaders of the POUM, in 1938. However by then they had escaped from Spain and returned to England. Between 1941 and 1943, Orwell worked on propaganda for the BBC. In 1943, he became literary editor of the Tribune, a weekly left-wing magazine. He was a prolific polemical journalist, article writer, literary critic, reviewer, poet and writer of fiction, and considered perhaps the twentieth century's best chronicler of English culture. Orwell is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (published in 1949) and the satirical novella Animal Farm (1945)-they have together sold more copies than any two books by any other twentieth-century author. His 1938 book Homage to Catalonia, an account of his experiences as a volunteer on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, together with numerous essays on politics, literature, language, and culture, are widely acclaimed. In 2008, The Times ranked him second on a list of 'The 50 greatest British writers since 1945'.

Soph

Library Edition

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Rushikesh Gaikwad

Parts in 1984 that stood out to me and gave me Deja Vu:

"It was always at night--the arrests invariably happened at night. The sudden jerk out of sleep, the rough hand shaking your shoulder, the lights glaring in your eyes, the ring of hard faces round the bed. In the vast majority of cases there was no trial, no report of the arrest. People simply disappeared, always during the night. Your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten. You were abolished, annihilated: vaporized was the usual word. (From Chapter 1 of Part 1).

"6079 Smith W! Yes, you! Bend lower, please! You can do better than that. You're not trying. Lower, please! That's better, comrade. Now stand at ease, the whole squad, and watch me!" (From Chapter 3 of Part 1)

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." (Chapter 7, Part 1)

The entire passage about the Inner Party is important but i want to focus on "The two aims of the Party are to conquer the whole surface of the earth and to extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent thought." (Chapter 9, Part 2)

" 'Down with Big Brother!' Yes, I said that! Said it over and over again, it seems. Between you and me, old man, I'm glad they got me before it went any further. Do you know what I'm going to say to them when I go up before the tribunal? 'Thank you,' I'm going to say, 'thank you for saving my before it was too late.' "

"It was my little daughter," said Parsons with a sort of doleful pride."

Susan

Parts in 1984 that stood out to me and gave me Deja Vu:

"It was always at night--the arrests invariably happened at night. The sudden jerk out of sleep, the rough hand shaking your shoulder, the lights glaring in your eyes, the ring of hard faces round the bed. In the vast majority of cases there was no trial, no report of the arrest. People simply disappeared, always during the night. Your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten. You were abolished, annihilated: vaporized was the usual word. (From Chapter 1 of Part 1).

"6079 Smith W! Yes, you! Bend lower, please! You can do better than that. You're not trying. Lower, please! That's better, comrade. Now stand at ease, the whole squad, and watch me!" (From Chapter 3 of Part 1)

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." (Chapter 7, Part 1)

The entire passage about the Inner Party is important but i want to focus on "The two aims of the Party are to conquer the whole surface of the earth and to extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent thought." (Chapter 9, Part 2)

" 'Down with Big Brother!' Yes, I said that! Said it over and over again, it seems. Between you and me, old man, I'm glad they got me before it went any further. Do you know what I'm going to say to them when I go up before the tribunal? 'Thank you,' I'm going to say, 'thank you for saving my before it was too late.' "

"Who denounced you?" said Winston.

"It was my little daughter," said Parsons with a sort of doleful pride."

(Chapter 1, Part 3)

I’m starting to realise the classics are classic for a reason lol 

amy isabella

One of the most unforgettable allegories of all time. The blackest mirror a reader will ever peer into.

Blake Dickson

I know a sound is still a sound around no one

I didn’t live through 1984, but somehow… it feels like I’m living 

 it. Surveillance, manipulation, thought control, things that once felt distant now feel eerily familiar. It’s not just a book about a dystopia.

It’s a manual the world seems to be quietly following, one update at a time.

Tanishq Khandelwal

I didn’t live through 1984, but somehow… it feels like I’m living in it. Surveillance, manipulation, thought control, things that once felt distant now feel eerily familiar. It’s not just a book about a dystopia.
It’s a manual the world seems to be quietly following, one update at a time.

The way this world is built, described and live in has not left me, absolute classic

Sam Uhe

Pedro Teixeira

1984 is undoubtedly my favorite book. It leaves me speechless every time I read it, and the story still resonates with current events. A timeless book.

Sherilyn Bourillon 

gishelle

How can one come up with such a plot? It’s literally insane to me how George Orwell just sat down and started coming up with this insane world with a whole new language, system, behaviours and words and it all makes so much sense and no sense at all, all at the same time. It’s literally insane. And then the fact that our main character is literally a prick, a weirdo, high key evil and has some… interesting thoughts but even towards the end I just feel sick for him. It’s so crazy. The party are mad. The proles are lowkey living life. The outer party are literally all brainwashed it’s insane. O’Brien is actually an opp. This book was a great commentary on social society, and how our world conforms to the plot of this book today. 

surtified™

How can one come up with such a plot? It’s literally insane to me how George Orwell just sat down and started coming up with this insane world with a whole new language, system, behaviours and words and it all makes so much sense and no sense at all, all at the same time. It’s literally insane. And then the fact that our main character is literally a prick, a weirdo, high key evil and has some… interesting thoughts but even towards the end I just feel sick for him. It’s so crazy. The party are mad. The proles are lowkey living life. The outer party are literally all brainwashed it’s insane. O’Brien is actually an opp. This book was a great commentary on social society, and how our world conforms to the plot of this book today. 

Crazy. Book. Would recommend. 

um livro ok, enrolado em muitos momentos e começa a ficar interessante mais pro final 

camile

This story highlights the bleak reality of totalitarian regimes and how easily they can infiltrate the minds of their citizens. People don’t like to believe they’re as susceptible as they are, but throughout history — and even today — we see the systematic efforts government forces put into controlling the population and how effective it is. It’s unfortunate that this story is still as relevant as it is today. There’s strong imagery of both rebellion and what happens when people are broken down by the system, and while I found myself annoyed at the characters throughout the story, I understand their actions. To me, Winston is a very unlikable man, but I still found myself sympathetic to aspects of his story.

Overall, I enjoyed this a lot. I just wish some of the pacing was different, and there was a section where my engagement with the text started to wane, disrupting my focus.

Nik ✨

This story highlights the bleak reality of totalitarian regimes and how easily they can infiltrate the minds of their citizens. People don’t like to believe they’re as susceptible as they are, but throughout history — and even today — we see the systematic efforts government forces put into controlling the population and how effective it is. It’s unfortunate that this story is still as relevant as it is today. There’s strong imagery of both rebellion and what happens when people are broken down by the system, and while I found myself annoyed at the characters throughout the story, I understand their actions. To me, Winston is a very unlikable man, but I still found myself sympathetic to aspects of his story.

Overall, I enjoyed this a lot. I just wish some of the pacing was different, and there was a section where my engagement with the text started to wane, disrupting my focus.

I need a moment of silence and peace after this please

Agnese

Ani Velasquez

incredible book, renewed my love for reading and books, got me thinking deeply about our current relationship with surveillance and media, as well as where society is heading for in the future.

Reflecting the time it was created it is a masterpiece with some small critic points. It is a depressing but catching story, with a longer excursus into world politics and conspiracies. 5 stars from a release date perspective, 4.5 stars for todays standards. Impressive how accurate it still is.

J Fra

ophelia ross 

Holy fuck this depressing-ass book… I’m so glad I only read this now and wasn’t forced to read it in secondary school because I don’t think I would have appreciated it as much as I do right now. Loved “Goldstein’s book”, and I love love loved how Orwell expanded on the control of thought via language. I.e. the entire Appendix was so interesting… 4.5 stars because I almost gave up at Part One and also because I really do not like Winston unfortunately. — “Can you not understand, Winston, that the individual is only a cell? The weariness of the cell is the vigor of the organism. Do you die when you cut your fingernails?”

Nicole

The closest thing to the term "Timeless classic"

I consider the way Orwell portray absolute control to be absolutely haunting. History is not just blurred, it's fictitious. Freedom is stripped to its most naked form that even the freedom to think is taken.

1984 is not just a contemplative critic to authoritarianism, it's also a warning to society. This is what happens if you let power unchecked for too long.

catto fishu

The closest thing to the term "Timeless classic"

I consider the way Orwell portray absolute control to be absolutely haunting. History is not just blurred, it's fictitious. Freedom is stripped to its most naked form that even the freedom to think is taken.

1984 is not just a contemplative critic to authoritarianism, it's also a warning to society. This is what happens if you let power unchecked for too long.

How it was illustrated with his writing is what i appreciate about this book 

Rusydi Aman

first this year and it was RUFFFFF. felt cool after reading! i'm amazedd

Tina Villarete

“The command of the old despotisms was ‘Thou shalt not’. The command of the totalitarians was ‘Thou shalt’. Our command is ‘Thou art’.” 

Wow. To control a language is to control entire modes of thought. The end of this book was stomach churning and made me feel ill, however it was also the best part of it. Extremely thought provoking stuff. The characters were fine but maybe lacked more depth to them. The overall message of the story is something I’ll be thinking about and unpacking for a long, long time. 

Brittany Halladay

“The command of the old despotisms was ‘Thou shalt not’. The command of the totalitarians was ‘Thou shalt’. Our command is ‘Thou art’.” 

Wow. To control a language is to control entire modes of thought. The end of this book was stomach churning and made me feel ill, however it was also the best part of it. Extremely thought provoking stuff. The characters were fine but maybe lacked more depth to them. The overall message of the story is something I’ll be thinking about and unpacking for a long, long time. 