Customer Reviews

Nineteen Eighty-Four

5 star:		(370)
4 star:		(61)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

but once you start, you can't stop. This book will set you off on a course of incredible cynicism. It didn't change the world then, it won't now. But as both a work of dark fiction and a political masterpiece, this book is inspiring.

Often described as a book showing "a nightmare feature", it's easy to see the parallels between Orwell's vision and our society, which makes the book all the more compelling.

The entire book is good, but it is section 3 which is the blackest, and the most absorbing. Without giving much away, it fights back against the messages of freedom and hope. Ingsoc is forever.

An excellent book, on oh-so many levels.

Do not buy this book if you're expecting to find out anything at all about 1984, as this writer seems to have been living on a different planet. I was trying to do a bit of research into the influence of New Wave on cross-over dance music in the Mid-Eighties, but I found "1984" a complete waste of time... Jackson's "Thriller"?(the soundtrack of the summer, and the biggest selling album of all-time) - not mentioned; Frankie Goes To Hollywood (their breakthrough year leading to world pop domination) - not a whisper; Style Council? (Not Paul Weller's finest hour, but still an honest nod to the white soul roots of Mod culture) - you'd have thought they didn't exist if you read this book. Nik Kershaw? Ray Parker Junior? Sister Sledge? Nope, nope nope. Instead this man seems to have moped around in his room and at work, watching some kind of depressing news channel (was his remote broken? This isn't explained - but you'd have thought they'd have had MTV on at least one of the channels in his office). Orwell completely fails to capture the uplifting vibe that was the pop explosion of the summer of '84... maybe he lived in Norwood. 0 Stars.
Oh, and don't read "the Road to Wigan Pier" either, as we drove around for ages last August Bank Holiday before asking a traffic warden, who said that the sea was about 30 miles away, by which time it was too late. I don't think Orwell had actually ever been to Wigan. What does he do - just sit in his room making this stuff up for kicks or something? 0 stars also."

Thought provoking, and disturbing, vision of a possible future that demonstrates what the practical application of the Communist ideal might possibly result in, due to the weakness of human nature. It isn't as easy to read as Animal Farm (which also deals with communism) but it is well worth the effort. It demonstrates the importance of 1984 when you discover that phrases such as, Room 101 and, Big Brother originated in this book. It's frightening to think that some aspects of what Orwell predicted in a communist future do exist in western culture and that the life led by Winston Smith might be very close to what life is like for some anti-communist people in China etc. I would also recommend that you read A Brave New World, which deals with what might become of capitalist society.

Like many others I picked up this book because I felt somewhat obligated to read it based on all the rave reviews and while I don't regret reading it, it was somewhat underwhelming. The theme has been rehashed many times between a host of other dystopian novels and films (Equilibrium and V for Vendetta figure prominently in my mind although I could list plenty others) that the raw edge has worn off.

Orwell's predominating style in 1984 is one of analysis. The how of Big Brother/Ingsoc came to power, the methods employed to maintain that power and the relationship between Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia that ensures global domination of a totalitarian ideology. Personally, the emphasis on the ideology of political parties, the social issues of Oceania and geopolitical machinations made the first two thirds of the novel quite plodding. Very few characters make an appearance in 1984 and those that do are typically overshadowed (especially Julia) by the complete focus on Winston whose speculations and theories feature eminently in conjunction with Orwell's analytical style.

It wasn't until roughly the last third of the book that I even began to feel the smallest amount of affinity for the characters. To be honest, very little actually happens in 1984 at all. It largely consists of characters either lying around pondering futility or the nature of reality. And while I can appreciate the gravity of the world Orwell fleshed out and the aspects dealing with the metaphysical, the philosophical and the human mind none of it made an emotional impression on me. I felt nothing for the characters when the final page was turned.

In closing, would I re-read 1984? - Probably not.

First published in 1948, this is still relevant, rivetting and utterly terrifying. Orwell's assessment of how power always corrupts may not be subtle but still feels very real. Despite his use of Ingsoc ("English Socialism") this isn't about party politics, and focuses instead on extremity whether right- or left-wing.

But despite the didactic and polemic purpose of the novel, Orwell never falls into the trap of other political commentators: the message doesn't replace the fiction, but is the fiction. Winston Smith, a kind of everyman, is someone we sympathise and empathise with not only because of his rebellion against the system, but because he retains a sense of humanity that has been overwhelmingly lost. Even his slightly feeble bumbling, and satisfaction in his job is spot on: there are no heroes in 1984.

My only slight quibble is that the love affair between Winston and Julia is so conveniently Mills & Boon: she declares her love and that's it, boom, they're in love... However that isn't of course what Orwell is interested in and so we just have to accept it. Given the time in which it was written there is a kind of subversive sensuality about Julia that was perhaps more shocking than it is now. But the betrayal at the end only has its true impact if we believe they really did love (or at least believe they loved).

But small quibble apart, this is a shockingly relevant book. Worth reading alongside very modern writing such as Standard Operating Procedure: A War Story and (more frivolously, but still importantly) Little Brother for a contemporary discussion of the erosion of civil liberties in the name of anti-terrorism.

I'll make this very short for you.

Look at the world today.

Read this book.

Then, look at the world today again.

And if you don't see the eerie prophetic imagery put across in this novel (which has since it's creation pretty much become all but a reality), then I doubt there's any hope for you. At all. Sorry.

Many people have misread this book as a critique of socialism and attempted to use Orwell's texts Animal Farm and 1984 to argue against a classless society. Anyone in doubts as to Orwell's political beliefs should read his phenomenal work "Homage to Catalonia". This book tels of how he fought for the POUM (an anti-stalinist marxist militia) in the Spanish trenches against the Franco and his fascist goons. He has impeccable socialist credentials (outlined again in "Down and out in Paris and London") and was a self-professed "revolutionary socialist". Orwell would have cheered the fall of the Berlin Wall but he would not have described the west as democratic. In fact his novel stands as a criticism of modern western culture just as much as it stands as a criticism of the former soviet union. The importance of reading this novel is that it can help the reader understand elements of population control even in our democratic west. Another novel that stings modern society as 1984 does is Huxley's "Brave New World". Even though 1984 and Brave new world are relatively old as political texts they provide a sinisterly accurate potrayal of the world in which we live.

I first read this novel way back in 1983 as a teenager and I enjoyed it then , but it was much more terrifying reading it again in 2003. Who can deny that today's society is not unlike the society that Orwell depicted in "1984" ? For Ingsoc and ThoughtCrime , read New Labour and Political Correctness , for Doublethink , read Spin and for Newspeak , read Dumbing Down. Free thinkers and non-conformists in the modern day , who have a reflex antipathy to tyranny and lies , will empathise with Winston Smith's dilemmas in this book. For instance , we are now in an open-ended "War on Terror" ,fighting all kinds of Goldsteinian figures like Saddam and Bin Laden, who not so long ago were allies of the West, but this has been effectively airbrushed out of history by the mass media.A subtle form of Doublethink that Winston Smith would have recognised.

Films like "Minority Report" were inspired by Orwell's exposition of ThoughtCrime in "1984" and one has to ask if this concept is so far away in reality given the rate of technological advances today ?

Winston Smith is brave, idealistic and naive and he is surrounded by all kinds of two faced schemers who betray him. The philosopher-king , O'Brien, is a superb creation of Orwell - a truly terrifying character with whom Winston has a curious love/hate relationship. Part III of this novel is quite simply one of the most memorable and disturbing pieces of literature that you are ever likely to read.

On one level this novel could be seen as having been influenced by the totalitarian horrors of Hitler and Stalin - which it was , but I prefer to see Orwell as more of a visionary , writing about things to come; a society of total control by an invisible elite, where no-one can be taken at face value and where even your very thoughts were not free.A subtler totalitarianism over the mind as well as the body. Maybe Orwells society will eventually come to pass by 2084, but certainly many aspects of it are in place today.

"1984" works on all levels ; as a satire , as a vision , as a love story and as a thriller. However it is quite harrowing , relentlessly pessimistic and may not be to everyone's taste, however I would recommend it highly.

Winston Smith is an uninteresting man in a sea of totalitarian oppression. He is a man under the watchful eye of the omnipotent 'Big Brother' a political party that reigns over Oceania. But Winston is also a man who is fed up of living under the depressive regime and sets out to become a part of a socialistic upheaval. He is set on quitting his job within the political sector, join forces with the 'Proles' who live in the slums of the city and rise up against the government.

This is a depressing book. A book that although 60 years old, mirrors our world quite shockingly. 1984 is a classic, and rightly so. Although not a greatly told story, it is an important one and enjoyable enough.

Should be called 2007, and then the title of the book changed as the years progress.