SynopsisA dystopian novel, 1984 is one of the most influential works of the twentieth century by George Orwell._x000D_
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1984 is set in Oceania, one of three inter-continental super states that divided the world after a global war._x000D_
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The protagonist Winston Smith is a member of the Outer Party, works in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth as an editor, revising historical records, deleting references to people who have been "vaporised". The city is ruled by a mysterious leader known as Big Brother. Telescreens,microphones and cameras are installed in every building that allows the Thought Police to identify anyone who might compromise the Party's regime. People there are afraid for being arrested for thought crime due to the infraction of expressing thoughts contradictory to the Party's ideology._x000D_
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Smith tries to get more information about the true past, and purchases an old journal in an antiques shop in a proletarian neighbourhood of London. In a place beside his flat's telescreen where he believes he cannot be seen, he begins writing a journal criticizing the Party and its enigmatic leader, Big Brother. By doing so, he commits a crime that, if discovered by the Thought Police, warrants certain death. Winston quickly resigns himself to the fact that he will eventually be arrested for thought crime. In the journal, he records his sexual frustration over a young woman maintaining the novel-writing machines at the ministry named Julia, whom Winston is attracted to but suspects is an informant…._x000D_
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A love story set in the background of war, confusion, doubts, insanity and manipulations, 1984 is classic in its content, plot and style. _x000D_
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In 2005, the novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels. In 2003, the novel was listed at number 8 on the BBC's survey The Big Read._x000D_
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Embassy Books proudly presents this book as part of the Embassy Classics Series, which comprises of some of the finest literary works of great authors.
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Binding: PaperBack
About the author
Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell) was born in 1903 in India, where his father worked for the Civil Service. The family moved to England in 1907 and in 1917 Orwell entered Eton, where he contributed regularly to the various college magazines. From 1922 to 1927 he served with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, an experience that inspired his first novel, Burmese Days (1934). Several years of poverty followed. He lived in Paris for two years before returning to England, where he worked successively as a private tutor, schoolteacher and bookshop assistant, and contributed reviews and articles to a number of periodicals. Down and Out in Paris and London was published in 1933. In 1936 he was commissioned by Victor Gollancz to visit areas of mass unemployment in Lancashire and Yorkshire, and The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) is a powerful description of the poverty he saw there. At the end of 1936 Orwell went to Spain to fight for the Republicans and was wounded. Homage to Catalonia is his account of the civil war. He was admitted to a sanatorium in 1938 and from then on was never fully fit. He spent six months in Morocco and there wrote Coming Up for Air. During the Second World War he served in the Home Guard and worked for the BBC Eastern Service from 1941 to 1943. As literary editor of the Tribune he contributed a regular page of political and literary commentary, and he also wrote for the Observer and later for the Manchester Evening News. His unique political allegory, Animal Farm was published in 1945, and it was this novel, together with Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), which brought him world-wide fame. George Orwell died in London in January 1950.
