Nineteen Eighty-Four (Penguin Modern Classics)

Orwell, George

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141393041 ISBN 13: 9780141393049

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2013

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'

'Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past'

Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescreens and the watchful eye of Big Brother, symbolic head of the Party. In his longing for truth and liberty, Smith begins a secret love affair with a fellow-worker Julia, but soon discovers the true price of freedom is betrayal.

George Orwell's dystopian masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four is perhaps the most pervasively influential book of the twentieth century.

Review:

"My favourite book is 1984 . . . More relevant to today than almost any other book that you can think of" (Jo Brand)

"His final masterpiece . . . enthralling and indispensable for understanding modern history" (New York Review of Books)

"The book of the twentieth century . . . haunts us with an ever-darker relevance" (Independent)

"Orwell remains the most indispensable English writer of his period" (Observer)

"One of the most influential English writers of the twentieth century" (Robert McCrum Observer)

"Many writers and journalists have tried to imitate his particular kind of clarity without possessing anything like his moral authority" (Peter Ackroyd The Times)

"Matchlessly sharp and fresh . . . The clearest and most compelling English prose style this century" (John Carey Sunday Times)

"Orwell's innocent eye was often devastatingly perceptive . . . a man who looked at his world with wonder and wrote down exactly what he saw, in admirable prose" (Evening Standard)

"The great moral force of his age . . . It is impossible not to be elated by his literary and political writing . . . the most lovable of writers, someone whose books can make the reader long for his company" (Spectator)

Book Description:

George Orwell's dystopian masterpiece - one of the definitive and most influential novels of the nineteenth century. Now available as an unabridged audiobook.