Readings Classics: 1984

Description

First published in 1949, 1984 is George Orwell’s terrifying vision of a totalitarian future in which everything and everyone is slave to a tyrannical regime.

‘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 skillfully 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.

Author Biography

Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell) was born on June 25, 1903 in Bihar, India. He was educated in England. At 19, Orwell joined the Imperial Police. He was posted in Burma (Myanmar) where he lived until his resignation. Afterwards, he stayed briefly in London and then spent two years in Paris where he worked as a journalist. Upon his return to England, Orwell worked succinctly as a schoolteacher and then went on to fight for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. He was wounded in the war and went to Morocco for six months. Orwell contracted tuberculosis in the following years and although he continued his life in the same fashion, he was never ever fit. He died on January 21, 1950.