Nineteen Eighty-Four

Probably the definitive novel of the 20th century, a story that remains eternally fresh and contemporary . . . Nineteen Eighty-Four has been translated into more than 65 languages and sold millions of copies worldwide, giving George Orwell a unique place in world literature. -- Robert McCrum * Guardian * Its almost impossible to talk about propaganda, surveillance, authoritarian politics, or perversions of truth without dropping a reference to 1984 . . . It is both a profound political essay and a shocking, heartbreaking work of art. -- Atlantic * George Packer * [1984] does what every novel in the genre should do combining the illumination of an intriguing idea and the telling of a cracking story . . . The book succeeds because it is no manifesto, but an absorbing, deeply affecting story. * Independent * I read it and found myself absolutely astonished at what I read. -- Isaac Asimov Nineteen Eighty-Four is a work of pure horror, and its horror is crushingly immediate. * New York Times (original review) *

Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell) was born in 1903 in India, where his father was a civil servant. After studying at Eton College, he served with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma for several years, and this inspired his first novel, Burmese Days. After two years in Paris, he returned to England to work as a teacher and then in a bookshop. In 1936 he travelled to Spain to fight for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, where he was badly wounded. During the Second World War he worked for the BBC. A prolific journalist and essayist, Orwell wrote some of the most influential books in English literature, including the dystopian Nineteen Eighty-Four and his political allegory Animal Farm. He died from tuberculosis in 1950.