The book’s origins: Orwell first outlined his idea for a novel about the future, around the end of 1943, but it would be another five years before he typed the final words. Much of his writing was preoccupied with the importance of speaking the truth and the risk to both individuals and societies when states attempt to censor and manipulate speech. These days, many of us are more familiar with Big Brother as being the reality TV show than the mustachioed face that watches over everyone in Orwell’s book.Īs a talented author, Orwell’s words - and he produced almost two million of them over the course of a two decade career - have found a place within everyday vernacular and enriched the English language. Much has been written about it over the years: A dystopian world of institutional control and total surveillance, ‘thoughtcrime’, ‘doublethink’, political suppression and endless war, and a government that controls culture to the point it destroys its citizens’ ability to think independently. Introduction: Published in 1948, Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of the most significant and influential novels of the 20th century.
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