Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four: Text, Sources, Criticism

Among the seminal texts of the 20th century, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a rare work that grows more haunting as its futuristic purgatory becomes more real. Published in 1949, the book offers political satirist George Orwell’s nightmare vision of a totalitarian, bureaucratic world and one poor stiff’s attempt to find individuality. The brilliance of the novel is Orwell’s prescience of modern life–the ubiquity of television, the distortion of the language–and his ability to construct such a thorough version of hell. Required reading for students since it was published, it ranks among the most terrifying novels ever written. This version evaluates the text with sources and criticism with David Levin, Professor of English at the University of Virginia as the Editor. Orwell dramatized the extreme possibilities of a totalitarian state going beyond the regimes of Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. Orwell prophesied 1. The Ministry of Truth 2. Big Brother 3. Telescreen (ie..television) becomes the educator and behavior monitor 5. Psychological manipulation by the party (big brother) supersedes family and forces. This text includes early reviews from Symons, Schorer, Trilling and Sillen all from the 1950s. What’s interesting is reading Orwell’s critics, their criticism of his ideas, writing, and their own lack of foresight, then contrast that with today’s political correctness which illustrates one example of how the critics were wrong.