 |
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Book Summary InformationAuthor: George Orwell Foreword: Thomas Pynchon Afterword: Erich Fromm Designer: Daniel Lagin Edition: Paperback Published: 2003-05-06 ISBN: 0452284236 Number of pages: 368 Publisher: Plume
Book Reviews of Nineteen Eighty-FourBook Review: Cherish your thoughts Summary: 5 Stars Orwell's 1984 is a novel that is truly frightening for those who cherish free expression and the power of individual thought. Dystopia literature owes it all to this classic of the genre. I managed to get through all my formal education without having read this text. However, picking it up now I am glad that I waited until I was a little older to read it.
The first thing one must marvel at is the brilliant construction of the novel. Orwell as an artist is at the top of his form and the structure of the novel is wound so tightly that readers would be wise to annotate the text as there is an almost cyclical nature to many of the themes and ideas presented. Orwell weaves the same ideas throughout the text, and each time he revisits them he shows them through the lenses of a different ideology or character and thus emphasizes for the reader how precarious (and precious) are the mores and ideals of the individual mind.
The idea of governments who yearn for power for power's sake is not so foreign to our early 21st century world, and although the text ends on a nihilistic note, the reader walks away from 1984 with the renewed impetus to revere and respect our individual thoughts, as these, and these alone, give us unique value. Read this text, not so you can fear "big brother", but rather so you can be reminded to respect yourself enough to think and form intellectual thoughts. It is Winston's loss of the self that should frighten the readers of 1984, not the dreary world that Orwell creates. We don't need totalitarian governments to become Winston Smiths. We can do it to ourselves if we are not careful!
Summary of Nineteen Eighty-FourThought Police. Big Brother. Orwellian. These words have entered our vocabulary because of George Orwell's classic dystopian novel, 1984. The story of one man's nightmare odyssey as he pursues a forbidden love affair through a world ruled by warring states and a power structure that controls not only information but also individual thought and memory, 1984 is a prophetic, haunting tale.
More relevant than ever before, 1984 exposes the worst crimes imaginable-the destruction of truth, freedom, and individuality. With a new forward by Thomas Pynchon.
|
 |
IdiocracyTWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2007-01-09; DVDBest price: $6.86Price in other shops: $14.98
Wall-E [Theatrical Release]Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures; Theatrical Release; Theatrical Release
Code 46TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2004-12-28; DVDBest price: $2.20Price in other shops: $14.98
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?by Philip K. Dick Del Rey; Published: 1996-05-28; Paperback; BookBest price: $7.89Price in other shops: $14.00
The Handmaid's Tale (MAXNotes Literature Guides) (MAXnotes)by Malcolm Foster Research & Education Association; Published: 1999-04-16; Paperback; BookBest price: $1.24Price in other shops: $3.95
Nineteen Eighty-Fourby George Orwell Plume; Published: 2003-05-06; Paperback; BookBest price: $6.31Price in other shops: $15.95
Transmetropolitan Vol. 1: Back on the Streetby Warren Ellis, Darick Robertson Vertigo; Published: 1998-02-01; Paperback; BookBest price: $3.25Price in other shops: $7.99
Brave New World (P.S.)by Aldous Huxley Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2006-10-01; Paperback; BookBest price: $7.30Price in other shops: $13.95
Watchmenby Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons DC Comics; Published: 1995-04-01; Paperback; BookBest price: $10.45Price in other shops: $19.99
|
Hamlet (Signet Classic Shakespeare)by William Shakespeare Signet Classics; Published: 1998-06-01; Paperback; BookBest price: $0.74Price in other shops: $4.95
A Clockwork Orange (Norton Paperback Fiction)by Anthony Burgess W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 1986-11; Paperback; BookBest price: $6.99Price in other shops: $13.95
Frankenstein (Signet Classics)by Mary Shelley Signet Classics; Published: 2000-08-01; Paperback; BookBest price: $1.04Price in other shops: $4.95
Lord of the Flies (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)by William Golding Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1999-10-01; Paperback; BookBest price: $8.08Price in other shops: $15.00
Catch-22by Joseph Heller Simon & Schuster; Published: 1996-09-04; Paperback; BookBest price: $6.97Price in other shops: $16.00
1984 (Cliffs Notes)by Nikki Moustaki, Gilbert Borman Cliffs Notes; Published: 2000-06-19; Paperback; BookBest price: $2.38Price in other shops: $5.99
Fahrenheit 451by Ray Bradbury Del Rey; Published: 1987-08-12; Mass Market Paperback; BookBest price: $2.66Price in other shops: $6.99
Brave New World (P.S.)by Aldous Huxley Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2006-10-01; Paperback; BookBest price: $7.29Price in other shops: $13.95
Animal Farm (Signet Classics)by George Orwell Signet Classics; Published: 1996-04-01; Mass Market Paperback; BookBest price: $3.32Price in other shops: $9.99
Brave New World and Brave New World Revisitedby Aldous Huxley Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2005-07-01; Paperback; BookBest price: $9.56Price in other shops: $16.95
|