Nineteen Eighty-Four

Cultural  

1. (1949) A novel by George Orwell. Nineteen Eighty-Four depicts a totalitarian society of the future, ruled by an omnipotent dictator called Big Brother. In this society, called Oceania, people's thoughts are controlled as tightly as their actions. The government maintains an organization called the “thought police” and engages in constant propaganda. (See also Big Brother is watching you.)

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Orwell coined the term doublespeak to describe one kind of propaganda practiced by the state in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

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Nineteen Eighty-Four

There are multiple copies of Orwell’s classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four; the story in which Big Brother is always watching and the state has established near-total control over body and mind.

From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2024

Sales of "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four" jumped in 2013 after the whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked confidential National Security Agency documents.

From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2021

In an early chapter, Menand writes of the enormous success of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, published in 1949, which many stateside readers assumed was about Stalinism.

From Slate ● Apr. 23, 2021

“The World of Nineteen Eighty-Four ended in 1989,” historian Timothy Garton-Ash declared optimistically in 2001.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 20, 2019

Nineteen Eighty-Four has not just sold tens of millions of copies – it has infiltrated the consciousness of countless people who have never read it.

From The Guardian ● May 19, 2019

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