Harvill Secker Nineteen Eighty-Four

Perfect quality, fast delivery. Can’t review the book as I haven’t read it yet.

The size is fine it didn’t bother me much. The novel is a classic and definitely a must read

Arrived on time. Good quality. Excellent content. The only thing is the print is really, really large.

excellent copy and service

Received a damage book, it looks usedAnd the book is short and narrow , isnt the same size as normal books

The dimensions are so weird. Its much narrower and shorted than a normal book. I wouldn't buy from this publisher again.

Book is damaged when delivered

Over 70 years ago Orwell predicted exactly what is happening in the USA today. His brilliant instincts for our future were uncanny. Our country is under assault right now (& has been) by “Big Brother” - ie. communism. Every thought is controlled from all media to removal of our history & heritage to absolute destruction of our laws & erasing of our real history. This was required reading when I was in HS in 1968 & it should be again today. Do yourself a favor & read this before Amazon takes it off their list of books. I doubt they’ll publish this review. Let’s see.

1984 by George Orwell is no doubt, a mind blowing and must read book.But I'll be rating specifically with regard to the Rupa Classics edition of this book which i bought.On many pages, text printed on the other side is visible. The initial pages seems to come out of the binding. The dimensions of the book are quite small. Its quality is not impressive.I really wish if I would have bought from some other publisher of this book.

"Under the spreading Chestnut tree,I sold you and you sold me"-1984 by George OrwellThe protagonist Winston is outer party member who edits and writes articles and also forges the data of past. He doesn't like the party much and rebbellion against them. Also he falls in love with another party member Julia. This would get both in trouble with the party. The main principle of the party is totalitarian where it has complete control over their personal and professional lives. And there no party or rebbellion against the party.Their thought process and day to day movement are kept track of even at their homes. Anyone going against the party ideals are arrested in by thought police and taken off all the government records. Winston is been tracked down for seven long years and has been arrested.What happens to him and Julia makes the rest of the storyWhen I started reading , the initial few pages were boring ,but towards the second half of the story I was totally moved and taken away. What is point of life where there is no individuality in a person and are treated like machines. For the sake of power and they made people never understood the reality by making the people live in an illusion.A life with emotions towards other people, freedom and your own uniqueness make it more worthwhile and enjoyable. Just to have hold of power of ruling the country by changing the ideals of people in line makes me sad

I first read this novel when the eponymous date of the title was still in the future and phrases such as "Big Brother is watching" and "Thought Crime" had an ominous feel of foreboding. The society predicted appeared to be a real possibility if the continuous world war could be substituted for the Cold War. Once the actual year passed and the eventual thawing of the Cold War the book appeared to be just another "failed prediction" and lost its shock value. However, this fails to understand that the actual story is about the abuse of Power and the manipulation of the People. The actual date is irrelevant.This is still a chilling story about how the powerful can use our own worst fears to manipulate us into submission. The ravaged London of the story could be anywhere in the world where the unscrupulous try to subvert the truth for their own ends. This is a timeless story and as relevant today as it ever was.

** spoiler alert ** I am sure that everyone and their pets have read this book and I am the last person to read it..I am so glad that I finally read this book.Brief SummaryBasically, we follow a man who lives in a hypervigilant society where everything and everyone is watched and monitored by Big Brother. Your thoughts are not yours, they are listened to by the Thought police, your facial expression and body language is monitored by the telescreens. You behave outside the directive of the party and you disappear. Since the lie becomes the truth and truth a lie, your existence can be non-existent. Things like love, community, sex, companionship are things that the party from upon so to do any of the above is to go against big brother.In this dystopia, we hinge our exploration on Winston Smith. A rather simple and unimpressive man who works at the Ministry of Truth. His job is to wipe the past, present and future and even create a new past and present under the directive of the all-knowing big brother. Winston began to write his thoughts on paper, his ideas and opinions about the party. He has broken the law but he finds that he cannot stop. Then he goes a step further, he falls in love, he has sex for pleasure, he joins the underground operation that has been trying to overthrow the party. Winston knows that he cannot escape the wrath of big brother he knows that he would disappear but he was willing to be an individual within a totalitarian society.OpinionThere are so many phrases that I use and have become familiar with within society that I did not know wherefrom this book. It was great to get some context to their usage.This book was not exactly 'haunting' or 'nightmarish' to me. Neither was it a depiction of current society to me. Sure there were certain elements such as the hyper-surveillance and the hunger for power that the party had that might be similar to how big tech companies manage data and watch our every move and they are the ones with the real power, not necessarily the government. When you know the people then can you use that knowledge for power.However, I felt that everything was to the extreme. I kept thinking, if there is no law then there should be no crime because the tenants of a crime are to do something contrarian to the standards of society. Nevertheless, I can see how the continual erasure of language, information and event experiences can make the people compliant. Factors like war, famine and poverty are things that people with power use to keep people under their thumbs.This reminds me of this line in the book;It is deliberate policy to keep even the favoured groups somewhere near the brink of hardship because a general state of scarcity increases the importance of small privileges and thus magnifies the distinction between one group and another .Yes, this is where the world is at. Some people say we shouldn't have the 1%, others say we should only have the top 1% if there is no one suffering. I think the existence of both is a problem but the absence of it would not necessarily bring peace to the poor.I will stop here. This book was good for thought and just reflecting on society and the possibility of the extreme. I think this book quite impressive with the tech that was explained and used in society considering that it was written in 1949.