|
|
Title: Nineteen Eighty-Four
Purchase
Item
Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
List Price: $19.00
Our Price: $10.71
|
|
| Customer Reviews: |
| Nineteen Eighty-Four by Everyman's Library Chase Von's Review For 1984 | Unlike a lot of people who were told to read this in High School, I didn't learn of it until a few brief years ago. I'd heard of it, but didn't really "get" why so many people were blown away by it. Then I read it and have since made it a point to get my hands on everything this man had ever written! George Orwell was no doubt a genius, visionary, prophet and a definite priceless gift to all of humanity. 1984 written in the late 1940's, (I see 1949 in my book, but I don't want to nail down a date as there have been reprints), someone else here has stated 1948 which if so, is still incredibly beyond remarkable because what he describes is something that sounds so much like the world we currently live in today, and the potential for it to be this world which he describes? Well, unfortunately the means are in fact all present now. We can be observed pretty much around the clock from when we leave our homes until we arrive. With what can be done with cell phones, GPS etc but I won't go into what should already be quite obvious to all. The fact of the matter is he foretold with pin point accuracy just how things could be and the frightening thing is many of these things are in my opinion in affect. New Speak, Thought Police, War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength, Big Brother and countless other things he writes about ring with such an eery realness one has to wonder if he time traveled into our present day and perhaps slightly beyond and then returned to his time to write about it to truly warn us what was at stake. I won't tell the story, as George does that exceptional well to the point where you feel as if you are seeing this "World" he paints through the eyes of the main character "Winston".
So much so that even though it was written years ago, it reads as if in many cases it could have been written today, or yesterday. Like Gene Rodenbury's Star Trek, George Orwell's 1984 is definitely light years ahead of its time. I don't think this book can be recommended highly enough to those who have not yet read it. Nor do five stars even remotely come close to giving this Master Piece it's due credit. Your Chance to Hear The Last Panther Speak | | Nineteen Eighty-Four by Everyman's Library Good book, Kindle edition needs proofreading | I have read Animal Farm before this one, and enjoyed it greatly. I was not disappointed by this book, despite my expectations being high. He presents quite an intriguing idea of a 1984 deprived of basic freedoms and livestyle that was very perceivable in the depths of 1948.
That being said, the Kindle edition needs to be checked for continuity errors and proofread for spelling, grammatical, and punctuational errors. | | Nineteen Eighty-Four by Everyman's Library The main idea of the book is good, but the book itself is not interesting... | Sorry if I contribute to lowering the score for this classic, but although the main idea is good, the writing is simplistic (reads like a book for teenagers) and the story and characters lack depth and are quite boring.
I guess I'm disappointed that Orwell didn't do a better job with such a brilliant idea... The only part that was really interesting to me is when his main character, Winston, is reading from the "prohibited" book. In this section, Orwell essentially details the philosophy of the party leaders, and that's a very stimulating read. But apart from this segment, the story is mostly pointless. | | Nineteen Eighty-Four by Everyman's Library Good Book | | I bought it and read it. Orwell does create a pretty horrifying world but I felt he spent a bit too much time on the exposition. I did stay hooked though because I wanted to know why would this government do this to its people and I think I got a bit of an anticlimactic but realistic answer. | | Nineteen Eighty-Four by Everyman's Library A Scary Classic | | There is not too much I can say here that hasn't been said a million times before, or at least 1300 or so times on this particular products Amazon page. A brilliant look at an increasing realistic situation back here in the US of A. | | Nineteen Eighty-Four by Everyman's Library Book Description | (Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)
Nineteen Eighty-Four revealed George Orwell as one of the twentieth century’s greatest mythmakers. While the totalitarian system that provoked him into writing it has since passed into oblivion, his harrowing cautionary tale of a man trapped in a political nightmare has had the opposite fate: its relevance and power to disturb our complacency seem to grow decade by decade. In Winston Smith’s desperate struggle to free himself from an all-encompassing, malevolent state, Orwell zeroed in on tendencies apparent in every modern society, and made vivid the universal predicament of the individual. | | Nineteen Eighty-Four by Everyman's Library Amazon.com | | "Outside, even through the shut window pane, the world looked cold. Down in the street little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no color in anything except the posters that were plastered everywhere." The year is 1984; the scene is London, largest population center of Airstrip One. Airstrip One is part of the vast political entity Oceania, which is eternally at war with one of two other vast entities, Eurasia and Eastasia. At any moment, depending upon current alignments, all existing records show either that Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia and allied with Eastasia, or that it has always been at war with Eastasia and allied with Eurasia. Winston Smith knows this, because his work at the Ministry of Truth involves the constant "correction" of such records. "'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'" In a grim city and a terrifying country, where Big Brother is always Watching You and the Thought Police can practically read your mind, Winston is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. He knows the Party's official image of the world is a fluid fiction. He knows the Party controls the people by feeding them lies and narrowing their imaginations through a process of bewilderment and brutalization that alienates each individual from his fellows and deprives him of every liberating human pursuit from reasoned inquiry to sexual passion. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be. Newspeak, doublethink, thoughtcrime--in 1984, George Orwell created a whole vocabulary of words concerning totalitarian control that have since passed into our common vocabulary. More importantly, he has portrayed a chillingly credible dystopia. In our deeply anxious world, the seeds of unthinking conformity are everywhere in evidence; and Big Brother is always looking for his chance. --Daniel Hintzsche |
| |
