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1949 dystopian social science fiction novel by George Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a novel by English writer George Orwell, published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg, making it his ninth and final completed book [10]. Also known under the title 1984, it was created in 1948 and set in the year 1984, with the United Kingdom listed as its country of origin [2][5][11][12].
The work is a dystopian work of speculative fiction [10] whose central subjects include totalitarianism, surveillance, human rights, and freedom of thought [1]. It follows a cast of characters that includes Winston Smith, Julia, Big Brother, O'Brien, Emmanuel Goldstein, and Charrington [7], exploring themes of mass surveillance and the repressive regimentation of people and behaviour [10].
Nineteen Eighty-Four has been widely regarded as a classic of literary fiction and has been acknowledged for its considerable impact on twentieth-century literature [10]. It is a distinct work and should not be confused with Haruki Murakami's novel 1Q84 or other works sharing a similar title [8].
AI-generated from Wikidata & Wikipedia evidence · claude-sonnet-4-6 · may contain errors.
Nineteen Eighty-Four (also published as 1984) is a dystopian speculative fiction novel by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final completed book. Thematically, it centres on totalitarianism, mass surveillance and repressive regimentation of people and behaviours. Nineteen Eighty-Four has been often regarded as a classic and has been acknowledged for its impact on twentieth-century literature. The story takes place in a fictional future. The year is believed to be 1984, but this is uncertain. Much of the world is in perpetual war. Great Britain, now known as Airstrip One, has become a province of the totalitarian superstate Oceania, which is led by Big Brother, a dictatorial leader supported by an intense cult of personality manufactured by the Party's Thought Police. The Party engages in omnipresent government surveillance and, through the Ministry of Truth, historical negationism and constant propaganda to persecute individuality and independent thinking. Orwell described his book as a "satire", and a display of the "perversions to which a centralised economy is liable", while also stating he believed "that something resembling it could arrive". The novel examines the role of truth and facts within societies and the ways in which they can be manipulated. Parallels have been drawn between the novel and real-world totalitarianism, mass surveillance and violations of freedom of expression, among other themes. Nineteen Eighty-Four has become a classic literary example of dystopian and political fiction. It popularised "Orwellian" as an adjective, and many terms used in it have entered common usage, including "Big Brother", "doublethink", "Thought Police", "thoughtcrime", and "Newspeak", as well as the expression "2 + 2 = 5". Time magazine included it on its list of the 100 best English-language novels published from 1923 to 2005, and it was placed on the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels list, reaching number 13 on the editors' list and number 6 on the readers' list. In 2003 it was listed at number 8 on The Big Read survey by the BBC. It has been adapted across media, most famously as a film in 1984 starring John Hurt, Suzanna Hamilton and Richard Burton.
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