Skip to main content Skip to Search Box
Definition: Nineteen Eighty-Four from The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide

Futuristic novel by George Orwell, published in 1949, which tells of an individual's battle against, and eventual surrender to, a totalitarian state where Big Brother rules. It is a dystopia (the opposite of a utopia) and many of the words and concepts in it have passed into common usage (for example, newspeak, doublethink, thought police).

weblinks

Stalinism and Nineteen Eighty-Four: Oceania and the Soviet Union

Nineteen Eighty-Four

From The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English
A novel by George Orwell , first published in 1949. In 1984 Britain has become Airstrip One in the superstate Oceania, which is perpetually at odds with the other superstates Eurasia and Eastasia. It is ruled by the Party, under the aegis of the possibly non-existent Big Brother, whose image is ever present. The Party's agents constantly rewrite history and are redesigning the language, with the aim of controlling people's thoughts absolutely. A minor Party operative, Winston Smith, commits thought-crimes by keeping a secret diary and loving a girl named Julia, but is seduced into self-betrayal by his superior, Brien. His interrogation ultimately leads him to Room 101, where resides every man's ultimate horror. There, his spirit is so utterly broken that he surrenders his identity to the state and learns to love Big Brother. This brilliant, bitter novel marks the culmination of the loss of faith in mankind which affected British futuristic fiction in the 1930s and was intensified by…
382 results

Full text Article Nineteen Eighty-Four

From Brewer's Curious Titles
A dystopian novel (1949) by George Orwell (1903-50). The book comprises a prophecy of the totalitarian future of mankind, portraying a society in which government propaganda and terrorism destroy human awareness of reality. It is generally thought that Orwell named the novel by reversing the last…
| 248 words
Key concepts:
A 2012 protest in Tallinn, Estonia, against the...
Nineteen Eighty-Four , published by George Orwell in 1949, depicts a dystopian future under a totalitarian government characterized by incessant surveillance, mind control, and perpetual war—all administered under the figurehead of “Big Brother.” The protagonist, Winston Smith, works in the Ministry…
| 2,371 words , 1 image
Key concepts:

Full text Article Nineteen Eighty-Four

From The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Houghton Mifflin
| 82 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Nineteen Eighty-Four

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
| 70 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Stalinism and Nineteen Eighty-Four: Oceania and the Soviet Union

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
| 77 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article George Orwell (1903–1950)

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others. Animal Farm ch. 10 As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for socialism is its adherents. The Road to Wigan Pier BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU. Nineteen Eighty-Four pt 1, ch. 1 Doublethink means the power of holding…
| 271 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article George Orwell (Eric Blair) 1903–50

From The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
English political writer and essayist Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. Animal Farm (1945) ch. 1 Four legs good, two legs bad. Animal Farm (1945) ch. 3 All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others. Animal Farm (1945) ch. 10 The creatures outside looked…
| 1,288 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Orwell, George

From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
The pseudonym adopted by Eric Arthur Blair (1903–50), Old Etonian and democratic socialist, author of The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), animal farm (1945) and nineteen eighty-four (1949), among other works. He derived his pen name from St George, patron saint of England, and the River Orwell in…
| 170 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Orwell, George

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair, 1903–50, British novelist and essayist, b. Bengal, India. He is best remembered for his scathingly satirical and frighteningly political novels, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. After attending Eton, he served (1922–27) with the Indian imperial police in Burma (now…
| 385 words
Key concepts:
As a journalist and writer of autobiographical narratives, George Orwell was outstanding. But he will be remembered primarily for two works of fiction that have become 20th-century classics: Animal Farm , published in 1944, and Nineteen Eighty-four (1949). George Orwell is a pen name. His real name…
| 344 words
Key concepts:
Mind Map

Stack overflow
More Library Resources