[ book tip by Robert Adlam ] Nineteen Eighty-Four has a legitimate claim to be the novel of the 20th century. It is simultaneously an essay about the nature of political power, a reflection on the human condition and an invitation to critique the society that surrounds us. We are also given a lesson in the use of language and its relationship both to thought and reality. Something unnervingly hard – the iron-fist of state politics – is written into the text itself: one false move and you’re done for. 

Set in London and the State of Oceania, Nineteen Eighty-Four finds Winston Smith, a minor party official working in the Ministry of Truth, engaged in the falsification of history. He cannot resist thinking for himself and begins to record his ‘heretical’ thoughts in a diary. In a grimly totalitarian, bureaucratic and cynical world, he encounters the spirited and sensual Julia: a love affair unfolds in which both find a form of liberation. However, the ‘Thought Police’ have them in their sights: they are caught, interrogated and tortured until they betray one other. Through the manipulation of fear they are neutralised and rendered back into society. It is a riveting but dreadful tale.

Since its publication in 1949, British society has steadily tracked its way along a number of the paths identified in the novel: We have seen the rise of surveillance, the emergence of managerialism and the wall-to-wall hyper-reality of the tele-screen: image is all; surface has triumphed over depth. We even have a culture that is now being told that globalisation is the reason for everything! But other developments have taken place that qualify these trends namely, commitments to human rights and the rise of multi-culturalism. Thankfully, the world is not entirely Orwellian.

Significantly, Nineteen Eight-Four has come to enter the British psyche: we are deeply suspicious of the way language is used and have grown accustomed to being deceived by ‘spin’. We have little trust in official pronouncements or government claims and we remain sceptical about authority. We also prize a certain freedom of thought and expression. All this is due, in no small way, to Orwell’s tremendous achievement.      

[ Favourite quote ] 'Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.'

[ book info ] Orwell, George : Nineteen Eighty-Four. (Book language: English ) Penguin, London, 2000 (1949). ISBN: 978-0-14-118776-1.