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1984

Audiobook
0 of 2 copies available
Wait time: About 13 weeks
0 of 2 copies available
Wait time: About 13 weeks

Blackstone Publishing presents a new recording of this immensely popular book.

One of the most celebrated classics of the twentieth century, Orwell's cautionary tale of a man trapped under the gaze of an authoritarian state feels more relevant now than ever before.

George Orwell depicts a gray, totalitarian world dominated by Big Brother and its vast network of agents, including the Thought Police, a world in which news is manufactured according to the authorities' will and people live tepid lives by rote.

Winston Smith, the hero with no heroic qualities, longs only for truth and decency. But living in a social system in which privacy does not exist and where those with unorthodox ideas are brainwashed or put to death, he knows there is no hope for him. He knows even as he continues to pursue his forbidden love affair that eventually he will come to destruction.

The year 1984 has come and gone, yet George Orwell's nightmare vision in 1949 of the world we were becoming is still the great modern classic of negative Utopia. It is a prophetic and haunting tale that exposes the worst crimes imaginable: the destruction of freedom and truth.

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  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Doublethink, thought police, constant surveillance, never-ending war. Although this classic dystopian novel was written in 1949, Orwell's lean prose, finely honed political discourse, and penetrating images seem as fresh, as menacing, and as disturbingly prophetic as ever. With British equanimity, Simon Prebble accentuates every shade of gray in post-Blitzed-London. As Orwell depicts the totalitarian world led by Big Brother, Prebble is especially effective at subtly changing pace and giving weight to each character's most telling moments--Winston Smith's memories of childhood, Julia's use of sex as a political act, and the interrogator, O'Brien's, calm satisfaction at breaking Winston. Offering only two crushing choices, to betray or be betrayed, 1984 remains one of the most powerful and influential masterworks of twentieth-century literature. B.P. 2008 Audies Finalist, NEA Big Read Selection (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 24, 2021
      Orwell’s classic dystopian nightmare is lent new life in this atmospheric graphic adaptation by Brazilian artist Nesti. In Orwell’s bleak totalitarian world engaged in perpetual war, Big Brother is always watching (ever-present in the comic’s setting via ubiquitous ominous signs posted), and Thought Police stand guard to mete out brutal justice for thoughtcrimes. Hero Winston Smith, drawn as a drab everyman, is both gifted and cursed with pre-dictatorship memories, and reflects that “even the outline of your own life lost its sharpness.” When he enters into a forbidden love affair with Julia, a fellow apostate, together they join a secret revolutionary group called The Brotherhood. While this adaption is rather text-heavy—perhaps necessarily so to fully impart Orwell’s complex ideas—Nesti’s accessible gray and orange drawings provide balance and light, giving Orwell’s oppressive vision a lyrical touch. His artistic style also lends a Depression-era vibe, one that would have read as retro even in 1949, when the novel was originally published. This artful reinterpretation reminds how Orwell’s warnings of the dangers of authoritarianism have remained frighteningly timeless. Agent: Bill Hamilton, A.M. Heath.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:1090
  • Text Difficulty:7-9

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