1984

Rating:
Summary: Over Rated; Over Didactic; Over the Top.
Review: This book is very good as a piece of propaganda. It fails as a gripping story. I found Aldous Huxley's Brave New World a far more compelling read, or if you want a real dystopean nightmare try Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegutt. 1984 starts well, but by the final chapters it seems we are reading Orwell's own anti totalitarean attitudes and the story has been left to the side. This book is worth reading, but I wouldn't accept other reviewers comments that this is the best book in the world.

Rating:
Summary: 1984
Review: I am particularly fascinated with Orwell's prophecy that the government would control the masses with pornography and support LOW class prostitution!

Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: 1984 is the best book I have ever read. The storyline is supurb; there is suspence, pleasure and even horrer. Although you may not expect it, 1984 is quite scary and it plays with your mind. It gets you thinking things like; "what if the world was like this." and "How horrible it must be to live like that." at the end it made me want to cry, shout and screem all at the same time. I have made everyone in my class read it and I give you some advise- READ 1984; THE BEST BOOK EVER!

Rating:
Summary: Doubleplusgood!
Review: Wow! I read this after reading "Animal Farm" and found it fascinating. It's amazing that a book written so long ago could so vividly portray an author's prediction of how the world would be in 1984. Slightly scary, when you think of how Communism did take control of an empire. George Orwell's "1984" is a classic that should always be remembered.

Rating:
Summary: I loved it
Review: I read the Penguin Books edition and I loved it. Beautifully cynical and easy to read, I read it in 17 hours. Orwell hit the nail on the head with this publication, about Winston Smith and his coming to terms with the fact that he does not accept the world around him. Word has it that, when Stalin read this, he walked around a room breaking furniture. As an Englishman I believe that Orwell is one of the best writers the nation has produced. Buy this.

Rating:
Summary: Fiction? To Chinese,it was reality
Review: When I have the chance to read it,I was really shocked because what the book said was the history in red China.All the things are familar to any Chinese people over 30 years old.I am surprised because there was no difference between reality and the imagine of author.

Rating:
Summary: Everyone should read this
Review: I was amazed at the brilliance of this book! Incredibly powerful, I cried at the end. What I found the most remarkable was how well thought out the whole system was: newspeak, doublethink,etc. Read this!

Rating:
Summary: 1984 a must read
Review: George Orwell's book 1984, published in 1949, was an excellent book. I thought it was amazing that he used such imagination to come up with all aspects of this book. The fact that he wrote this book in the 40's and projected what life might be like in 1984 was very interesting. It makes you think. We think of 1984 as a punk era that is well in our past, Orwell thought of 1984 as the future, the far off future. Just as we thought that the year 2000 was going to be filled with flying cars and people living on the moon and mars, he thought of 1984 in a very different way than it turned out. Or did he. He didn't have any way to perceive all of the technological advances we would make, but he did make some very good guesses. He talks about a machine that is in every room and on every street corner. This machine is called a "Telescreen." This machine watches and listens to every word and every movement you make. The local government watches this and will arrest you if you are caught going against the government. Saying anything bad will get you in jail. In the year 1984, according to Orwell, the world has been split up into three superstates Eastasia, Eurasia, and Oceania. Oceania is were Winston Smith (the main character) lives. All of these superstates are run the same. They have a very strong central government that controls everything. These three states are constantly at war with each other and they have all created their own languages. The government in Oceania is called "Big Brother." This is where the phrase "Big brother is watching you" came from. In these states no one is free and everyone is an enemy. People are raised on false beliefs that the government has told them. The goverment would even take it to the extreme and collect all the newspapers and rewrite them and burn the old ones if the papers stated beleifs that the goverment doesn't have anymore. That is what Winston Smith did. He was a a rewriter of documents. The government of Oceania was one based totally upon mind manipulation. They used a term that they called "Doublethink" this was the power of holding two contradictory ideas in someones head and having them fully accept both. Big Brother raised all the people to be loyal to their government and be the government's slaves. The people saw this as being the way of things so they went along with it, having every second of their lives planned out and watched. Even people's children were more loyal to the government than their parents. Their was a scene in the book were a kid turned his parents in for speaking slander against the government. Even the language was cleansed and regulated. The government created a language called "Newspeak." "Newspeak" contained only words that were cleansed in thought. For example the word bad would be translated to "ungood." All in all, this book talks about the government and all the ways it is composed. But it does have a story line as well. The storyline is about Winston and this girl he meets named Julia. They both have the same strong feelings against the government and they often meet in very crowded places where it would be hard for them to be caught talking. They finally decide to join an underground group against the government. They meet with this guy O'Brien who claims to be in charge. The story starts to unfold after that meeting. This was very good book. It was very deep and intense. I loved hearing all about the Totalitarian ideas the government practiced. Plus it was cool to hear what a man in the 40's perceived 1984 to be like. In a way he was right, we are constantly monitored by satellites and surveillance camera's. GPS systems and even cell phones. "Big Brother" does exist just in a different way than Orwell perceived him. But we also do have our freedom to think and speak. These are two things that the citizens of Orwell's 1984 did not have. But keep this in mind "Big Brother" could be watching you right now.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting....
Review: I read this book, curious on government issues during the late 40's. I was shocked at what lie beyond the doors of this classic novel. Orwell has introduced me to a society where propoganda dominates. today, I can easily relate this to the media and press. Orwell wanted to clarify his stand on Communism and propoganda and did so with this intriguing work of literature. What lie beyond the doors of room 101? As I say, something worse then death....

Rating:
Summary: A Classic Piece of Literature
Review: This is not only a book, but a work of art. Orwell was ingenius in telling the horrors of a Totalitarianistic nightmare. Few people realize how important WWII truly was. If the axis powers had succeeded in their task the nightmare of Orwell's book would certainly become true.