1984

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully Eerie
Review: Absolutely wonderful book. Could it turn out this way? Could you be stronger than Winston?

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing and thought-provoking, the best of the Dystopias.
Review: I consider this one of the top 3 Dystopian works, along with Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Huxley's Brave New World. But I think this is the most philosophical - and the most grim - of the three. All the ingredients are here -- we get the grim, joyless, totalitarian nation that is such a nightmare to the Western ideas of individuality and basic rights. Like in Fahrenheit, we get an obsessive control over language - though here it goes much farther, to the destruction of words. Like BNW, we get government controlled social structure and recreation time, even sexuality. Seems the main point of all of them is how shallow life can become if one obeys the authorities. What's different here - and I hope I'm not giving too much away-is that the rebel doesn't win. That seriously disturbed me at first, but the more I think about it, the more I feel it makes this work stand above the others as a Dystopian picture and a call to fight Power in government and protect individualism and free thought. For if the rebel can beat the Man, then the Man's power is limited, and we need not worry too much about the Man - the rebel can always win, if he wants. But if Big Brother can become powerful enough that no rebel can survive, as is the case in 1984, then we must truly fear and fight the Man-now, before He has that kind of power.
In the end, I think I find this Dystopian work more well thought out, more complete, and scarier than Brave New World of Fahrenheit 451. Yet it still remains incredibly readable, and a disturbingly good time.

Rating:
Summary: Really weird and hard to follow
Review: I was so lost when I first started reading this book. Orwell uses all these made-up words to describe ordinary things, and I couldn't remember them half the time. The very beginning was weird, and I didn't really understand what was happening. If we hadn't talked about it in my english class, I would still probably have no clue what it was about. There's a lot of symbolism that's really easy to miss, so it'd probably be better to not attack this one on your own. Wait until your class reads it, or your book club, or even just a few friends. Just don't try to figure everything out by yourself. If you do understand the book when you're done, you'll see that it was actually pretty interesting, and neat that Orwell, when he wrote it in 1948, actually had such advanced thoughts. Some parts are a little violent, and I don't really think there would be a point for anyone who's not in high school or older to read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Think for a moment...
Review: Get beyond the fact that the book's title is outdated, because some of Orwell's warnings are coming true (watch what you talk about at work or school, it might not be orthodox). Every U.S. citizen should read this to know some of the more sinister possibilities behind the War on Drugs, and why the U.S. had an Arms Race and a Space Race. Most people look for a bright and cheery future for mankind, but chances are that won't happen.

Rating:
Summary: If you only read one more book, read 1984
Review: If you only read one more book, read George Orwell's "1984."

Other reviewers including the ... reviewer, has captured the essence of this incredible, disturbing, poignant, an accurate view into the mind of the totalitarians - and yes, folks, they live among us even today.

I'll only add this: the "book-within-a-book" by Orwell's fictional author, Emmanual Goldstein, should be required study by every single high school and college student in the world. Don't know what I'm talking about? Read "1984" and look for Emmanual Goldstein within this book's pages. Then ask yourself the questions you dared not ask yourself before.

Then go read "Brave New World" and "The Probability Broach." The first is a different, altogether more pleasant version of Hell. The second holds out the real promise of freedom-loving people ("Broach"). Then tell others what you have learned.

Rating:
Summary: 1984 is a MUST read!
Review: When i first picked up a copy of this book, i thought it would be about new kids on the block or something else 80's. Little did i know i was about to read a literary classic. 1984 is an amazing book, and somewhat terrifying. Though some of the themes are a bit radical, i immediatly came to a realization that the world could be like it is written. The main charactor, Winstin, is a common man, who can easily be related to someone you know. The book depicts the horrid possibility of the world being ruled by communism, and big brother, and what happens to a man that is against it all. I definetly recommend this book!!

Rating:
Summary: Umm...ok, yeah, I can see that.
Review: Once again, in my quest to expand my literary experience, I read '1984' because it is considered a classic. I've also been on a Utopia kick, reading books such as 'Brave New World,' 'Island,' and, of course, '1984'. In my opinion, it is a good story, but I am not very alarmed about Orwell's ominous predictions of the future. I mean...yes, the massive possibilities given us via the internet do seem to mirror those of the telescreen that always knows what Winston is doing, but I cannot forsee the decline of the human spirit. The book in itself begins interestingly enough, but by the middle, I was more interested in finding the switch to the reading light so I could drift off to sleep. There are about 20 pages that are very slow reading, but I was captivated by the last part (part 3). However, the ending left me with a very sour taste in my mouth, mainly because it is not the conclusion I would have picked; but that's kind of my point...I still have (<---if I could use italics...ooo) my opinion, and Orwell has his. I would read this book if you are interested in the Utopian works, but if you are looking for purely a good story, try Steinbeck.

Rating:
Summary: Think again
Review: Not all doom and gloom from page 1, 1984 is still one of the most intense, dark and thought provoking books I have ever come across. What makes it compelling is the way in which it not only examines the human condition but also bludgeons it to a bloody pulp. So why have so many people enjoyed reading such a depressing story, ever since it's release in the late 1940's? I believe it to be the manner in which the novel blurs your "in-built" judgement of what is right and wrong, good and evil, in respect to civil liberties and the power of governing authorities. The way it inspires you to look behind the diplomacy and see the agenda. And the way it forces you to examine your own rationale for your assumptions and actions. The more I think about it, the more I like this novel and how it manages to look at the big picture and yet still remain personally affecting.

Rating:
Summary: A great year for the defense industry
Review: George Orwell's "1984," published in 1949, projects a parallel world 35 years into the future in which all nations have been combined into three major superpowers in an eternal state of unrest. London still exists, but it is now a part of Oceania, governed by an entity called the Party, headed by a sovereign figure known only as Big Brother. The Party's one goal is power -- power over everybody and everything in Oceania. Surveillance is administered constantly; devices called telescreens are placed in people's homes to monitor thoughts and actions and broadcast Party propaganda continuously, with no way for the resident to turn his off or change the channel. Free thinkers are not tolerated, and roving bands of "Thought Police" are sent to sniff out transgressors. The Party is developing an official language called Newspeak, whose goal is to simplify language by eliminating as many extraneous words as possible and reducing vocabulary to a small number of basic words, thus narrowing the scope of thought.

But there's always a rebel. The protagonist is a man named Winston Smith who works at the Ministry of Truth as a sort of professional history revisionist. His job is to revise newspaper articles and documents in which Big Brother made predictions or statements that did not agree with the actual outcome of events; in other words, to maintain the public illusion that the Party is infallible and omniscient. Unhappy with his state of being, Winston would like to overthrow the Party but is powerless to do so. Teaming up with his love interest Julia, another Party worker, he colludes with a high-ranking Party official named O'Brien, who reveals himself as a secret member of a society called the Brotherhood who are planning to destroy the Party. O'Brien gives Winston a subversive book explaining the ideals and motivations of the Party: The upper classes (the highest Party members) need to retain their economic status, so it is important to control the minds and bodies of the lower classes, and wars are waged constantly only so that capital will be spent on the production of war machinery instead of being converted into wealth which could be distributed to the lower classes.

Winston knows that if he is caught as a dissident, he's dead. The Thought Police are everywhere, and can he trust Julia, O'Brien, and the friendly old shopkeeper Mr. Charrington to be who they say they really are? Predictably, he is apprehended, but the Party's plans involve not killing but reprogramming him, which unfortunately for poor Winston could be a fate worse than death.

"1984" is not strictly an anti-communist rant. (For that, see Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon.") Rather, it attacks the complacency of all people and nations who would let a small number of idealists have their way and take command over the rest of the population. Semantics aside, Communism and Fascism, as practiced by certain Twentieth Century world powers, are essentially the same thing: the individual loses all his importance for the benefit of the nation, which really means the ruling Party. If democracy requires eternal vigilance, "1984" illustrates the consequences of apathy.

Rating:
Summary: Thrilling, Captivating novel
Review: George Orwell succeeds in capturing the reader's mind's once again as he did before in "Animal Farm". Wheras Animal Farm might be considered a comical satire, 1984 takes another step in as a fictional perspective. In this case, George Orwell takes a stand as an oracle...he seems to conclude that sometime in the future communistic ideals may come into total control. I believe such ideas evolved throughout his influence during the World War II. It is not a wonder such dire predictions have been described. The book is a amalgamation of fiction, romance, politics, however beautifully combining them into a captivating and original novel. Definitely worth the time to read.