1984

Rating:
Summary: A Glimpse in the Future
Review: Big Brother sees everything you do. Nothing you do is private. You must live according to how Big Brother sees fit for you to live. Anyone with even a hint of rebellion or disobedience disappears. Everything is carefully rationed. Information is carefully distributed. That information can also be changed if it needs to be. Everything is secretive. Nobody really knows what is going on in Oceania, except those in the "Inner Circle", but do they even know?

Winston Smith is living in this time. He vaguely remembers a time before this, but goes on with the present world just the same. His monotonous life of work for "the Party" is changed when two unlikely events occur. He buys a forbidden diary, and he falls in love. His life soon spirals out of his control at the hands of Big Brother, and he soon discovers what it is all about.

This book was required reading for English class. I started it with slight optimism based on what I heard it was about. I also was anticipating a less than pleasing novel, since we previously read Lord of the Flies and Catcher in the Rye, both of which I was very displeased. My doubts soon disappeared, as I became mesmerized with George Orwell's novel. It was so wonderfully written that I could barely take my eyes off of it (much to the annoyance of several of my teachers). Even though I had to reread the last page a few times, the message therein was powerful. This book is definitely one of my favorites that I have read in school, and maybe my life. Please read it if you ever get the chance!

Rating:
Summary: On 1984, A Brave New World, and A Clockwork Orange
Review: The 20th Century has brought forth dystopia, and a plethora of dystopia literature. Some of the books, such as The Giver, are very good. Others, like Fahrenheit 451, are excellent. Of them, two are genius - A Brave New World (Huxley) - A Clockwork Orange (Burgess) - and one is supreme: 1984 (Orwell).

1984 is comprehensive. Not in explaining the machinery and origin of the nightmare state, but in the experience of the individual within. Huxley is much more scientifically aware than Orwell, and his replacement of the party structure with a caste structure is profound and dark. Burgess, better than both these, understands the dependence of creativity upon destruction and destruction upon creativity, within the individual and the state. Neither Orwell nor Huxley offers their hero the alternative of 'coming alive' through violence, which Alex so beautifully illustrates.

Also, I believe Burgess, of the three, to be the best storyteller. His prose is high art; musical, rhythmic, and perfect in its strangeness and familiarity. Huxley's book is somewhat like a puzzle with 8 big pieces, which fit exactly and predictably. His strength is not the flow of his story, but the brilliance of his images. Orwell is much too engrossed in his political message to be purely an artist. He is, of course, an artist, but firstly he is a political theorist.

Still, it may seem unfair to compare these three; they are written for different purposes and theorize from different experience. This is indubitably true. But it is also true for us to want to organize, sort, and place books into a logical whole. And placement, for most of us, is related to importance.

These three books are of the 20 most beautiful written in English in the last century - it is only my opinion that 1984 is the best. The knowledge and medium of 1984 is diverse. In part it is a theory on the meaning of history - it offers definitions of impersonal experience - it is an account of the individual, his will, passion, and perspective - it is about love and sex and their relation to the state - it is an attack upon intellectuals - it is about the nature of fear and courage - but, first of all, it is literature, written as a story...because it belongs to the individual, the private reader, not to academics or institutions.

Rating:
Summary: 1984...Twenty Years Off
Review: This book is so strangely close to today's life, it almost isn't funny. I read things in this book, and I always hear things within hours, I generally find a relation. Today, there are cameras EVEWRWHERE! My friend's friend(or something like that) dissapeared one day. He found out that they found footage of him going all through the airport, arriving at his parking garrage, and entering his office. You can't hide.

This is happening today! "Terrorists" are being taken away for ungiven reasons. Its all so wrong, I don't know how to describe it.

5 stars, must read.

Rating:
Summary: I COMMAND YOU TO READ THIS BOOK!!!
Review: Everyone must read this book. If you read Animal Farm and thought it was good wait until you read this! It blows away Animal Farm by far! It shows what George Orwell projects as the future when he believed at the time would be under strict totalitarian rule. If you think communism would be a good form of government you might change your mind by the end of this book for it shows how society will be enslaved by its rule and eventually even the freedom to think will not endure.

Rating:
Summary: Admit it...
Review: you didn't really read it when the teacher assigned it. Even if you did, you probably forgot nearly all the detail. Get this book and read it "again" because it's worth it. Some books should be read at least once ever five or ten years for your whole life. This is one of them.

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Summary: One of the most important novels of the 20th Century!
Review: When I first read this novel, the first four words were just amazing! 1984 is a book that has to be read, it is just simply amazing! Pure and simple. Some of the things in this book is just frighting! George Orwell did a great job creating a story that is just VERY REALISTIC! Sure it does start off slow, George Orwell does into a lot of detail in the book about how things COULD OF BEEN if Communism did take over the world. No one has the right to privacy, the people in this book are always being watched by the Party, and it is just outright amazing.
The story evolves around Winston, he works for the Ministry of Truth, deep inside he hates the Party, but he does not reveal it because of the Thought Police! So he goes to work everyday eating the nasty food the Party gives the people, he then thinks that he is being watched by the Thought Police, which turns out to be a girl who is MUCH MORE YOUNGER than he is! He is 39, and the girl is in her mid-twenties. Her name is Julie, he wanted to kill her because he thought she was spying on him, sound real huh?
1984 is a HARD novel to read, and going through the novel is HARD, but it is worth reading. The novel brings hatred toward one's government, and how one of could of lived if Communism did spread throughout the world. Very scary, but yet very interesting because George knows how to write a very good book.
Read it, and you wont be disappointed!

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Summary: Is This Fiction?!
Review: Isn't it eerie how the Patriot Act could have come straight out of this masterpiece? Don't we have people in jails right now in Gitmo, people who have been detained for no legal reason, except they might be "terrorists?" Doesn't the government now have the right to tap our phones and spy on us without a court order (a la Big Brother)? Many people thought this book was silly when the actual 1984 came and went without this apocalyptic vision becoming reality. However, 20 years later, you can't read this classic without getting a familiar chill down your spine as a "president" tries to find imaginary weapons while seemingly rewriting history? If any English teacher wants to assign this book in 2003, they can find plenty of real world parallels to it, which should get the kiddies' attention!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Nineteen Eighty Flub
Review: I recently took up the hobby of reading "classics" instead of teenage dramas or mysterys. 1984 was second on my list. But now I'm left wondering why is this book a classic? This book was descriptively crude with its love affair and prostitute, redundant with its thoughts and routine, and overall dull. I admit that this book did have a good message and was thoroughly enforced from the beginning to end. However, thats all that happened.
It was just thoughts of a sad man with perverse and suspicouis thoughts. The main character constantly dwelled on how horrible everything was and eventually how he was going to fight against it. But never did, unless you count having an affair and writing in a journal or buying an old paperweight.
At times the story would pick up, and just as quickly as it picked up it drastically fell back into the continuous complaints of Winston.
1984 is well written. I guess, there were quantities of complex words tied in with a new language created within the book (Newsspeak). Keep your dictionary handy.
The chararcters also lacks personality. They were so 2 deminsional.
Overall it was impossibly hard to follow, and paragraphs could be skipped and you wouldnt miss a thing.

Not to mention that tragic ending. No steps were made toward anything! It stops about were it left off except Winston loves BB and loves his torturor.

This book was an overrated classic and a big fat FLUB!

Rating:
Summary: An easy read for almost any age
Review: I first read this book in grade 7. I was just discovering books at the time and soaked up the distopia genre.I gave book reports on Clockwork Orange and Brave New World, instead of The Outsiders like other students. I reccomend this book to anyone who enjoys a good Terry Gilliam film (Brazil, 12 Monkeys, King Fisher, Montey Python) or for teens who don't want cheesy books aimed for your age (i hated the Outsiders).

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Excellent Literature...
Review: When I picked up this novel at a bookstore, I really didn't know anything about it. However by the end of the first chapter, I couldn't put it down. A great fiction classic about dystopia caused by a massive growth of socialism in the 1950's and onward. Numerous plot twists and a great ending hold a reader's attention all the way through. Also an interesting (and scary) comparison to our government and world today. 1984 is a facisnating book and can be read over and over. Read it!