1984

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Summary: You Need To Read This in Any Free Thinking Nation...
Review: You may think this is about Stalin and his Purges... it may be... but it's much more. The date is irrelavant, except that it's in the future of the author (Orwell). Our hero, Winston Smith (no accident that Winston Churchill and the most comon name, Smith, were used by Orwell), has all the right qualities: a questioning mind, a distrust of authority, and an oddball fascination with the truth...to get himself "cleansed" by the Thought Police, who torture and kill, out of "love" for Big Brother's lot of Outer Party Members. Smith has the temerity to question the nature of this power exuded by the Inner Party - for it's own sake, which seems fragile. Built on embracing "DoubleThink," where any two diametrically opposed statements are both valid, and where citizens are told which version is the truth - for that moment. Smith asks, "Does Big Brother exist?" while Inner Party member O'Brien tortures what's left of him into believing 2 +! 2 = 4 or 5, depending what the very same Big Brother decides is Truth, for today, now. Why is "1984" important? Keeping an alert eye on any government that exudes power by control and manipulating information, where the individual is sacrificed to the needs of the many, where the press is owned by the church, and where the state is unapproachable and abstract, is not only the province of the American CIA, but of any individual professing adherence to democracy. The enemy may just be our own complacency. Orwell's anti-utopia novel is a warning: we must engage in our democracy or be prepared to believe 2 + 2 = 5...and all else will follow...!

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Summary: Why is this a novel?
Review: 1984 does not live up to it's reputation. I'll grant that Orwell had a point (that _western_ societies, as well as soviet society were headed toward his future). However, Orwell is not a great novelist -- excellent essays, poor novels. Almost the entire plot is stolen from an earlier russian work (We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin), which is far superior. If you're interested in Orwell's political thinking (yes, he's a socialist), check out his essays. If you're looking for a good allegory, DON'T get 1984...

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Summary: A frightening vision, an interesting look at class struggle
Review: I'd recommend this book to anyone. Not because of how entertaining it is but because of how well Orwell gets his point across. The past exists only in written records and people's memories, and can therefore be manipulated. This remains true regardless of the fact that Orwell's vision hasn't come true.

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Summary: Buena. No apta para gente influenciable.
Review: En 1984 Orwell nos dibuja un panorama asolador. A pesar de la complejidad de los conceptos que quiere desarrollar (el proceso del doblepensar puede requerir un repaso para más de uno) los explica sencilllamente, de tal manera que no se podría haber escrito mejor. El panorama es tétrico, eso sí, con lo que no la recomiendo para mentes catastrofistas.

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Summary: A very chilling and entertaining novel
Review: 1984 is a provocative novel that shows us, even today what we can still become. It centers around a citizen of a totally controlled future earth. Constant government supervision, as well as very limited freedom of any kind makes it difficult for him to find meaning and hapiness in his life. Teamed up with several other rebels he plans joins a secret conspiricy in order to take down BIG BROTHER, and The Party, the two main forces keeping the world unaware of the true nature of life. This nightmarish version of the future, shows what we can become if we do not plan carefully.

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Summary: Both excellent and important
Review: Orwell's 1984 is the best reason for people to read. It demonstrates clearly and horrifically what can happen to an uneducated society that allows itself to be controlled due to it's own fear of initiative. Anyone who asks me why I read is automatically referred to this book, which is as important now as it was when it was written.

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Summary: Everyone must read this book.
Review: This book is simply one of the best. I will reveal nothing to you save that you will love it if you read it. The characters are incredible, their plight still poignant, and the message still relevant today. While there is a cumbersome section, the ending is fantastic, disturbing and awe inspriring. READ IT!!!!!

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Summary: doubleplusgood
Review: it moved me to tears and no book has ever done that, it was very deep. very scary because its pluasable

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Summary: A "Cliff's Notes" to history--and the present
Review: You should read this book every five years or so. I re-read it during the Gulf War: remember in the book there is a distant war going on (maybe) about which people know nothing except what they hear on television--sound familiar? And the "hate minutes" on television? It's not supposed to be an easy read! But essential.

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Summary: Delicious, quenched all my political hunger!!!
Review: Well I read this book in the following reasons. TO learn about more in socialism and communisms differences and to learn a different point of view. I guess this book applies to every different reader something different because it holds many values and the values can be undestood from many ways. In simple quotes many things were hidden to find out them was like a puzzle for every reader I guess. I thing this was a book that I really liked to read and also I would like to share my ideas with other readers of this book and other readers of books related to this topic.