Rating: 
Summary: George Go Home
Review: George had a good idea, I'll give him that, otherwise the book fell short. Very short. For me the book took a downword turn during the time where Winston started having a love affair with some girl. This girl latter became a thought police inforcer, which surprised me none. I found the book to be a bore of a read and very predictable. My advise to all of you fair readers is to steer clear of this vile book. You will live longer because of it.
Rating: 
Summary: Scary. Good, but scary.
Review: Two plus two does not equal five. Imagine yourself in a world where you are told it does one day but not the next. Scary. This is a brilliantly written, possibly prophetic book. It's almost a warning for how we could turn out, and the fact that the date has been and gone does not make it any less horrific. I suggest that everyone read this and use the aftertaste to make the world less like the book.
Rating:
Summary: Harrowing, thought-provoking, powerful
Review: I just finished 1984 about a week ago and loved it. Orwell showed his maturity as a writer and his evolution from Animal Farm (also great). 1984 shows the force of totalitarian governments and the faults of human nature. This should be read by any progressive-minded persons in the world.
Rating:
Summary: A novel of indefinate importance- excellent, gut-wrenching
Review: 1984 is the totalarianism view that George Orwell wishes to show us; about what we may become and what, at one time, the Stalinist regiem was like. The imagry and importance is equal to Dofoe, the insightful and truly endearing relationships between the characters and the fact that privacy no longer exists, all point to a world that we must NEVER become. It does not just mean communism...it means US, too.
Rating: 
Summary: 1984 is a warning to the future.
Review: If society continues its cownward spiral, it just may end up as Orwell's 1984. One need look only to the Russian Revolution and Russia under the rule of Stalin to see that such events are possible. There are very close parallels between Stalinist Russia and 1984. Josef Stalin is much like Big Brother. Once he has sighted opposition to him or intellect, he erases that person from existence. This happened thousands upon thousands of times in Russia while Stalin was in control. The people in 1984 live life much like the peasants in Russia. They get meager rations of tasteless food, if they get any at all. One more parallel between the two is that the torture chambers of Big Brother are much like that of the Gulags of Stalin. Society should take examples from history to prevent the world from turning into the one in 1984. It seems to me that this book is a warning to society. Examine the past, learn from it, and control the future. It is fortunate that Stalinist Russia came to and end when he died. Next time, the world may not be so lucky.
Rating:
Summary: The single most startling book I've ever encountered.
Review: Nineteen-Eighty Four is by far one of the best novels I have ever read. It struck me at first as a simple novel of the so-called future, but I then came to see the more subtle aspects of the human psyche. By the end of the novel, the reoccurance of "War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength" begin to ironically make sense. Anyone who reads this novel will begin to realize a type of "Big Brother" in their own life.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books.
Review: I think Orwell is one of the English language's best writers. 1984 is his master-work. However, to really grasp many of the themes in 1984 one must also look at Orwell's other political writings. (There is an excellent collection of them on the Web - search for 'George Orwell' in Yahoo). Much of what I would say about 1984 has already been said here. However, it never fails to amuse me when socialists and left-wingers seek to cast 1984 as an attack on capitalism. Even the little piece at the end of the edition offered for sale here tries desperately to protest that Big Brother and Ingsoc might also be the product of capitalism. If you believe this, ask yourself how well the words 'laissez-faire' would fit into Newspeak. It is absolutely true that Orwell was a 'democratic socialist.' It is also absolutely true, and Orwell knew, that democracy could produce totalitarianism. 1984 is a critique of two things: relativism (the view that there is no objective truth), and the planner's mentality (that endemic to both the left and right). To think of it as a criticism of any purely economic system is just plain silly.
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Summary: I am a fan of this work, but some take it too far.
Review: Many of the reviewers on this page are part of the pre-millenium paranoia that seems to have gripped our country in a solid grasp in the last few years. What many of the people who have joined this movement fail to realize is that they have done just what Orwell warned against, becoming part of a faceless movement. All that need be given to form a mindless mob is a galant cause, and the destruction of the evil "new world government" fits that bill perfectly. What these people fail to realize is that the individuals trying to violate our homes, and ultimately our brains, are the pervayors of capitalism itself; that is the owners of huge corporate conglomerates , private individuals that have a larger motivation than world domination . . . greed. So, go ahead and buy this book on a computer built by a huge monopolizing business, over an "internet" that has exposed your personal knowledge to thousands of people (a service wich you pay for), using a credit card which holds you constantly in debt to a group of people which you have never even seen. Know then, that some lessons are never learned.
Rating:
Summary: He loved Big Brother
Review: I read the book twice. Saw the movie (with Richard Burton) three times. Orwell's tale is the tale of our time. It is the story of a man's total loss of himself, and the story of the nature of the society that took his very soul. Smith's fight against Big Brother proves more than just futile. His fight is the direct cause of his undoing both in his loss of "freedom" to move within his restricted society and in his loss of any concept of self. In many respects this is the ultimate horror story because after all the tyrany, torture, hate, and deceit, the greatest horror still remains inside the human psyche. Smith who could no longer believe in his lover Julia, who could no longer believe in his neighbors, who could no longer believe in the resistance & Emmanuel Goldstein, who never believed in "God," finally failed to believe any aspect of himself. What's left? "He loved Big Brother." This is an extremely powerful book. I have only touched on one of its major themes. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece...
Review: The first ever Orwell book I read. I was younger, but I got the message loud and clear. Although it is complicated at times, (with the appendix and the alternate language etc.) it is masterfully written and should be read by everybody who is old enough to understand its true meaning. Although it is fiction, it is very believable; plausable, but hopefully preventable. Highly recommended.
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