George Orwell was a democratic socialist who satirically portrayed Stalinism as an anti-socialist, counter-revolutionary perversion of socialism in both of his most famous books, Animal Farm and 1984.

His lesser known tomes are ignored by capitalists who wish to capitalize on the above.

http://www.slate.com/id/2190378/

I finally got around to reading 1984 a few years ago, and I’m glad I did. Of course I read it about 25 years after 1984, so there was the added interest of seeing what an author thought the world could be like in 1984. Obviously it was written to warn against communism and socialism, and some of the warnings are worthwhile, some others are mere anti-communist propaganda. But I honestly just enjoyed the story without getting too worked up about the whole “Big Brother” stuff.

A dull, depressing reading experience I would not care to repeat.  Other than studying the Holocaust in detail during the cold gray winter months, I can't think of anything more suited to bring on a nice teenage case of suicidal depression than this ever popular Lit class selection. 

Anyone who's read 1984 by George Orwell realizes how close we are to Big Brother society in the present.The way we may be scrutinized by tracking on phone,internet usage, and fingerprint scanning....Guys We are there.

This book should bring us to the reality that the Big Brother syndrome could happen.

Who's version of a utopia is THIS?? Not mine.

Scary book about how our society may end up. Unfortunately, I see more and more of the signs we are heading in that direction

It may not have happened in1984, but, big brother is watching. They do punish people for thinking outside their circle

Again, a classic.

Fabulous - I read it over 30 years ago and still think about it.

SO much like our own society.

Certainly a masterpiece that is simple but understandable. 1984 is a scenario that almost happened to this world, and reading it would prevent it from happening again.

Freaky book

o ya DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER

lets see what they do to me when i post.

O shit the thought police got to go!

Beyond its message, I found it entertaining as a story. A must read (and it doesn't take long to read it). The doubletalk is used by the Bush administration- War is freedom, etc. Read this book and then (try) to watch Fox "News"

This is a book I keep saying I am going to read and just havn't found the time. I know from friends telling me that it is an incredible read.

Boring and pedantic. Though it did set the mold for subsequent dystopian novels, it was a bit overdone. Orwell was at a loss to explain why everything was falling apart yet the telescreens worked flawlessly throughout the novel.

The key thing to remeber with this book is that Orwell did not imply that things could become "1984-esque"...he was implying that it's happening right now and that we are as oblivious to it as the proles.

Orwell's vision of our collective future is closer to reality than many realize or want to admit. He wrote this as someone who has been high and inside the British establishment and by extension, among many of the political elite's push towards a singular world government. "Orwellian" and "Big Brother" are common terms in today's language because of this seminal book. It can be argued that he had his date wrong but 1984 is a reality in many parts of the world today. This work, along with Animal Farm serve as a warning to those who are willing to pay attention.

Still the most frightening book I have ever read. Almost perfect work of literature.

nice novel. it shows the vision of a scarying future. but besides that not really important in style and content.

a futuristic account of a modern society corrupted into it's own vast tattletale system, namely Big Brother. a novel or a prophesy? i fear it's looking like the latter these days. political points aside, i like the concept of 1984, just not Orwell's execution. i found the prose and the dialog very clinical(bear with me i'm going on about 10 years since i last picked this book up) and maybe that's the purpose. Orwell is obviously into the workings of the system of world government he created, and he should be in order for readers to understand the points he is making. does it make for good storytelling? is storytelling important in a novel? yes it is. Orwell is very dry in 1984 to the point of boredom. i mean, heck, we're talking a vast network of mind/thought/actual control of people, and it can't even get a rise in me as a reader. and i dont consider Orwell dry. Keep the Aspidistra Flying is one of my favorites, as is Down and Out in London and Paris. Perhaps it is when Orwell broadens his scope that his proses loses it's appeal?

It warns us the terrors of communism if only everyone red then we would bomb cuba and China. Other great books are animal farm and mein kampf.However its not perfect because it makes out all totalitarian states are bad

1984 is the most boring book I have ever read.

This book is the ultimate in dystopian visions.

Quite simply the most chilling ending I have ever read. The novel is a warning, a prophecy, and at it's most disturbing a look at the underlying currents of our world as it actually is.

This is such a good book! All of the topics touched on are so amazingly relevant to today and Animal Farm is also another favorite. Orwell is a close second to Tolstoy on my list of favorite authors.

Incredible novel!

It's been said that 1984 failed as a prophecy because it succeeded as a warning. For a novel, it certainly did have an influence on society. To this day, people still use the expression Big Brother to refer to intrusive government. But as good as the message was, the novel itself was dull and the characters were tiresome. It seemed that the book would never come to an end.

An interesting premise and insightful at times, but hardly a work of literary genius. Probably one of the most boring books I've every had the displeasure of reading.

Another stupid view of a cynical future. Give me Star Trek's view of Earth-as-Paradise instead!

Like all of Orwell's fiction, tends to be a trifle preachy. He is at his best(which is very good) in essays and and non-fiction like Homage to Catalonia and Down and Out in Paris and London

Amazing, unparelled, and relative today as it was 50 years ago

George Orwell is able to come up with some interesting concepts and attach several political and social messages with them. His main flaw however is at storywriting itself. Pertaining to this book, some of the characters come off very strange and engaging in some peculiar acts (Winston especially). Granted, that is part of the theme of the book. However, it's not in an appealing fashion. It makes the reader think, "Thses people are idiots. Where I could once connect with their struggle, they leave me behind with their many quirks that would seem insane even in a society such as this one." The story tends to drag in slow motion all throughout the book maikng the story less appealing and intersting to the reader. Each chapter is presented as random events that happen day by day with nothing ever being accomplished by anyone. Unfortunately, this book reads more of a social science textbook than it does a fiction novel when it's suppose to become a hybrid of both (social science fiction novel....NOT TEXTBOOK!!). One may learm something from this book, but it will not be an exciting process.

I have read this book over a dozen times, and I feel that I am indeed a smarter person for having read it. It's lessons do not serve merely as a caution against communist totalitarianism, as some have said, but against all attacks on freedom from all forms of government. I mean, when the Bush administration declared the United Nations to be irrelevant when it refused to rubber-stamp their murderous policies, it was a prime example of Doublespeak, since by simply allowing the US to run roughshod over international law the UN would indeed have been rendered irrelevant. Also, the proposals of John Ashcroft are extremely Orwellian. This should be required reading for every single American living, whether they are literate or not.

a masrepiece that still speaks to us today and with a story line we should be very aware of in our world.

wonderful, absolutely marvelous piece of work by orwell. very true, very real.

This book is great as George Orwell's genius was able to predict what actually is happening right now and what will happen in the future!

Single best book that I have ever read. What makes it scarier is the fact that a society similar to this can happen.

1984 is a very interesting book that offers a view as to how a hypothetical totalitarian society would be like in the year 1984. Orwell wrote the book at the beginning of the Cold War, when the communist threat was very strong; this made Orwell's writing come to life even more. The two main characters are definitely unique. They fall in love despite the fact that love is not permitted in this ideal (?), but sterilized society. Everything is monitored by "Big Brother", an entity/leader who controls all everybody's activities by placing monitors in people's homes and on the streets. It's interesting how it became that way through a "big war" which happened 30 years earlier. If anything, the society described in this book is reminiscent of Kim Jong's North Korea, where all of a citizens movements, emotions, etc. are tracked daily. The book really makes you think because there are many underlying themes at work throughout the book. That is what makes Orwell's writings so interesting. This is also evident in "Animal Farm", Orwell's other literary piece about a communist revolution in a farm with the animals playing different roles within the revolution.

1984, by Geroge Orwell, definitely deserves its place as number 1 on this list. It was so ahead of its time. Its sortof like the paranoids guide to life. Really a book choc-full-o-propoganda but a fun one. The lovable main charecter is by far imperfect. Very powerful stuff. Orwell once again proved himslef a genius.

This ranks up there with "The Truman Show" and "The Matrix" for me in the sense that it lead me to doubt every aspect of existence and wonder about so many things. It's extremely well-written with amazing concepts and a crazy plot, I just subtract a star because there were many instances where Orwell described everything and drawled on and on. Plus, it's not the happiest read. Not that I'd expect it to be after reading the first page...

It is still read over 50 years later in American classrooms everywhere. As stated by another reviewer, it's not JUST a book, it really is an American history icon as well as a social commentary. Winston's life in a future totalitarian state (1984 in London) and love for Julia is makes this, in my opinion, the best work of literature ever published. Eric Blair, whose pseudonym was George Orwell, wrote this as a kind of warning of what the world would be like if everything was thought to be communistic, but turned out to be totalitarian. It is a work of great intellect and ingenuity. Perhaps the most popular and well-written book of the past century, 1984, the 1949 work by George Orwell is a perfect example of how Communism turns out to be like. It gives an in-depth description of the life of Winston Smith, an average man residing in a Communistic or Totalitarian state in which he does not totally agree with the things that are being done, but doesn’t know what to do about it. He knows the actions of the government are morally and historically incorrect and is appalled that everyone else either doesn’t see it or just doesn’t care. It is evident because he sits there and changes historical documents for the government in order to fit what they want. Many people, including me, take it as a warning at the time of what our world would become if we let the horrible ideals of the Communist world spread and win in our Democratic society. Through his condescension of that form of rule, Orwell shows that Big Brother derives Winston’s power and inner intelligence.

hell yeah

George Orwell (Eric Blair) wrote this novel in 1948 and just reversed the last two digits to give his allegorical novel of a hypersocialist world a name. The protagonist, Winston Smith, is an Everyman of this futuristic world who is slowly but surely molded into an automaton whose only link with a world that still retains a semblance of individual thinking and free will is the poem "Oranges and Lemons" and a meadow where he and his lover meet in vain but discreet hopes of escaping Big Brother. Orwell believed that machinery would replace human thought and speech; a sterile environment where everything is reduced to absolute efficiency as reflected in loss of language. I enjoyed this book when I was in high school and it amuses me that people think that humans will be entirely replaced by machinery. Remember that machines are only as intelligent as the people who program and operate them; I feel it is possible to co-exist with machinery (read: computers et. al.)because, in our day and time, to ignore technology and science would be to severely limit, but not totally remove ourselves from, the world in which we function. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to see how absolute power can corrupt in an absolute form. Great reading.

Orwell’s allegory of Stalin’s Russia is quite impressive. I have always enjoyed the book, and find its content a bit chilling. In the past, many have tried to apply 1984 to the U.S. which has always been a stretch, but a comparison of his fictional world to the information and propaganda control systems put in place by many communist and dictatorial nations is quite accurate. I enjoy the book but am also frightened by it.

My favorite novel among the ones that deal with negative utopias (Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, The Giver, etc.). It scared me to death the first time that something like that could happen to people. Now I am jokingly called Big Sister in a small community.

Pretty average.

I graduated in 1984 and we performed George Orwell's 1984 during the graduation ceremony. Quite a shock for parents and teachers!

George Orwell's dystopian futuristic vision may not have been 100% accurate, but it rings eerily true. It is the tale of a world with no privacy, no independent thought and no past.

Excellent book. It is a good book for high school aged person. It makes you think about politics and government policy in a new way. Dry parts in the middle but the end picks up.