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1984 Audiobook
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(4.00) - 902,257 listener ratings
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Plot Summary
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
These are the watchwords for The Party, which governs Oceania with absolute authority. In Airstrip One (formerly known as England), the omnipresent viewscreens, which the people watch and by which in turn are watched, remind everyone that "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU."
Winston Smith, member of the Outer Party and diligent worker in the Ministry of Truth, where he rewrites history, is dead. He already knows it, for he has committed thoughtcrime. "Thoughtcrime doesn't entail death," he notes in his forbidden journal, "thoughtcrime IS death." As he starts his journey as a thought criminal seeking actual truth, he encounters Julia, beautiful and tempting; O'Brien, member of the Inner Party and potential ally against tyranny; and the truth about a party seeking power for power's sake. And this truth, it will not set him free.
1984: New Classic Edition, written in 1948, is a cautionary tale. Orwell saw, in the burgeoning Cold War, a terrible future, and detailed it in this lasting novel which has been translated into 65 different languages; the dystopic future of 1984 remains as poignant and timely in any year and in any era.
George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Blair, an English novelist who used his works to comment on the perils of social injustice and totalitarianism. A journalist by trade, he was best known during his life for his essays and columns in newspapers and magazines, famously describing the effects of poverty in Paris and northern England as well as covering the Spanish Civil War. He wrote most of 1984 while ill, being diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1947. Still, he persisted, writing one of the most important works in the English language, responsible for such neologisms as "doublethink," "Big Brother" and "memory hole" and immortalized in the term "Orwellian." He died at the age of 46 on January 21, 1950.
"It was never meant to be an instruction manual, but listening to this book again after 10 years shows us just how far down the rabbit hole we have gone. When I read this in high school, it was just another piece of fantasy, something that we could not actually imagine as reality. I read the books again with my kids a number of years later and it was shocking how far we progressed towards that reality. Now, all I can say is this is scary. It is well worth a read. It will make you think. It will make you contemplate and ask questions. "
— Selina (5 out of 5 stars)
Publisher Summary
Blackstone Publishing presents a new recording of this immensely popular book.
One of the most celebrated classics of the twentieth century, Orwell’s cautionary tale of a man trapped under the gaze of an authoritarian state feels more relevant now than ever before.
George Orwell depicts a gray, totalitarian world dominated by Big Brother and its vast network of agents, including the Thought Police, a world in which news is manufactured according to the authorities’ will and people live tepid lives by rote.
Winston Smith, the hero with no heroic qualities, longs only for truth and decency. But living in a social system in which privacy does not exist and where those with unorthodox ideas are brainwashed or put to death, he knows there is no hope for him. He knows even as he continues to pursue his forbidden love affair that eventually he will come to destruction.
The year 1984 has come and gone, yet George Orwell’s nightmare vision in 1949 of the world we were becoming is still the great modern classic of negative Utopia. It is a prophetic and haunting tale that exposes the worst crimes imaginable: the destruction of freedom and truth.
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Quotes
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“You may have read 1984, but hearing it in audio is a whole different experience. Simon Prebble shows incredible range, offering multitudes of accents and underscoring the novel’s dark, looming feel.”
— Audible.com -
“The most important speculative novel of the twentieth century.”
— New York Times -
“With British equanimity, Simon Prebble accentuates every shade of gray in post-Blitzed-London…Prebble is especially effective at subtly changing pace and giving weight to each character’s most telling moments.”
— AudioFile -
“A profound, terrifying, and wholly fascinating book…Orwell’s theory of power is developed brilliantly.”
— New Yorker -
“[A] chilling portrayal of the dangers of a post-truth surveillance state.”
— O, The Oprah Magazine -
“Orwell’s novel escorts us so quietly, so directly, and so dramatically from our own day to the fate which may be ours in the future, that the experience is a blood-chilling one.”
— Saturday Review -
“1984 is a remarkable book; as a virtuoso literary performance it has a sustained brilliance that has rarely been matched in other works of its genre…It is as timely as the label on a poison bottle.”
— New York Herald Tribune -
“1984 is a rare work that grows more haunting as its futuristic purgatory becomes more real…It ranks among the most terrifying novels ever written.”
— Amazon.com -
“Though the year 1984 now exists in the past, Orwell’s novel remains an urgent call for the individual willing to speak truth to power.”
— BookRiot
Awards
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An Audie Award Finalist
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One of Time Magazine's Best 100 English-Language Novels from 1923–2005
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A New York Times Bestseller
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An Amazon.com Bestseller
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An Audible.com Bestseller
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A USA Today bestseller
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A BookRiot Pick of the Best Kindle Unlimited Audiobooks of 2018
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An Oprah’s Book Club Selection of Dystopian Novels Everyone Should Read
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A New York Public Library Staff Pick of the 10 Most Borrowed Books in Its History
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A New York Public Library Staff Pick of Favorite Books of the Last 125 Years
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A Washington Post Pick of Novels That Changed the Way We Live
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An iBooks bestseller
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A London Times Pick at #8 of the 50 Best Novels of the Last 100 Years
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An Audible Pick of the Best Audio Version of a Classic
1984 Listener Reviews
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More_from_the_mainstream, 9/18/2024
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Matthew M. , 5/17/2023
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Bruce Wilburn, 1/29/2023
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Scott, 12/14/2022
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David Smith, 10/12/2022
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Worknprogress06, 10/3/2022
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Ronald A. Javitch, 7/27/2022
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Bryn Black, 6/23/2022
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Marc-André Lapointe, 3/19/2022
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Robert Fromm, 12/19/2021
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Ian erickson, 5/22/2020
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M, 10/3/2019
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Joseph Freeman Jr, 6/4/2018
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" More true today than the late 40's. Worth listening to the classic "Big Brother" again. "
— Steven, 4/4/2018 -
" Simon Prebble the narrator needs an award for best reading. Bloody fantastic. Should be a compulsory read for everyone. "
— Jessica, 6/9/2017 -
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Greg Seinen, 7/5/2015
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" the world that he has created with bogbrother...a supreme, beyond god existence...thoughtcrime, thoughtpolice ...it filled my heart with the horror of what if...all the things that we take for granted are taken away...even the liberty to think is forshaken...i shudder at the thought of it... "
— Abhinav, 1/26/2014 -
" Feel like losing your mind, and becoming paranoid for good reason? Read '84. "
— Bran, 1/19/2014 -
" Great book, worth to read, I'll recommend to everybody "
— Jarek, 1/11/2014 -
" I really, really liked the first half of the book. I could not put it down, and loved the questions it posed. However, halfway through, I got really sick of Orwell using "literally", "continuous", "intermittently", "furtively", and other words that got overused beyond belief. I also thought it got a bit repetitive/redundant after a while. I still enjoyed it, just not as much as I thought I would. "
— Levi, 12/26/2013 -
" A book averyone should read many times in his life to understand the dangers of our world. "
— Jean-Philippe, 12/5/2013 -
" To this day I have no idea how one mind could create a work of this magnitude. By all means read this novel, but know that when you do it will change the way you view yourself and the world around you forever. "
— Luke, 10/27/2013 -
" Totally twisted... a lot of mind games, and one messed up gov. the book was okay, but just not something I would want to deal with in reality. "
— Johnathan, 10/11/2013 -
" A powerful and at times truly frightening novel .....I tried reading this as a teenager and it want straight over my head ! ....Now some 30 years later i found it compelling and though it has some flaws i still enjoyed it "
— Dylan, 9/27/2013 -
" Dystopian goodness. Two words: Big Brother. "
— Rachel, 9/19/2013 -
" (note: about the companion book, which is superior to the original Orwell book) At times inconsistent and intellectually incestuous, although I would like one of these for all my favorite books. "
— Emily, 8/28/2013 -
" I find more and more similarities daily... "
— Sarah, 5/17/2013 -
" Although I really liked the book and the story, the pacing was kind of slow at times which made it increasingly difficult to read. However, I would definitely recommend the book! "
— Anusha, 3/23/2013 -
" Great story! Re-reading it as an adult, I better appreciate everything about this book. "
— Monica, 3/22/2013 -
" My favourite book without any doubts. "
— Jelena, 2/11/2013 -
" Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. "
— Ivan, 11/7/2012 -
" This book is extremely weird. The way it depicts the future is rather freaky. Even though its not exact it gets really close to several things, like the tellascreens in all the rooms. It was an interesting read though. "
— Phillip, 10/23/2012 -
" This is a good dystopian novel, and gets at the true nature of totalitarian regimes really well. The ending is quite a doozy. "
— Patrick, 4/3/2012 -
" Outstanding look at bleakness of life without civil liberty "
— Scott, 12/16/2011 -
" Perhaps not a great read, but a seminal work and extremely bleak. "
— David, 10/2/2011 -
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Thomas, 7/5/2011
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" Grim. Much prefer Brave New World. "
— Viv, 6/29/2011 -
" Todo lo que necesito saber sobre la guerra contra el terrorismo ya lo leí hace años en 1984.... Gracias Orwell! "
— Rubio, 5/22/2011 -
" A True Classic. Ahead of it's time in so many ways. "
— Gillian, 5/19/2011 -
" Sólo decir que creo que gracias a que este libro fue publicado, su profecía no se cumplió al 100% "
— Speedy, 5/19/2011 -
" Another classic liberal prep school read. Seems like "Brave New World" is closer to what's happened <br/>but Orwell's fears and warning were well expressed and not to be ignored. Date read is a guess. "
— Chris, 5/19/2011 -
" I read this in middle school and the existential anxiety has been creeping in ever since... "
— Ashley, 5/19/2011 -
" Good read, pretty fast paced except for the end of Part 2, when Winston is reading the exposition on the history of Big Brother... Not quite up there with Animal Farm, but still, it causes you to sit back and wonder just where we currently are on the pendulum of revolution. "
— Matt, 5/18/2011 -
" It still gives me the shivers and I haven't read it in years. "
— Jane, 5/18/2011 -
" Another depressing story about a leader who reminds me of several world leaders. You know their names. "
— Thadd, 5/17/2011 -
" Not a big fan of dystopian novels, but very good read for common culture. "
— Aliisa, 5/17/2011
About George Orwell
George Orwell (1903–1950), the pen name of Eric Arthur Blaire, was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and literary critic. He is best known for his works of social criticism and opposition to totalitarianism. He also wrote nonfiction about his experiences in the working class and as a solder. His work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective “Orwellian,"describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices, has become part of the English language. In 2008, the London Times named him the second-greatest British writer since 1945.
About Simon Prebble
Simon Prebble, a British-born performer, is a stage and television actor and veteran narrator of some three hundred audiobooks. As one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices, he has received thirty-seven Earphones Awards and won the prestigious Audie in 2010. He lives in New York.