Nineteen Eighty-Four is a dystopian novel and cautionary tale by English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. Thematically, it centres on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of people and behaviours within society. Orwell, a democratic socialist, modelled the authoritarian state in the novel on the Soviet Union in the era of Stalinism, and Nazi Germany. More broadly, the novel examines the role of truth and facts within societies and the ways in which they can be manipulated.
First-edition cover
The novel was completed at Barnhill, Jura.
A 1947 draft manuscript of the first page of Nineteen Eighty-Four, showing the editorial development
A 1931 poster for the first five-year plan of the Soviet Union by Yakov Guminer [ru] reading "The arithmetic of an industrial-financial counter-plan: 2 + 2 plus the enthusiasm of the workers = 5"
Eric Arthur Blair was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and support of democratic socialism.
Press card portrait, 1943
Orwell's birthplace in Motihari, Bihar, India
Blair family home at Shiplake, Oxfordshire
Blair's time at St. Cyprian's inspired his essay "Such, Such Were the Joys".