1984

New Classic Edition

By: George Orwell

Narrated by: Simon Prebble

Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's 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.

©1949 Harcourt Brace and Company, renewed 1977 Sonia Brownell Orwell (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

• Nominee, 2008 Audie Award, Classic

"It is probable that no other work of this generation has made us desire freedom more earnestly or loathe tyranny with such fullness." (New York Times, 1949)

Impressive and alarming

Incredible book matched by the performance of Mr. Prebble. Must listen for anyone who’s ever heard a politician or preacher....

1984

I did not think I was gonna ever get through this book because at the beginning I hated it. But like every book I pushed through until the end and I begin to like it more and more. I finally finished the book today and I can gladly say I enjoyed this book and the narrator thoroughly.

MUST READ!!!

Orwell predicted nearly everything in our world today.... it is a rather scary book to be quite honest. The length Orwell takes his prediction is well thought out and eerily possible.

With caution

This story doesn't put the reader in a utopian future of flying cars and other nonsense. Instead it opens your mind to a future imagined by what could possibly be considered one of the most pessimistic, government-power fearing, sadistic minds that has ever put on to paper in such a successful way. And that's not an insult. How many people have heard the term Big Brother used in reference to a secretive watching power? Enough said. Read it, but with caution if you get queezy about torture or the idea that some is watching you.

Narrator and novel perfectly narrated

I decided to listen to the audiobook version of 1984 because I hadn’t read it in a while. I have never heard a more perfect rendition of a novel... Prebble’s narration is sublime. A powerful performance.

Better Than The Text

When I first read "1984", I was still a child. It's been well over two decades since I thought of this book. It was a mandatory read from our English teacher either in high school or even in middle school. I am showing my age as I write this review.

I remembered turning the pages rapidly and glancing through until I got to the "good" part. Remind you, I was a teenager with newly discover hormones. It was just another assignment that was due before getting a progress report.

I think, at the time, I didn't even finished the book and ended up watching the movie to complete the homework. I need to thank my teachers for making us read 1984 because after I finish this book, it unleashed my shelter mind to start questioning and be more critical at what I was observing.

Almost 20 some years after, I decided to read this book again and it is better than the text. I really hope George Orwell's texts is still a requirement in schools for our young minds to challenge authorities.

Worth listening to for preventiin of tyranny.

1984 seems to predict the future, just a half century or so earlier than it will/could happen. The story itself is agonizing in that its repetitive, and that the repetition is of such dark ideas. Overall it is a story that should be known by all.

Great Book and good reading

This is a classic book that really makes you think about the world we live in today.

A must read for the times

Just finished it. Was good till it dropped off at the end(otherwise would have been an easy 5 star). Kind of scary close to reality of the times of a bit dramatic and impressively accurate considering it was written in '49.

1984

It’s almost as if Orwell was a time traveler. Our collective goal should be to avoid the dystopian society of Oceana depicted in the novel. Sadly, it’s reading like a how to manual for the Ministry of Truth.