• 1984

  • New Classic Edition
  • By: George Orwell
  • Narrated by: Simon Prebble
  • Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (56,060 ratings)

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1984  By  cover art

1984

By: George Orwell
Narrated by: Simon Prebble
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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)

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What listeners say about 1984

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Incredible narration, captivating story

I’m still a little shaken from one part of the book due to the masterful narration and story telling. I’d been meaning to read this book for many years; it did not disappoint.

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This book hits differently in 2020

Read the book in 7th grade. Thought it was just ok then. It really hits differently in 2020 though.

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Second saddest book I've ever read.

This book was an awesome emotional ride. I went from bewildered to excited, from very happy to very sad, and many things in between. The narrator does an excellent job of emphasizing key parts of the story that will stick out in my mind forever.

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Eye Opening.

This book should be required reading in Schools across the free world. Down With Big Brother

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Would you rather be right or be happy?

If ever a book gave you reason to question everyone and everything you've ever known it's this one.

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Earns it's acclaim

Take it in chunks. Don't be afraid to list to the sections over to really gasp what has happened.

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Orwell was right

A captivating story and performance.
In our current era of precipitous censorship, used they claim, to thwart misleading info while also seeing a redefining of words, meanings, pronouns, even history, people canceled and doxed for wrong-think by the heretic hunters—-I couldn’t help but feel Orwell was right about his fears of the future, if only in degrees. And as I write this, Im wondering if my review will violate “community standards” and be tossed in the memory hole.

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It is starting

not always an easy one to listen to, but one that absolutely must be listened to in 2021 (or read).

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Whoa!

Wow what a great book! I will be reading this one again as well as some others from author, thanks.

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Timely for our current Environment

loved it. Very relatable for our current world!! look at newspeak, double think etc.. as well as how the government works compared to current day events and proposals.

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