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)

Performance is Fantastic.

Prebble's narration deepens the book and adds great levels for a first-time listener. will definately seek out more of his work in the future.

Lots to think about

I’ll read/listen again. I was not ready for this in high school, it’s worth consideration once one has a little more mileage.

very inciteful and timeless

I'm very glad i read this book, its very applicable to modern day. I started encouraging other people to read it immediately after the first chapter.

loved it and perfectly performed.

cant imagine the book being oerformed any better. and, of course a great story,

Not sure how I feel

Not sure how I feel. The beginning had a ton of intrigue and transformation, The middle held growth and promise. The ending held the destruction of the first 2 parts utterly leaving no hope. It was a very anti climatic and dissatifying ending. I'm glad I read it, at the same time I am very disappointed with the oppresive ending.

Phenomenal

No other way to put it the book is amazing! Incredibly relevant today even though it’s a fiction, it paints a picture of the future. A boot trampling on a human face.

Plus-Good

I didn't like the characters, but the rest of the book made up for that. Not quite Double-Plus-Good, but Plus-Good.

Grim story that you have to hear.

I hope the good review is not towards the sad, grim story, but the light to no privacy and grim reality that is the world and human nature to grip power over population.

Excellent!

A fellow coworker, and myslef, often have 2 or 3 hour long drives. I suggested trying an audiobook and chose this, as I have read the book but the coworker has not. He was so entrenched by the story that he would ask to take the longer way just so we didn't have to pause the story. Great book! Great Performance!

Reader skipped sections of the book

I am unsure if it was intentional or just a glitch, but parts of the book are missing, almost like it was edited...maybe that's what is meant in the title by 'New Classic Edition'? For example, in Chapter 6 when he meets the woman on the street and she says '$2'....it cuts off half way through a word and skips to a section further into the chapter. And again at 2:25 in Chapter 6, it skips.