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)

Dear Orwell,

I only wish you'd lived to see how concerningly close to a prequel we're approaching.

scary stuff

I have recently heard how 1984 parallels out modern society, I was shocked by how close it really was. I very much enjoyed parts 1 and 2 but 3 was hard to hear, seems like it may hit to close to home.

A chilling depiction of what could be

Fantastic book that paints a terrifying image of a world where all thought is policed by the most controlling I've ever seen depicted. It really makes one think about how many rights we enjoy in the west, and how the slow erosion of freedom in the name of security is a dangerous slope. I would recommend all young people to read this so that they may understand how important it is that we and future generations keep our governments in check.

This book should be required reading

I reread this book for the first time since high school and wow is it chilling to read in 2020! This audiobook narrator is excellent - great intonation and different voices for each character that don’t distract from the text. I feel even more disturbed this reread. Definitely a classic for a reason!

hard to pause...

very easy to finish and commit to..
the reader also did an outstanding job

Revolutionary for its time, but too depressing.

Look, i totally get why this book is a classic. It's well written and kinda invented an entire genre on its own. That's all well and good, but I simply dislike how depressing and heavy handed it is, particularly the ending. I have a strong dislike for stories that have horrible endings.

Couldn't understand every word, but a good book.

The narrator's accent made a few sentences and words extremely difficult to separate from each other, but other than that, this book was great!

Deep Sigh...

Wow! This story is intense and thought provoking. This is a work we all must read.

It gets better every read (or listen)

This book will always be a terrifying look at what could be, or what is. Every time I listen to it, I notice more things that are coming true. Big Brother's tele-screens are today's social media, big data, and the advertising industry who sells information to the highest bidder, be they government, or corporate. Control of our mind is being achieved through the manipulation of what we are fed through video and advertising, either to cause us to buy things, or to alter opinion.

Masterpiece

1984 is among the greatest, most influential, and important novels aver written. Terrifying and enthralling. More so because foundational elements of its narrative can be seen in the past—especially the Soviet Union. And more frightening still, echoes of Oceania flitter though our present day reality. Yet reality itself, as well as the ability to express it through independent though and language, is thrown violently into question.

The conversation and theories derived from 1984 is endless. Every soul should read it, study it, discuss it, keep it in their consciousness. Because perhaps the only way to prevent 1984 is to know 1984.