a common reader

Nineteen eighty-four

George Orwell

taal: Engels
gepubliceerd door: Secker & Warburg
eerste editie: 1949
gedrukt: 1999
verworven: 1999
bindwijze: gebonden
isbn: 0436410559
verworven via: GBG

This beautiful edition was published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first edition.
For me this is one of the most impressive novels of the last century. Like VS Pritchett wrote: “A book that goes through the reader like an east wind, cracking the skin, opening the sores.”
For Orwell 1984 was still the remote future, for us it’s 20 years in the past. But the haunting prophecy is not dated, on the contrary. Big Brother is really watching us. Our leaders present us all the time with new enemies to keep us busy. Saddam Hussein was a friend, now the biggest traitor on earth. Khadaffi of Lybia was an enemy, now he is a friend…
Read it, and be frightened.

More by and on George Orwell.
This book is part of my personal canon.