Book Review - Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

London: Penguin Books, 2000 (First Published 1949)         ISBN 9780141187761

I'm not sure how many times I've read this book, and I'm also not sure how many copies I've owned over the years... I always seem to be giving it away to someone who has yet to read some of the most prescient writing on the nature of modern political life, in the hope that it will change the way they think about society, and learn to value individual freedom.

Orwell is rightly seen as the most clear headed writer to tackle the rise of totalitarianism, both Left and Right, in the early to mid Twentieth Century. With Animal Farm and the novel under review, Orwell skewered the falsity of ideological dictatorship, and the absurdity of following a cause even when it had turned on the path to evil. While Animal Farm is a satire of Soviet Communism, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a much deeper look at the way society - particularly politics and tyranny - can destroy the individual.

On this re-reading, I'm struck once again by how far society has headed down Orwell's dystopian tunnel seemingly without coercion from an all-controlling Party. It seems we have willingly submitted to constant surveillance, we participate in the destruction of history, and willfully deny science  ("If he thinks he floats off the floor and if I simultaneosly think I see him do it, then the thing happens"), and we, as mob, make people "unpersons". The prescience of Orwell, his understanding of human nature in that sense, sends chills down one's spine.

One thing though, that I hadn't really picked up on before to such an extent, is the fact that Ingsoc, Newspeak and the Thought Police were all wiped away, as is clear in the Appendix on the Principles of Newspeak. So, Winston Smith's vision that there was "some spirit, some principle - that you will never overcome....The spirit of Man" was in fact the truth, rather than O'Brien's assertion that "The Party is immortal." The hope of Winston Smith is the hope that we all cling to during times when it seems humanity is on the path to destruction: thankfully, amidst the gloom, evidence of the "spirit of Man" keeps re-appearing, to remind us that those that would like to control us are not all-powerful.

The book asks many questions of the reader: what does it mean to be free? What does it mean to have power? and, importantly, what is power for? These questions have resonated for hundreds of years, and are still important now. Freedom, as the Party well knows in this book means many things, but most importantly the ability to think. With Newspeak the Party works to take that ability away, but until that project is completed, they have moved one step beyond the historical totalitarianisms that we have known. It is not enough to confess, it is not enough to betray: in Oceania, one must truly believe before the final bullet in the back of the neck. Power means the ability to coerce, and what is it for? "Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution to establish the dictatorship.

While we may not have dictatorships, we increasingly see in the democratic West the quest for power for its own sake. Our parties have atrophied as politics has become yet another career path. While we bemoan this fact, perhaps the rise of independent politicians will in fact improve our polity, and steer us to a brighter future. Or perhaps, like Winston, I'm dreaming.

As to the literary qualities of Nineteen Eighty-Four, there is not so much to write about. Orwell was definitely a supreme craftsman of prose, but the book rises to no great stylistic or linguistic heights. Partly I'm sure, that was Orwell's plan, given his subject matter and the message he was trying to impart. The story, as it goes, is quite a good one, and the philosophizing, when it comes, can be a little dry, although easy enough to understand.

It seems superfluous for me to add that this is one of the classics of Twentieth Century literature. If you haven't read it, why not?

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell