In 1949, George Orwell received a curious letter from his former high school French teacher, who was, as it happens, none other than Aldous Huxley, who taught at Eton for a spell before writing Brave New World (1931), the other great 20th-century dystopian novel. While praising Nineteen Eighty-Four, Huxley argues that his version of the future was more likely to come to pass. The letter can be found here. [1]
Published on 8th June in 1949, George Orwell’s seminal novel Nineteen Eighty-Four introduced new phrases such as ‘Big Brother’, ‘thought police’, ‘Room 101’, ‘doublethink’ and ‘newspeak’ to the English language and popularised the term “Orwellian” as an adjective. It is a dystopian social science fiction novel and a cautionary tale, and has been described as the definitive novel of the 20th century.
Written while he was seriously ill with tuberculosis Orwell’s most famous work is a testament to the potential power of modern political systems and the dark side of human nature. The circumstances surrounding its writing make a haunting narrative alone and help to explain its bleakness. Read about that here.
When it was first published, Nineteen Eighty-Four received critical acclaim and has continued to attract controversy. It has become a classic literary example of political and dystopian fiction and was included in the BBC list of the 100 most influential novels in 1999. It has been adapted for cinema, television, radio, theatre, opera and ballet and has influenced novels, films, plays, television shows, comic books, albums, advertisements, speeches, election campaigns and uprisings. People have been jailed just for reading it. Arguably, no other work of literary fiction from the past century has equalled its impact.
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