Teaser

Freedom is slavery. War is peace. Ignorance is strength. It is with these commandments that the Party remains in power. An authoritarian regime which allows no dissent, especially not from those who work for the Party . . .

Review

Even if you haven’t read this book, there’s a good chance you know about its contents. You know that it’s one of the original dystopias. The ur-text from which modern dystopian fiction is derived. You’ll probably have heard of Big Brother or Room 101, even if it’s only through the TV shows that have co-opted these dreadful ideas in the name of cheap entertainment. If you have read 1984, there’s a strong possibility you did so in school, where it has become a favourite of English teachers. Seventy-six years after its publication, 1984 has become all-pervasive. Orwellian is an adjective precisely because of this book. Fiction is filled with poor-quality imitations, while the real-world news becomes ever more reminiscent of Orwell’s dire warnings. It is not too much of a stretch to say that 1984 may be the most important book of the twentieth century.

All of this makes reviewing 1984 a rather daunting proposition. What could I possibly have to say that hasn’t been said already? I suppose the solution is to simply speak my mind anyway, and see if anything new pops out.

This is not an enjoyable book to read. It’s incredibly depressing, and any brief moments of hope are rapidly stamped out. It’s bleak to the point of nihilism. This is how you can tell it is written not as science fiction, but as literature. It is a book overburdened by knowledge of its own importance. I don’t enjoy dystopias at the best of times, but literary sensibilities are enough to turn me right off. Thankfully, Orwell’s self-importance is balanced by an incredibly readable style. This is, without a doubt, a good piece of writing. However, it is writing that is split into two halves.

One of these halves is the personal story of Winston Smith, a government propagandist (one of few careers still to exist) who is seduced by the possibility of a freer life. Along the way he encounters rebels, forbidden secrets, and love. I’m going to go fully into spoilers here, but at the end of the book, Smith is tortured until submitting to the Party line, realising that he was a true believer all along. As such, the narrative arc is somewhere between full circle, and absolutely flat. Everything good is either destroyed or a lie, nobody can ever be trusted, and everything bad is somehow even worse than you imagined. I understand the points that Orwell is conveying, but it all seems rather pointless.

Where Orwell excels is in the politics of the novel. He repeats verbatim propaganda from both sides of the argument, although actually just from the Party, which manufactures its own anti-propaganda for security reasons. Orwell’s arguments against communism, authoritarianism, and other political maladies are clear. His essays are unquestionably the strongest part of the novel. Which leads me to my single greatest criticism of 1984.

This doesn’t need to be a work of fiction. Clearly, it’s a novel so that Orwell could smuggle his important message into the lives of people who would never dream of picking up a collection of essays. Science fiction has a long history of doing this. The nineteenth century was rife with authors projecting future histories so that they could discuss their utopian ideas for a better society. Orwell’s dystopia turns that on its head to warn about the dangers of those ideals, but does so using the same novelistic means. This results in a novel that is drowning in ideas and important messages, but which is held together by a faltering narrative core. At no point was I interested in Smith or Julia. I didn’t care about the Party’s endurance or collapse. Honestly, I started displaying the same apathy that Orwell would hate so much.

I’m not stupid enough to sit here and tell you that 1984 is a bad book. It’s not. It’s as relevant now as it was in 1949, if not more so. It’s important, it’s significant, and it’s an undeniable classic. All I will say is this: A great book is not always a good work of fiction. As a treatise on modern politics, 1984 is without parallel. As a novel, it could have been better.

Book Stats

• A Standalone Novel
• Published in 1949
• 342 Pages