Nineteen Eighty-Four
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
First edition, first printing of 1984 by George Orwell.
"Quite simply a novel which has changed the world" (D. Pringle).
A beautiful copy preserved in publisher’s cloth with the original green dustjacket, as issued.
8vo of 312 pages.
Original light green cloth, spine lettered in red, in green dust jacket with the publisher’s printed price of 10s. net present on the front flap.
185 x 123 mm.
Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four.
London, Secker & Warburg, 1949.
A beautiful copy of the 1st edition 1st printing with the words "First published 1949" printed on the copyright page.
The novel is a work "of hectic, devilish, claustrophobic intensity. nightmarish in the telling" (Clute & Nicholls, 896).
In 2005, the novel was chosen by Time Magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. Named as one of Modern Library 100 Best Novels of the twentieth century.
"It is quite simply a novel which has changed the world" (D. Pringle, 100 Best Science Fiction Novels 1).
Fenwick A12a. Connolly 99. Anatomy of Wonder II:838. 100 Most Influential Books 93.
The work is considered one of the most influential literary productions of the 20th century.
Winston Smith is a minor Party functionary in the totalitarian realm in which the Party’s three verities shout down all others: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength. Winston works in the Ministry of Truth where he helps rewrite the past so that it conforms to the current needs of those in power. The trouble is that Winston retains traces of the ability to think for himself which makes him a “thought-criminal”. (J. Mustich).
One of the masterpieces of dystopian literature: Orwell depicts a totalitarian world in which ideologies have triumphed over the individual.
The story takes place in London in 1984. The world is divided into three major warring geopolitical blocs: Eurasia, Eastasia, and Oceania, all totalitarian, ruled by communist parties that initially dreamed of liberating the proletariat. The main character, Winston Smith, works at the Ministry of Truth, where he revises history to make it match the Party’s version.
“This roman à clef against totalitarianism is perhaps the Gulliver of our age. This is due, above all, to its intellectual acuity, skillfully playing with what forms the very foundation of our society: history and language; it is also due to the extreme logical rigor of its developments and characters, which endow its fiction with the haunting power of a report of a reality so absolute that it acquires symbolic value” (Dictionnaire des Œuvres).
The internal pages are clean, bright and flat with no age toning, no stains, no marks, no writing, no bent pages and no foxing. Beautiful clean, crisp, book internally appearing as unread.
Scarce in this condition.
A beautiful copy of the 1st edition 1st printing of “a novel which has changed the world” (D. Pringle) preserved in its publisher’s cloth with the original green dust jacket, as issued.
