Nineteen Eighty-Four

This is George Orwell's last book; he published it in 1949, a year before his death. The novel-antiutopia made the author famous and remains the gold standard of the genre. The action takes place in London, one of the main cities of the totalitarian superstate of Oceania. A frighteningly detailed description of a society based on fear and oppression serves as the backdrop for one of the most vivid human stories in world literature. The plot centers on the fate of small-time dissident party functionary Winston Smith and his dangerous affair with a colleague. Orwell's book was banned in the Soviet Union until 1989: perhaps the country's party leadership recognized features of the Soviet system in the social order of Oceania. However, the society described by Orwell is not a copy of the totalitarian regimes he knew.