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Free audio Books – Download 1984 to your MP3 or iPod player! Just scroll through the list of fiction books till you find: ORWELL George Nineteen Eighty-Four []







The Novel at a Glance Following info taken from: [] Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair on 25 June 1903 in eastern India, the son of a British colonial civil servant. He was educated in England and, after he left Eton, joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, then a British colony. He resigned in 1927 and decided to become a writer. In 1928 he moved to Paris where lack of success as a writer forced him into a series of menial jobs. He described his experiences in his first book, 'Down and Out in Paris and London', published in 1933 - he took the name George Orwell, shortly before its publication. This was followed by his first novel 'Burmese Days' in 1934. An anarchist in the late 1920s, in the 1930s he began to consider himself a socialist. In 1936 he was commissioned to write an account of poverty among unemployed miners in northern England, which resulted in 'The Road to Wigan Pier' (1937). Late in 1936, Orwell travelled to Spain to fight for the Republicans against Franco's Nationalists. He was forced to flee in fear of his life from Soviet-backed communists who were suppressing revolutionary socialist dissenters. The experience turned him into a lifelong anti-Stalinist. Between 1941 and 1943, Orwell worked on propaganda for the BBC. In 1943, he became literary editor of the Tribune, a weekly left-wing magazine. By now he was a prolific journalist, writing articles, reviews and books. In 1945, Orwell's 'Animal Farm' was published. A political fable set in a farmyard but based on Stalin's betrayal of the Russian Revolution, it made Orwell's name and ensured he was financially comfortable for the first time in his life. 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' was published four years later. Set in an imaginary totalitarian future, the book made a deep impression, with its title and many phrases - such as 'Big Brother is watching you', 'newspeak' and 'doublethink' - entering popular use. However, Orwell's health was deteriorating and he died of tuberculosis on 21 January 1950. ||
 * MORE ABOUT THE WRITER**
 * ====George Orwell (1903 - 1950)==== ||
 * [[image:http://www.bbc.co.uk/furniture/tiny.gif width="1" height="5"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/images/george_orwell.jpg width="136" height="201" caption="Black and white photograph showing George Orwell"]]George Orwell //Orwell was a British journalist and author, who wrote two of the most famous novels of the 20th century 'Animal Farm' and 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'.//

The following extract is taken from: [][|/]

//1984// is possibly //the// definitive dystopian novel, set in a world beyond our imagining. A world where totalitarianism really is total, all power split into three roughly equal groups--Eastasia, Eurasia, and Oceania. //1984// is set in Oceania, which includes the United Kingdom, where the story is set, known as Airstrip One. Winston Smith is a middle-aged, unhealthy character, based loosely on Orwell's own frail body, an underling of the ruling oligarchy, The Party. The Party has taken early 20th century totalitarianism to new depths, with each person subjected to 24 hour surveillance, where people's very thoughts are controlled to ensure purity of the oligarchical system in place. Figurehead of the system is the omnipresent and omnipotent Big Brother. But Winston believes there is another way. //1984// joins Winston as he sets about another day, where his job is to change history by changing old newspaper records to match with the new truth as decided by the Party. "//**He who controls the past, controls the future**//" is a Party slogan to live by and it gives Winston his job, but Winston cannot see it like that. Barely old enough to recall a time when things were different, he sets out to expose the Party for the cynically fraudulent organisation that it is. He is joined by Julia, a beautiful young woman much in contrast with Winston physically, but equally sickened by the excesses of her rulers. You will meet many recognisable characters, themes, and words which have become part of our everyday life as you read //1984//. Where did Big Brother first appear? Certainly not on Australian TV! Written in Orwell's inimitable journalistic style, //1984// is a tribute to a man who saw the true dangers of historian Lord Acton's (1834-1902) statement: "//Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.//"

Submitted by The Atheist.**

BACKGROUND ** Totalitarianism is a form of government with a strong central rule and with little or no individual freedom allowed. By the beginning of World War II, most single-party governments in Europe could be described as totalitarian. 1984 is Orwell’s biting critique of the kind of power worship on which Orwell thought all totalitarian dictatorships were based. The novel describes a negative utopia, or dystopia. Unlike traditional works about Utopias, works about dystopias do not present a positive, hopeful vision of humanity. Instead, they attempt to give voice to the hopelessness and powerlessness felt by modern society while also sounding a warning for future generations.

//1984// is possibly //the// definitive dystopian novel, set in a world beyond our imagining. A world where totalitarianism really is total, all power split into three roughly equal groups--Eastasia, Eurasia, and Oceania. //1984// is set in Oceania, which includes the United Kingdom, where the story is set, known as Airstrip One. Winston Smith is a middle-aged, unhealthy character, based loosely on Orwell's own frail body, an underling of the ruling oligarchy, The Party. The Party has taken early 20th century totalitarianism to new depths, with each person subjected to 24 hour surveillance, where people's very thoughts are controlled to ensure purity of the oligarchical system in place. Figurehead of the system is the omnipresent and omnipotent Big Brother. But Winston believes there is another way. //1984// joins Winston as he sets about another day, where his job is to change history by changing old newspaper records to match with the new truth as decided by the Party. "//**He who controls the past, controls the future**//" is a Party slogan to live by and it gives Winston his job, but Winston cannot see it like that. Barely old enough to recall a time when things were different, he sets out to expose the Party for the cynically fraudulent organisation that it is. He is joined by Julia, a beautiful young woman much in contrast with Winston physically, but equally sickened by the excesses of her rulers. You will meet many recognisable characters, themes, and words which have become part of our everyday life as you read //1984//. Where did Big Brother first appear? Certainly not on Australian TV! Written in Orwell's inimitable journalistic style, //1984// is a tribute to a man who saw the true dangers of historian Lord Acton's (1834-1902) statement: "//Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts// Winston Smith, a thirty-nine-year-old citizen of Oceania and a member of the Outer Party, lives a desperate life, outwardly conforming to the system while inwardly resisting. Winston craves certainty about the past and harbors hopes that the Party might one day be overthrown. Julia is Winston’s twenty-six-year-old love interest, a courageous if unreflective woman whose philosophy is to break the rules whenever possible in the interests of having a good time. Her lack of intellectual curiosity perplexes Winston, but he admires her brash attitude. O’Brien, a member of the Inner Party, seems to Winston to possess the intelligence of a fellow resister. O’Brien eventually approaches Winston and appears to confirm his hopes. But when Winston is caught and arrested, his inquisitor and torturer turns out to be none other than O’Brien himself. //**__VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT__**// Orwell examines the power of connotations as he presents Newspeak, a language designed by the ruling party to promote its values and make all other modes of thought impossible. You can compile lists of Newspeak terms and compare their connotations with related words in English. For example, a joycamp in Newspeak is a forced-labor camp. By combining the positive connotations of joy with the noun camp, the Newspeak word gives a seemingly positive connotation to a harsh and bitter reality.
 * MAJOR CHARACTERS **

Make sure you are familiar with the following vocabulary - Part One, Chapters I–VIII ministry, p. 7 primal, p. 14 falsification, p. 36 unorthodox, p. 48 grievances, p. 62 inertia, p. 86

Part Two, Chapters I–V rectification, p. 89 annihilated, p. 104 dissent, p. 112 eccentricity, p. 118 stench, p. 122 momentous, p. 128 Part Two, Chapters VI–X ingenious, p. 131 incriminate, p. 140 perceptible, p. 145 intact, p. 164 perpetuating, p. 170 interminable, p. 181

Part Three, Chapters I–VI incredulous, p. 192 sabotage, p. 200 persecutions, p. 209 rebellion, p. 215 digression, p. 219 carnivorous, p. 234



[[file:1984comic_chapter_02.pdf==Freedom of speech: How '1984' has entrusted our culture== The effect of Nineteen Eighty-Four on our cultural and linguistic landscape has not been limited to either the film adaptation starring John Hurt and Richard Burton, with its Nazi-esque rallies and chilling soundtrack, nor the earlier one with Michael Redgrave and Edmond O'Brien.It is likely, however, that many people watching the Big Brother series on television (in the UK, let alone in Angola, Oman or Sweden, or any of the other countries whose TV networks broadcast programmes in the same format) have no idea where the title comes from or that Big Brother himself, whose role in the reality show is mostly to keep the peace between scrapping, swearing contestants like a wise uncle, is not so benign in his original incarnation.Apart from pop-culture renditions of some of the novel's themes, aspects of its language have been leapt upon by libertarians to describe the curtailment of freedom in the real world by politicians and officials - alarmingly, nowhere and never more often than in contemporary Britain.**Orwellian**George owes his own adjective to this book alone and his idea that wellbeing is crushed by restrictive, authoritarian and untruthful government.**Big Brother** **(is watching you)**A term in common usage for a scarily omniscient ruler long before the worldwide smash-hit reality-TV show was even a twinkle in its producers' eyes. The irony of societal hounding of Big Brother contestants would not have been lost on George Orwell.**Room 101**Some hotels have refused to call a guest bedroom number 101 - rather like those tower blocks that don't have a 13th floor - thanks to the ingenious Orwellian concept of a room that contains whatever its occupant finds most impossible to endure. Like Big Brother, this has spawned a modern TV show: in this case, celebrities are invited to name the people or objects they hate most in the world.**Thought Police**An accusation often levelled at the current government by those who like it least is that they are trying to tell us what we can and cannot think is right and wrong. People who believe that there are correct ways to think find themselves named after Orwell's enforcement brigade.**Thoughtcrime**See "Thought Police" above. The act or fact of transgressing enforced wisdom.**Newspeak**For Orwell, freedom of expression was not just about freedom of thought but also linguistic freedom. This term, denoting the narrow and diminishing official vocabulary, has been used ever since to denote jargon currently in vogue with those in power.**Doublethink**Hypocrisy, but with a twist. Rather than choosing to disregard a contradiction in your opinion, if you are doublethinking, you are deliberately forgetting that the contradiction is there. This subtlety is mostly overlooked by people using the accusation of "doublethink" when trying to accuse an adversary of being hypocritical - but it is a very popular word with people who like a good debate along with their pints in the pub. **Oliver Marre[[file:fatpita_net funny random pictures.mht]]**