1984

New Classic Edition

By: George Orwell

Narrated by: Simon Prebble

Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Blackstone Publishing presents a new recording of this immensely popular book.

One of the most celebrated classics of the twentieth century, Orwell’s cautionary tale of a man trapped under the gaze of an authoritarian state feels more relevant now than ever before.

George Orwell depicts a gray, totalitarian world dominated by Big Brother and its vast network of agents, including the Thought Police, a world in which news is manufactured according to the authorities’ will and people live tepid lives by rote.

Winston Smith, the hero with no heroic qualities, longs only for truth and decency. But living in a social system in which privacy does not exist and where those with unorthodox ideas are brainwashed or put to death, he knows there is no hope for him. He knows even as he continues to pursue his forbidden love affair that eventually he will come to destruction.

The year 1984 has come and gone, yet George Orwell’s nightmare vision in 1949 of the world we were becoming is still the great modern classic of negative Utopia. It is a prophetic and haunting tale that exposes the worst crimes imaginable: the destruction of freedom and truth.

©1949 Harcourt Brace and Company, renewed 1977 Sonia Brownell Orwell (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

• Nominee, 2008 Audie Award, Classic

"It is probable that no other work of this generation has made us desire freedom more earnestly or loathe tyranny with such fullness." (New York Times, 1949)

Excellent book, flawless reading

I’ve read 1984 a few times since my first reading in 1984 during the interminable hours available to me while aboard ship in Reagan’s 400-ship Navy. I read it then to understand our enemy.
Today, I drive a lot and prefer to hear my books. This reader’s wonderful diction, superb articulation, and appropriate emphasis made the otherwise heavy topic a joy. He brought back my extant understanding, while adding layers of emphasis I had missed in my previous readings.
Again, I read it to understand my enemy. The new orthodoxy of Wokism, as articulated by a new fascism and spoken into being by a Leftist and politically correct leadership, is the modern answer to EngSoc. I hope that future listeners hear it and fight. The past is simply the future done once.
Don’t love Big Brother.

I think didn’t I read this in school?

This was a depressing but very informative book that I’m glad I read. It offers a whole new perspective on where the world is or could be going. I highly recommend it to anybody!

Intriguing premise but unsatisfying ending

The concept of the party made for a interesting and thought provoking story, but the conclusion of the story left loose ends. How did Winston and Julia end up out of the prison they had been tortured in? Why did the party no longer desire to closely monitor them after these events? Despite the ending 1984 was well written and highly telling of what society could evolve into.

Frighteningly prescient

This is my first time reading 1984 since highschool 20 years ago. I did watch the movie (on youtube) a few years ago, but found the graphic nature of the book to really drive home the totality and all encompassing the party’s rules and control is. Though today’s big brother is a voluntary relationship between the people and big tech, the incestuous relationship between big government and big tech can not help but raise intellectual parallels between today’s situation and current heading, and the Orwellian world of 1984. A must read!

very good

A good rendition of a book I first read 50 years ago, a woman sh have read Julia's parts.

Masterful narration of a terrifying classic.

Superb narration in every respect. A chilling, timeless classic. Everyone needs to read this, and if you already have, reacquaint yourself with it in the form of this wonderfully-narrated audiobook---while you still can...

Book has recorded skips

At some points in the book the audio will skip multiple sentences and it’s frustrating to try and make sense of them while this is happening, maybe someone can fix that I do not know, just a fair warning is needed.

A fantastic read of a horrifying novel

I read 1984 as a young man and had the vague recollection of the plot without much consideration for its meaning in my youth. Given that some of the themes are reflected in popular movies like V for Vendetta, a movie which I loved, there was enough for me to appreciate the novel.

Now after reabsorbing the material in my adult life, the full horror and brilliance of this novel left me stunned. Furthermore, the narration is "doubleplusgood" and the difference in tonality between each character was certainly helpful for following along.

Masterpiece—masterfully narrated

A must-read for all citizens. Learn where we got the phrase Big Brother and where society can go if we don’t act bravely to preserve our rights. Spell-binding. Narrator could not be more perfect!

Wow, right on.

I think that if I’d read this book five years ago it would seem so ridiculous. No one would fall for such media/big brother gibberish, it is too obvious.

Reading the book today I am very engrossed in the fiction. When I look up from the book I cannot say where fiction ends and reality begins.