Åbo Akademis bibliotek

1984 or Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel was first published in 1949 and takes place in an imagined future, in 1984. Much of the world is involved in a perpetual war. The government’s surveillance and propaganda is everywhere. Great Britain, known as Airstrip One, has become a part of the totalitarian state Oceania. Oceania is ruled by the Party and the Thought Police is suppressing individuality and independent thinking. The protagonist Winston Smith whose daily work is re-writing history, tries to rebel by falling in love with his colleague Julia.

The novel has become one of the great classics of dystopian science fiction and many of the concepts from the book are immediately recognizable, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", "thoughtcrime", "doublethink", "Newspeak”.