Publisher's Synopsis

George Orwell's masterwork, now in the Penguin Clothbound Classics series with a cover designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith

One of the BBC's '100 Novels that Shaped the World'


'Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past'

Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescreens and the watchful eye of Big Brother, symbolic head of the Party. In his longing for truth and liberty, Smith begins a secret love affair with a fellow-worker Julia, but soon discovers the true price of freedom is betrayal.

George Orwell's dystopian masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four is perhaps the most pervasively influential book of the twentieth century.

Book information

ISBN: 9780241453513
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint: Penguin Classics
Pub date:
Edition: Reprint
DEWEY: 823.912
DEWEY edition: 23
Language: English
Sales rank: 5267
Number of pages: 400
Weight: 484g
Height: 138mm
Width: 206mm
Spine width: 35mm