1984

[Nineteen Eighty-Four]
Year: 
1948
Type: 
Public: 
Tags: 
Publisher: 
Penguin
Year of publication: 
2004
Pages: 
400
Moral assessment: 
Type: Literature
Nothing inappropriate.
Some morally inappropriate content.
Contains significant sections contrary to faith or morals.
Contains some lurid passages, or presents a general ideological framework that could confuse those without much Christian formation.
Contains several lurid passages, or presents an ideological framework that is contrary or foreign to Christian values.
Explicitly contradicts Catholic faith or morals, or is directed against the Church and its institutions.
Literary quality: 
Recommendable: 
Transmits values: 
Sexual content: 
Violent content: 
Vulgar or obscene language: 
Ideas that contradict Church teaching: 
The rating of the different categories comes from the opinion of Delibris' collaborators

This is the nightmare scenario of a totalitarian state where Winston Smith kicks against the machine before buckling under the pressure and accepting it. The hero tries to find the truth in a world without privacy, where anyone with unorthodox ideas is executed. After a brief love affair, Smith is arrested by the Thought Police and subject to torture and brainwashing.

George Orwell (pseudonime of Eric Blair) was born in 1903 in Bengal, India, came to school in Eton and served with the Indian police between 1922 and 1927. He died in 1950. This is a warning to the world about a police state where power is king, where the past is altered to suit the present, the language Newspeak ensures ideas are curtailed, and Doublethink is required in all thinking. This is the world of Big Brother, where slogans dominate and everyone has to worship the head of the Party. Early on in the novel there is a brief erotic scene given to the love affair of the protagonist.

C.C. (U.K., 2017)