1984 by George Orwell is one of those "classic" books that I was supposed to read in high school...and never did. I mean, it was actually assigned and I never read it. Shocking I know. I thought I read most of it....well, it turns out I never got past the first few chapters. So I thought I'd right a wrong and finally read it...I even had the same book I purchased back in high school. Yeah. That's pretty bad.Ok. To sum it up: it was good...wish I had read it back then. But I still prefer Aldous Huxley's Brave New World to 1984. Not so much because of the story...but because of the writing. I remember why I petered out at reading 1984 past the first few chapters...I still think those chapters are pretty dry. Stick with it though and it gets better. I do think that 1984 is more futuristically realistic than Brave New World...well, now with genetics stuff going on who knows. But I really liked the relationship between Winston and Julia.
For those of you who've read it...what did you think about the prison sequence? I thought that was pretty well written. Wow. It actually reminded me of The Septembers of Shiraz (my review here) which takes place in the early 1980s in Iran after the Revolution...which is really creepy. There may not have been televsision screens with Big Brother spying but other than that it's pretty darn close. And Isaac's imprisionment really reminded me of Winston's. If you've read both, what do you think?
And of course, here's the other covers. I don't really like the version I have above. Not so much for the cover, but because the font is really hard to read.
Here's my favorite I found:
This on is pretty cool too:
And here's the current version...just kind of "eh" to me:
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Ah, another of those classics that I love so much. Glad you enjoyed this one. Good thing you read it now though ... you might NOT have enjoyed it back in the day. :)
ReplyDeleteI read these both years and years ago, and recently read a comparison of the two and their projections of the ways in which future populations would be controlled. I have to say that at the moment, I think Huxley was closer to the mark.
ReplyDeleteI read it back in high school (when it was assigned) but sadly don't remember much of the detail of the story. I suppose I should do a re-read...but I know I liked it then. Kinda funny to think of a "futuristic novel" set 25 years ago though.
ReplyDeleteI've never read this before. Always meant to but never did. I like the 1940-ish cover the best too.
ReplyDeleteHi, I don't remember much from the prison scenes actually. I was too busy being aghast at the state of 'unfreedomness'. I reviewed mine here.
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