Nineteen Eighty-Four
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen”.
First edition, first printing of 1984 by George Orwell.
"Quite simply a novel which has changed the world" (D. Pringle).
A beautiful copy preserved in publisher’s cloth with the original green dustjacket, as issued.
8vo of 312 pages.
Original light green cloth, spine lettered in red, in green dust jacket with the publisher’s printed price of 10s. net present on the front flap.
185 x 123 mm.
Orwell, George. Nineteen eighty-four.
London, Secker & Warburg, 1949.
A beautiful copy of the 1st edition 1st printing with the words « First published 1949 » printed on the copyright page.
The novel is a work "of hectic, devilish, claustrophobic intensity. nightmarish in the telling" (Clute & Nicholls, 896).
In 2005, the novel was chosen by Time Magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. Named as one of Modern Library 100 Best Novels of the twentieth century.
"It is quite simply a novel which has changed the world" (D. Pringle, 100 Best Science Fiction Novels 1).
Fenwick A12a. Connolly 99. Anatomy of Wonder II:838. 100 Most Influential Books 93.
The work is considered one of the most influential literary productions of the 20th century.
Winston Smith is a minor Party functionary in the totalitarian realm in which the Party’s three verities shout down all others: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is strength. Winston works in the Ministry of Truth where he helps rewrite the past so that it conforms to the current needs of those in power. The trouble is that Winston retains traces of the ability to think for himself which makes him a “thought-criminal”. (J. Mustich).
L’un des chefs d’œuvre de la littérature d’anticipation: Orwell dessine un monde totalitaire dans lequel les idéologies ont triomphé de l’individu.
L’histoire se passe à Londres en 1984. Le monde est divisé en trois grandes ères géopolitiques en guerre : Eurasia, Estasia et Océania, toutes totalitaires, dirigés par des partis communistes qui se rêvaient au départ agents de libération du prolétariat. Le personnage principal, Winston Smith, travaille au Ministère de la Vérité, où il révise l’histoire pour la rendre adéquate à la version du Parti.
« Ce roman-pamphlet contre le totalitarisme est peut-être le Gulliver de notre époque. I
l le doit d’abord à son intelligence qui joue habilement de ce qui constitue la base même de notre société : l’histoire et le langage; il le doit ensuite à l’extrême rigueur logique de ses développements et de ses caractères, qui confère à sa fiction la puissance hallucinante d’un procès-verbal d’une réalité si absolue qu’elle en prend une valeur symbolique » (Dictionnaire des Œuvres).
The internal pages are clean, bright and flat with no age toning, no stains, no marks, no writing, no bent pages and no foxing. Beautiful clean, crisp, book internally appearing as unread.
Scarce in this condition.
A beautiful copy of the 1st edition 1st printing of « a novel which has changed the world » (D. Pringle) preserved in its publisher’s cloth with the original green dust jacket, as issued.
