Paperback, 376 pages
Published May 7, 2021 by Reclam.
George Orwells dystopischer Roman von 1949 gehört zu den wichtigsten Werken des 20. Jahrhunderts. Der Beamte Winston Smith hält in seinem geheimen Tagebuch die Lebensumstände in der Überwachungsdiktatur Ozeanien fest. Als er mit seiner jungen Kollegin Julia eine Affäre beginnt und die beiden Kontakt zu einer Untergrundorganisation aufnehmen, die der Herrschaft des »Großen Bruder« ein Ende bereiten will, nimmt das Verhängnis seinen Lauf. Ein Klassiker, der im 21. Jahrhundert wieder hochaktuell scheint.
Freiwilliger im Spanischen Bürgerkrieg, Kriegsberichterstatter, Obdachloser. George Orwell sah während seines Lebens viele Formen der sozialen Ungerechtigkeit und Unterdrückung. Seine Erfahrungen verarbeitete er in seinen Werken. Der Roman ›1984‹ war sein letztes, sein Vermächtnis, das ihn zum Propheten einer vollends überwachten Gesellschaft machte. Neu übersetzt von Holger Hanowell und mit einer kompakten Biographie des Autors.
Yeah, I mean, pretty good. Not amazeballs good, but I find I have a tendency to not appreciate the most popular of books. Does a good job of taking the principals of authoritarianism and turning them up to one hundred. It also does a good job of refusing to ascribe any meaning to the authoritarians, so that the reader can't learn anything other than "it's the authoritarian system that is bad, not it's started purpose."
Content warning Second paragraph details my opinion on the ending.
It's amazing how much of this book still can be compared to our current situations across multiple countries. The constant surveillance part is still a scary threat we live with today.
1984 gave me the same feeling I've had reading other not-so-happy books where the climax and falling action are pulling you through the pages because you don't know how the author is going to write the character out of the situation. And then the ending finally leaves you feeling underwhelmed and defeated. It's definitely a book you need to sit and think with. I'd encourage anyone who read this in high school give it a second read as an adult with more life experience to draw experience from.
Perhaps if I had read this at high school or at uni it would have had more of an effect on me. Although I like the genre, and other works by Orwell, I feel like I waited too long to read this one it came off as just...meh.
