George Orwell1

Nineteen Eighty-Four (commonly, 1984) is a dystopian novel by the English writer George Orwell, first published by Secker and Warburg in 1949. The book tells the story of Winston Smith and his degradation by the totalitarian state in which he lives. Along with Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Nineteen Eighty-Four is among the most famous and cited works of dystopian fiction in literature. It was preceded by Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin's 1921 novel We, which Orwell was familiar with, having read it in French and reviewed it in 1946; it became a significant influence on Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell's book has been translated into 62 languages and has left a profound impression upon the English language itself. Nineteen Eighty-Four, its terminology and its author have become bywords when discussing privacy and state-security issues. The term "Orwellian" has come to describe actions or organizations reminiscent of the totalitarian society depicted in the novel. Nineteen Eighty-Four has, at times, been seen as revolutionary and politically dangerous and therefore was banned by many libraries in various countries.