Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece has been called the most important novel of the 20th century. Finishing what he called ‘that wretched book’ all but killed its author and who knew that the now famous date was actually a last minute amendment? — Introduction: Published in 1948, Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of the most significant and influential novels of the 20th century. Much has been written about it over the years: A dystopian world of institutional control and total surveillance, ‘thoughtcrime’, ‘doublethink’, political suppression and endless war, and a government that controls culture…
